| Kabayan Mummy Burial Caves |
- Kabayan
is one of the Municipalities of Benguet Province in the Cordillera
Mountain Ranges of northern Luzon. The municipality is recognized as a
center of Ibaloi culture.
- The Ibaloi, the dominant ethno-linguistic
group of Kabayan have a long traditional practice of mummifying their
dead. Mummification began prior to the Spanish colonization.
Individuals from the higher social stratum of the Ibaloi of Kabayan
used to be mummified through a long ritual process over a long period
of time.
- The process of mummification using salt and herbs and set
under fire may take up to two years. When the body is finally rid of
body fluids, the mummy is placed inside a pinewood coffin and laid to
rest in a man-made cave or in niche dug out from solid rock. During the
Spanish period, Christianity spread and took a foothold in the
mountains of Benguet and the practice of mummification and cave burial
was abandoned. The remains are then placed in wooden coffins and
interred in man made burial niches in rocks or rock shelters and or
natural caves.
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- Strategically located in the mountain slopes of
the municipality of Kabayan, more than 200 man made burial caves have
been identified and 15 of which contain preserved human mummies. The
Kabayan mummy burial caves are officially proclaimed Philippine National
Cultural Treasures pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 374 which has to
be preserved protect and maintain for future generation as a
manifestation of the skills and ingenuity associated with religious
belief of the Ibaloi culture and tradition.
- The proclamation was based
on the authority of the National Museum of the Philippines whose
archaeologists and anthropologists have made studies of the burial site
and the mummies. The Chemistry and Conservation Laboratory of the
National Museum also have worked, together with of other foreign
agencies in the preservation of the sites. The sites have also been one
of those declared as endangered sites by UNESCO.
- Out of the several ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines, only the
Ibaloi practiced mummification in preserving their dead. There are
also instances of mummification in the caves in Mountain Province which
is inhabited by another ethno-linguistic group, the Bontoc. It is not
certain however whether this is a practice by the Bontoc, or merely an
extension from Kaayan, Benguet, to Alab, Mountain Province.
- There are
also cases of mummies in the province of Ifugao, also in the
Cordilleras, but this is probably due to population movements from the
province of Benguet to the province of Ifugao.
- There are of course
instances of mummification in Sulawesi among the Toraja and other parts
of Southeast Asia. Well known are the sites in South America.
Mummification in Southeast Asia, however, are from a different
technology from that practiced in Egypt.
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