Maraming Salamat Po!

Maraming Salamat Po!

Maraming salamat sa inyong pagdalo sa nakaraang Buhay BABAYLAN  Lecture-Ritual pinamagatang “Tinig ng Babaylan” noong Enero 19, 2013 sa Bulwagang Tandang Sora, College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.

Nawa’y sa ating pakikiisa sa araw na iyon ay napalalim at napalawak pa ang ating kaalaman at pagsasabuhay ng diwang Babaylan at kalinangang Pilipino.

We hope that you can continue to reflect on the knowledge and stories shared by our resource person, Grace Nono, and able to embrace more of the diwang Babaylan through the ritual facilitated by Baylan Undin (with Robelyn Canto and Grace Nono) in a space blessed by the presence of elders, teachers, students, musicians, healers, cultural creatives and each of the 300 or so inquisitive and engaged participants of the event.

Maraming Salamat Po!

GRATITUDE TO THE SHARING OF LIFE’S SACRED WORK OF OUR RESOURCE PERSONS:

Grace Nono

Baylan Lordina “Undin” Potenciano

Robelyn Coguit-Canto

GRATITUDE TO THE PRESENCE OF OUR GUESTS AND ELDERS FOR GRACING THE OCCASION:

Dr. Carolyn Sobritchea

Dr. Jose Abueva

Ms. Hilda Narciso

Mr. Joon Claudio

Dr. Genevieve Kupang

Dr. Arlene Natocyad

Dr. Nella Sarabia

…to name a few as well as guests from the provinces and abroad…

GRATITUDE TO OUR KAPWA WHO SPREAD THE EVENT TO THEIR COMMUNITIES, FRIENDS AND NETWORK:

University of the Philippines TOMO-KAI

Clio Kimberly Tantoco of U.P. Tomo-Kai

Center for Babaylan Studies, U.S.A. / Leny Mendoza-Strobel

Kapwa Collective Canada / Jenny Maramba

P.A. Escalante of Geneva, Switzerland

Petronila Tabudlo Blank

REIKI-Inc. / Aisa Jarales

Kontra-Gapi / Edru Abraham

GRATITUDE TO THE COMPASSIONATE AND GENEROUS SPIRITS OF THE BUHAY BABAYLAN TEAM LEADERS, MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS:

Leah Tolentino

Karen Gamutan

Diyaki Berbon-Alyana

Melany Gamos

Ishilta Chasi

Lyra Versoza

Janette Alejandro

Aeon Plus Video / Florante Aralar, Jr., Nazer Ferdinand Ramos and Armando Cruz, Jr.

Aireen Landicho

Beth dela Rosa

Claire Madarang

Dona Marie Vergara

Edlyn Kalman

Janette Alejandro’s friends – Jackson Cayago, Arlyne Casas, Efren Reyes

Johnnel Tepora

Maricris Chingtan

Orlando de Guzman, Jr.

Philippine Polytechnic University of the Philippines; Reginaldo Cruz

Rem Tanauan

Remi Santiago-Bautista and Friends – Mina Sablay Flores, Myla Velasco, Inday

Sarah Queblatin

Salvador Arimas

University of Caloocan City / Mr. Rodrigo Dantay and UCC students

Yeyette San Luis

GRATITUDE TO THE GENEROUS SPIRITS OF OUR DONORS:

Bob Aves and family

Johnnel and TJ Canto

Henry Potenciano

Veni Fule

Center for Babaylan Studies, U.S.A. / Perla Daly

Grace Brillantes-Evangelista and her Miriam Psychology Students

Joan Tolibas of Miriam College

NSTP students of Miriam

AlunAlun Dance Circle / Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa, Nanette Matilac, Louanne Mae Calipayan, Temay Padero, Punch Gavino

GRATITUDE TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS:

Bahay Nakpil-Bautista; Begen Group / Ayta Community in Porac Pampanga / Precy Abuque, Icelyn Abuque

Handog Gift Shop sa UPSC / Miss Punzalan and the rest of the staff

Kanto Art Gallery / Mara Herrera and the rest of the group

Pamana / Remi Santiago-Bautista

Pathfinders Commune / Rem Tanauan

Peacemaker’s Circle / Youth of Tala Community

Popular Bookstore / Miss Julie

Sangandaan / Reginaldo Cruz, Joy Ricote-Cruz

Friends of GINHAWA

Friends of SANGHABI

Friends of Kaibigan ni Oriang

Bali Hai Garden and Restaurant / Nora Santoso and Lyvia Martinez

ISIS International / Elizabeth de los Reyes, Elvira Colobong, Lea Aviles and Chris Almoquera

Institute of Spirituality Asia / Fr. Rico Ponce, Fr. Gabby Dolotina, Joe Marie dela Torre

Patrick Harvest / Elvie, Chill and Patrick Salaver

Kubo ni Juan Café / Paolo Ramirez and Ragos Family – Kathleen, Divinia, Rolando, Kristine

Yadu Bags / Mr. Yadu Saulo

Buconeers / students from Enderun

Bong Tattoo

Sari-saring Abubot
Wonderland Fairies / Shayne “Ibig” Merioles and Therese H. Del Pilar

GRATITUDE TO THE SUPPORT OF:

Noel Gabor, Ms. Angela and all the staff of Air Philippines who assisted the trip of Baylan Undin, Robelyn and TJ Canto to and from Butuan-Manila 

Cristina "Moring" Antonio

WWCEA Graphic Services / William and Wilma Quilay, Remar Daarol and Mark Danielle Best

Imee Morales of GMA News Online, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Manila Bulletin

UPCSWD / Ms. Monette Manaay and the rest of the Saturday Staff

SA INYONG LAHAT MARAMING SALAMAT PO!

We look forward to seeing you again in the upcoming Buhay BABAYLAN Lecture-Rituals…

For our friends who were not able to attend, thank you very much for your prayers and support in sharing our vision and task of re-connecting our kapwa Filipinos, especially the young people, to our indigenous roots.

For query, reflections or insights you would like to share kindly e-mail us at buhaybabaylan@gmail.com.

Bathala Nawa,

Buhay BABAYLAN Lecture-Ritual Series Convenors       

Kaibigan ni Oriang, GINHAWA, SANGHABI

(Dr. Teresita Obusan, Minifred Gavino, Leo Emmanuel Castro, Raymond Cosare)

Tinig ng Babaylan on January 19, 2013

Tinig ng Babaylan featuring Grace Nono 

and

Baylan Undin (Babaylan Elder from Mindanao)

January 19, 2013 / 9:00AM to 4:00 PM

3rd Floor, Bulwagang Tandang Sora

College of Social Work & Community Development (CSWCD)

University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Baylan Undin (a Babaylan Elder from Mindanao) will do the Panawagtawag in which she will ask permission from her spirit helpers to participate in the Buhay Babaylan event.

Resource Persons:

GRACE NONO is a Philippine music artist who has been specializing both in the performance of Philippine oral chants in the Philippines and around the world these past fifteen years, and in the documentation of oral traditions for educational purposes. A graduate of the University of the Philippines-Diliman where she received her bachelors in Humanities and masters in Philippine Studies, as well as a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at New York University, she is author of The Shared Voice: Chanted and Spoken Narratives from the Philippines (ANVIL and Fundacion Santiago, 2008), and Song of the Babaylan: Living Voices, Medicines, Spiritualities of Philippine Ritualist-Oralist-Healers (Institute of Spirituality in Asia, “in press”). Grace is also the founding head to the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts, a Philippine non-government organization engaged in cultural regeneration projects in Agusan, her birthplace, and in other parts of the Philippines. To date, Grace has been granted over forty awards including The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS), Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM), Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of the Philippines, National Book Award (for The Shared Voice), numerous Katha, Awit and Catholic Mass Media awards, for her music and cultural contributions.

LORDINA “UNDIN” POTENCIANO (Babaylan Elder) is a Manobo baylan based in La Paz, Agusan del Sur. She came to baylanhood after she was called and consecrated by spirits, led by her late grandmother. She had since been tasked to officiate during rituals where spirits chant and dance through her, and to heal the sick and help those in need, on a full-time basis. Undin is one of Grace Nono's chant teachers. She is also in Grace's book Song of the Babaylan.

ROBILYN COGUIT CANTO (Babaylan’s interpreter), Undin's niece, is a Manobo youth leader originally from La Paz, Agusan del Sur. She has participated in national youth festivals where she asserted the indigenous voice. She is also a master of traditional embroidery and beadwork, and has led her people through arts and crafts revitalization projects. Robilyn has been a member of the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts that Grace Nono founded for many years now.

GENERAL ADMISSION: P500

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW. LIMITED SEATS. TICKETS available at :

*Handog Gift Shop, U.P. Diliman Shopping Center, U.P. Diliman, Quezon City

*Popular Bookstore, 305 Tomas Morato Street, Quezon City

*Kanto, 7274 Malugay Street, Makati City

*Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, 432 A. Bautista Street, Quiapo

For Inquiry: 

0926 5046595 (Karen) 0915 2952826 (Ishilta), 0933 9257861 (Tessie),

0927 5633376 (Raymond), 0928 5545824  (Minifred)

www.facebook.com/buhaybabaylan / www.buhaybabaylan.blogspot.com 

Email: buhaybabaylan@gmail.com 

Tinig ng Babaylan featuring GRACE NONO and BAYLAN UNDIN (a Babaylan Elder from Mindanao) 19 January 2013, 9am

Tinig ng Babaylan featuring Grace Nono 

and

Baylan Undin (Babaylan Elder from Mindanao)

January 19, 2013 / 9:00AM to 4:00 PM

3rd Floor, Bulwagang Tandang Sora

College of Social Work & Community Development (CSWCD)

University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Babaylan is a Visayan term which refers to an archetypal Filipino community leader (other Filipino archetypes include the datu and panday) who functions as the community’s religious leader and ritual expert, healer, culture-bearer as well as one having extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of nature and people. Historically, while the babaylan is often a woman, the role and functions of the babaylan are open to both males and females.

"I will share about the babaylan and other Philippine popular religion functionaries whom I have mingled with in the Philippines these past few years. I will particularly focus on their use of voice…”

~ Grace Nono

Baylan Undin (a Babaylan Elder from Mindanao) will do the Panawagtawag in which she will ask permission from her spirit helpers to participate in the Buhay Babaylan event.

Resource Persons:

GRACE NONO is a Philippine music artist who has been specializing both in the performance of Philippine oral chants in the Philippines and around the world these past fifteen years, and in the documentation of oral traditions for educational purposes. A graduate of the University of the Philippines-Diliman where she received her bachelors in Humanities and masters in Philippine Studies, as well as a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at New York University, she is author of The Shared Voice: Chanted and Spoken Narratives from the Philippines (ANVIL and Fundacion Santiago, 2008), and Song of the Babaylan: Living Voices, Medicines, Spiritualities of Philippine Ritualist-Oralist-Healers (Institute of Spirituality in Asia, “in press”). Grace is also the founding head to the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts, a Philippine non-government organization engaged in cultural regeneration projects in Agusan, her birthplace, and in other parts of the Philippines. To date, Grace has been granted over forty awards including The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS), Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM), Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of the Philippines, National Book Award (for The Shared Voice), numerous Katha, Awit and Catholic Mass Media awards, for her music and cultural contributions.

LORDINA “UNDIN” POTENCIANO (Babaylan Elder) is a Manobo baylan based in La Paz, Agusan del Sur. She came to baylanhood after she was called and consecrated by spirits, led by her late grandmother. She had since been tasked to officiate during rituals where spirits chant and dance through her, and to heal the sick and help those in need, on a full-time basis. Undin is one of Grace Nono's chant teachers. She is also in Grace's book Song of the Babaylan.

ROBILYN COGUIT CANTO (Babaylan’s interpreter), Undin's niece, is a Manobo youth leader originally from La Paz, Agusan del Sur. She has participated in national youth festivals where she asserted the indigenous voice. She is also a master of traditional embroidery and beadwork, and has led her people through arts and crafts revitalization projects. Robilyn has been a member of the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts that Grace Nono founded for many years now.

GENERAL ADMISSION: P500

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW. LIMITED SEATS. TICKETS available at :

*Handog Gift Shop, U.P. Diliman Shopping Center, U.P. Diliman, Quezon City

*Popular Bookstore, 305 Tomas Morato Street, Quezon City

*Kanto, 7274 Malugay Street, Makati City

*Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, 432 A. Bautista Street, Quiapo

For Inquiry: 

0915 2952826 (Ishilta), 0933 9257861 (Tessie), 0927 5633376 (Raymond), 0928 5545824  (Minifred) www.facebook.com/buhaybabaylan / www.buhaybabaylan.blogspot.com Email: buhaybabaylan@gmail.com 

Dance of the Sacred Feminine on March 10, 2012

Join us in rediscovering the Babaylan and Mutya in the Contemporary World by Grace Odal-Devora, Resource Speaker and Ritual Leader on March 10, 2012 at the University of the Philippines Manila. Registration starts at 12 noon. To purchase tickets, visit Ripples Bookstore, 3rd Level East Wing, Robinsons Galeria, EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue. Also available at Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, Quiapo, Manila. Contact Ishilta for more information: 09152952826.

A CONTEMPORARY BABAYLAN TEACHES PRACTICAL HEALING TECHNIQUES

By Rhea Claire Madarang

Imagine a babaylan come to life in these modern times and sharing her knowledge and wisdom to heal present-day health concerns like headaches and work-related stress, both physical and emotional.

           

This was what Girlie Villariba, contemporary babaylan healer and social psychologist, did last November 12, 2012 among over 65 teachers, students, and professionals, for the “Babaylan Bilang Manggagamot” (Babaylan as Healer) session of the Buhay Babaylan lecture-ritual series.

Villariba, who has created a healing modality she calls Body Talk, taught simple and quick practical body techniques applicable to various situations like starting one’s day, mentally preparing for a task by balancing the right and left brain for it, calming oneself emotionally, and healing oneself from common afflictions like diarrhea and ulcer.

Villariba included breathing, touch, tapping selected body parts with the fingers, and positive affirmations as part of the healing methods she shared.

She also emphasized these methods’ power and their backing by neuroscience.  For instance, she included the temples as one of the body parts that needed to be tapped by the fingers as the temples, also known scientifically, as the pre-frontal cortex, are the “happiest part of the brain.”

She also talked about practices in some rural parts of the Philippines that are later proven by science, such as elders spitting on a baby’s skin to keep a baby healthy. 

Villariba revealed that the saliva has 1,200 enzymes and many antibodies and showed how the saliva can be used for healing common illnesses and emotional tension.

“Every fluid of your body, like sweat or saliva, can help heal and balance your body,” she said.

Villariba also pointed out the importance of natural medicine through Philippine herbs, plants and spices. The turmeric (luyang dilaw), for example, can be used for colds, sore throats, and even to remove bad odors. The different spices and leaves from different medicinal plants Villariba mentioned were artfully arranged in a mandala on the floor for the Buhay Babaylan event.

Villariba said that even with all the healing techniques she taught, what was most important is the person’s mindset. “Your conscious effort to heal yourself is the best medicine. Your doctor cannot do it for you – no one can do it for you,” she said.

At the end of Villariba’s talk and demonstration, Leah Tolentino, director of Ginhawa, an NGO advocating well-being, spirituality and creativity, led a body-based ritual giving tribute to the four directions (North, South, East, West) through flowing body movements. Creative prayer ritual facilitator and social researcher, Dr. Erlinda Natocyad then led the audience into a simple ritual dance, with people moving in a circle around the mandala of leaves and spices in the middle of the room.   In the lecture-ritual, singer-composers Shayne Merioles and Aireen Landicho sang Merioles’ Haplos ng Pag-Ibig, which means, touch of love.

The event, which was held at Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, is the third of the Buhay Babaylan lecture-ritual series. The first was the Babaylan Bilang Guro (Babaylan as Teacher) and the second was the Babaylan Sa Kasaysayan (Babaylan in History). 

The first lecture-ritual of 2012 series is the DANCE OF THE SACRED FEMININE (Rediscovering the Babaylan and Mutya of the Contemporary World), March 10, 2012, 1 PM to be held at the Little Theater and Inner Garden of the University of the Philippines Manila, Padre Faura, Manila. 

BABAYLAN AS HEALER on Novebmer 12, 2011

Lecture reveals power of Babaylan in Philippine history

By Rhea Claire E. Madarang

More than a figure briefly mentioned in Philippine history textbooks, the babaylan was a formidable force to reckon with.

This was what Milagros Guerrero, history professor and past president of the Philippine Historical Association, expounded on in her lecture during the “Babaylan Sa Kasaysayan” (Babaylan Throughout History) lecture-ritual event held last July 30 at the College of Social Work and Community Development building in University of the Philippines-Diliman. 100 participants from different schools and organizations attended the event.

Guerrero explained that the babaylan was an influential leader in history, much like the datu. While the datu was the political leader, the babaylan was the spiritual leader.  The babaylan also advised the other leaders and the community in all matters.

“She is the one who says what to do tomorrow – for example, should we fight the enemy or not?” Guerrero said.

The babaylans were the last to succumb to Spanish rule, Guerrero said. The datus were the first. The babaylans revolted and were killed by the Spaniards. One group was daring enough to abduct an Augustine priest and disembowel him as revenge for the babaylans who died.

Guerrero discussed other roles and accomplishments of the babaylan throughout history and concluded her lecture by challenging the audience to be babaylans on their own right. “Be able to create your own reality without divorcing yourself from your beginnings and your creator,” she advised.

After the lecture, Erlinda Natocyad, Asian Social Institute (ASI) researcher on rituals and indigenous healing, facilitated a creative prayer ritual called Ar-Allag. Ar-Allag is an actual birthing ritual from Mountain Province’s enthno-linguistic group Kachacran, of which Natocyad is a member.

For the event, Natocyad led a symbolic birthing ritual. Participants were asked to write down their dreams and projects on a piece of paper and wrap that piece of paper with a cloth the way a mother would wrap her baby. The participants then laid their “babies” down on a circle in the middle of the room, where Natocyad later prayed and made offerings of pinikpikan and rice wine.

The participants danced in a circle, to the music of indigenous music group Sanghabi, at the start and end of the ritual and drank rice wine to celebrate after the ritual. Before the ritual, singer-composers Irene Landicho and Nota Magno sang Landicho’s composition, Ala-Alay, which means remembering and offering.

ASI faculty member and GINHAWA Executive Director Leah Tolentino facilitated the creative synthesis through an activity of using stones and colors, enabling particiapants to identify specific lessons learned and tap into collective memory.

The Babaylan Sa Kasaysayan is the second of the Buhay Babaylan lecture-ritual series. The first was the Babaylan Bilang Guro (Babaylan as Teacher). Upcoming topics in the series for 2011 are: Babaylan Bilang Manggagamot (Babaylan as Healer), and Babaylan Bilang Tagapagpadaloy ng Kapayapaaan (Babaylan as Peacemakers).