The following is a letter sent by Alfonso Tayaban, Igorot-UK Auditor to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for the columnist and for everyone's information.

THE REMOVAL OF THE IFUGAO HOUSE AT THE PHILIPPINE EMBASSY


 On 15th December, 2007, a group from the IGOROT-UK community attended the cultural ritual ceremony for the removal of the Ifugao house at the Philippine Embassy. This is how the Ifugao house in London came about:                          


     THE IFUGAO HOUSE IN LONDON 


Surviving a war 


               This Ifugao house used to stand in the village of UNGUL in Barangay Pula, in the municipality of Asipulo in Ifugao, one of the Cordillera provinces in Northern Luzon, Philippines.


                It was originally built as an alang or rice granary sometime in the 1920s by Timmikpaw Bantullay, the most influential man and authoritative mumbaki - Ifugao spiritual leader - in the whole of the Antipolo-Pula region. The granary was one of several that Timmikpaw built and bequeathed to his children, for them to store their rice harvests


.               The alang was inherited by Gayyon Bantullay when she got married to Bumolyad Dulnuan. Gayyon, being the second child of Timmikpaw by his first marriage, had the second privilege - after her older sister, following the custom - of claiming her inheritance which included the granary that came with the ricefield she had chosen.


                Gayyon and Bumolyad had three children: Gabriel, Corazon and Evangeline, now married to Valentine Morado of Kiangan Poblacion or town centre, inherited the ricefield and the granary.


                During the early part of the Second World, two American army officers, Col. Russell Volckman and Capt. Donald Blackburn, escaped from Bataan which the Japanese forces had overrun. Guided by an Ifugao soldier named Jose Maddul of Nunggawa, formerly  a part of Kiangan, the two officers reached Ifugao. They travelled all the way to the remote village of Ungul and were welcomed by Timmikpaw. The Ifugao leader allowed the two Americans to stay for some time in the granary while the village folk, upon instructions of Timmikpaw, constructed a camp on a forested ridge north of the village. The camp was named C-2, for Camp 2, which would later serve as Volckman's headquarters when he and Blackburn organized the guerrilla movement in Ifugao to defend against the advancing Japanese imperial army. Volckman became commanding officer of the USAFIP-NL ( US armed forces in the Philippines, northern Luzon). By 1945, his famous guerrilla force consisted of five regiments, composed mostly of Cordillera fighters.


                The granary was later used as a residence. A fireplace and a rear shelf were put in place. It became the house of Corazon's tenants. During the war of liberation, retreating Japanese soldiers had used many of the original wall boards for kindling. These were replaced after the war by Dulnuan, Corazon's father. Many years after the end of the war, scores of Japanese began visiting Ifugao, particurly the towns of Kiangan, Hungduan and Asipulo. They came for various reasons: to pray for their war dead in Ifugao, repatriate to Japan the remains or ashes of their relatives and comrades, but also to look for treasure they had left behind. A Japanese war veteran even stayed in the house which had given sanctuary to his American adversaries

The Long Journey to London 

                In 1995, the Philippine Embassy in London, then headed by Ambassador Jesus P Tambunting, and the British Museum through Dr. Brian Durrans, Deputy Keeper of the Museum of Mankind (the BM's ethnography department), agreed on an ambitious project: an exhibit on the rice culture of the Ifugao people, celebrated in Philippine history for creating the two-thousand-year old rice terraces, a marvel of human engineering now recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It was agreed that the exhibit would be called "Stairways to the Sky: Rice and Life in the Philippines", and the centerpiece would be an authentic Ifugao house to be purchased through the people, as well as blown-up photographs of the terraces, the people, and cultural practices of the Ifugao, were to form part of the exhibit. A team was sent to Ifugao to look for an appropriate house to purchase. The team finally decided on the former alang of Timmikpaw Bantullay.

               To formally allow the turnover of the house from Corazon Dulnuan to the buyer through gatang (purchase), the appropriate ceremonial ritual, hipngat, had to be performed. Two mumbaki were engaged for the event: Damiano Habawel, the main celebrant, with Carlos Dulnuan assisting. A large pig and a hen were sacrificed for the ritual. The ritual phases of the hipngat were: ammod, invoking the presence of ancestral spirits; nambal, invoking the presence of covenant holders of long ago; nungkutu, praising Liddun, the teacher deity, who taught humans the rituals of well-being, agricultural practices, and other traditions; dujya'n di tukud, ceremonial spraying of the posts with wine prior to the dismantling and turn-over of the house; gonob, calling on the deities of the four realms (lagud, daya, dalom & kabunyan -eastern world, western world, underworld, and the skyworld, respectively) and on the ginumun or dream deities to witness the sacrifice; wiwikon di babuy, the act of sacrificing the pig; waga, blessing of the sacrifice; buyang, ritual slicing of the sacrifice; yabyab,blessing of the ricefield, granary and rice with the chicken; bukad, narration of the myth of Lukbuban, a deity of the underworld and of Ginumun, a personalized dream deity; and finally hamul,communal feasting on the sacrifice, to which everyone was invited.

                Tradition and custom satisfied and compensation made, the house that Timmikpaw Bantullay built in his space of the pugaw, earthworld, was dismantled and trucked to Manila from where it was shipped to London, and began resuming its ancient shape in a central space within the Museum of mankind.

               On April 25, 1996, the exhibit was opened by the Duke of Gloucester. British and Filipino dignitaries, scholars, and leaders of the Filipino community in the United Kingdom, also graced the occasion. Originally meant to last only a year the exhibit ran up to December 1997. after which the Ifugao house was disassembled and together with the other artifacts, put in storage. for several years, the house was kept in the Horniman Museum, awaiting for more permanent lodging place or another opportunity for an exhibit.

               Shortly after Ambassador Edgardo B. Espiritu began his tour of duty in August 2003, as Philippine envoy to the Court of St. James's, he thought of having the Ifugao house erected on the Embassy grounds, where visitors -  British, Filipinos and others- would have a chance to appreciate an example of Philippine indigenous architecture, representing a wealth of ancient culture that now belongs to the common heritage of mankind. The Ifugao House in London will also long remain as a symbol of successful cultural co-operation between the Republic of the Philippines and the United Kingdom.

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                 Since the Philippine Embassy is moving to another place, the Ifugao house need to be removed as well. Ms Louise Bacon, the curator in charge (looking after the safety of the Ifugao house) has witnessed the ceremonial ritual performed by Atty Richard Pooten before the Ifugao house has to be dismantled. A group from the IGOROT-UK organization, Ambassador Espiritu, Phil consul Herrera and some staff of the Phil Embassy solemnly observed the ceremony.

                The Ifugao house is now temporarily kept for shelter at the Pooten's residence and will soon find its next permanent place by the Horniman Museum... maybe another exhibit to come...for the people to appreciate an example of Philippine indigenous architecture in a foreign land.

 dtj/dorothy

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

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