Ifugao kids keep rice cycle alive
via Inquirer, 22 Sep 2019: Evolving cultural practices to keep up with changing times in the Ifugao rice terraces.
Literally means the making of “binakle” (Ifugao rice cake), bakle is an indigenous postharvest tradition that starts with the “mumbaki” (ritual specialist) performing the “danglot” (bakle ritual).
Prayers, chickens, “baya” (rice wine) and “pinalut” (rice dough) are also offered to the “bulul” (Ifugao rice granary guardian) as part of the celebration.
“It is giving back to the bulul in thanksgiving for the bountiful harvest and then praying for continuous good harvests,” said Simon Tuguinay, a mumbaki.
According to the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMo), a cultural advocacy group, the tradition is disappearing due to the changing cycle of planting rice.
Marlon Martin, a SITMo member, says the bakle takes place at the end of the harvest season with the opening of the fallow period when the “payo” (rice terraces) are cleared of grass and weed that are later buried in the mud to rot and serve as fertilizer for the next planting season.