Ash to ash

PINOY KASI

Ash to ash
By Michael Tan
Inquirer
Last updated 00:34am (Mla time) 11/01/2006

Published on Page A11 of the November 1, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

CULTURE has sometimes been defined as a "way of living" or life-ways, but if we really want a more accurate description, culture would have to include a whole range of beliefs and practices that go with dying and death. Like so many other traditions, these "death-ways," if I might attempt a descriptive term, are always in flux, changing with the times.

Burial or mortuary practices are particularly interesting, with many variations across cultures. Not all cultures bury the dead; many use cremation, and there are a few cultures that leave the dead in special places to allow vultures to come in. Even burial practices vary, some cultures preferring burial six feet under while others going for tombs above ground, and still others even have hanging coffins perched on cliffs.

The funeral itself varies. The Muslims are known for their most austere and solemn ceremonies, burying their dead on the day of death, shrouded in a plain piece of cloth. In other cultures, the funeral follows a long wake, sometimes lasting several months, and the funeral itself is a drawn-out affair with much fanfare.

Jars and mummies

What's it been like in the Philippines?

Archaeological sites have yielded rich information about our pre-colonial burial practices. Many are probably aware of the "manunggul" burial jars found in Palawan. The jar is so iconic for the Philippines that it's featured on our P1,000-bill. The jars have a lid showing people on a boat. They could represent spirit guides, or probably are just a metaphor from our seafaring culture to show the voyage to the next life.

The jars are actually used for secondary burials. The first burial may be in the ground and then after a few years, the remains are exhumed, often with elaborate bone-washing rituals, before being re-interred in the jars. Secondary burials are a way for bringing clans together, and the more powerful families will also use the occasion to host a community feast.

An interesting example comes from among the ranks of anthropologists. The founder of the University of the Philippines' anthropology department was an American named H. Otley Beyer, who arrived in the Philippines as a Thomasite and stayed on. He married a woman of the Ifugao tribe and died in the Philippines. Several years after his death, there was a bone-washing ceremony, an occasion that brought people from far and wide, and where he was declared an "anito" [deity].

There were variations in the way we handled our dead. Some cultures used caves, as in Sagada town in Mountain Province. In the neighboring Benguet province, the Ibaloi tribe used to mummify the dead, using a long process where the corpses were literally smoked and dried. The mummification process was quite sophisticated, the mummies retaining tattoo details.

Sadly, the Sagada burial sites have become tourist attractions while some of the Ibaloi mummies ended up in private homes, to be displayed as curiosity items. Some of the mummies have been returned to Benguet, welcomed home with the appropriate rituals.

Our pre-colonial culture took burials quite seriously, especially when the deceased was wealthy. Burial sites have yielded all kinds of precious goods sent off with the dead. Some of the sites have also yielded corpses with masks on the eyes, on the nose and the mouth, all made out of gold. You can see these death masks at the National Museum. (The Central Bank Museum on Roxas Boulevard has a more extensive collection of pre-colonial gold ornaments, but I can't quite remember if they have death masks.)

Burials

The Spaniards did impact on our burial practices, mainly with the use of crosses and tombstones. The older tombstones used to have etched on them the letters "D.O.M.," which doesn't mean dirty old man but rest in peace, now "R.I.P." Catholic burial sites were often adjacent to the parish church, or even within the church itself.

Chinese-Filipinos preferred tombs that were above ground, with quite elaborate mausoleums that sometimes cost several million pesos. Rich Filipino families also had these mausoleums but were more restrained with the opulence.

From what I can remember, memorial parks came into vogue only from the 1960s onwards. Just as the central parts of cities, especially Manila, became congested, the older cemeteries in La Loma had reached saturation, sometimes to the point where tombs were built on top of other tombs. As the living fled to the suburbs, so too did the dead, through memorial parks. The plots often turned out to be the most valuable pieces of real estate in the Philippines, a tiny plot of about 20 square meters going for prices upwards of P100,000.

I should mention that the Chinese cemetery plots were actually leased out, and the costs could run quite high, so eventually, the Chinese-Filipinos began to set up memorial parks out in the suburbs.

Cremations

Until fairly recently, the Catholic Church did not allow cremations. The reason given to me was that the body was sacred, a vessel of the Holy Spirit. It never really made sense to me since fire could be seen as a purifying force, as many cultures do. And, to usher in Lent each year, aren't we all reminded that we all will return to ash? Fortunately, the Church has since lifted the ban on cremation and a growing number of churches now sell niches where the deceased's ashes can be interred. We're also seeing columbaria being set up, the most impressive one being the one at the corner of Araneta Avenue and Quezon Boulevard, a high-rise affair with niches, chapels and gardens.

Cremations do make a lot of sense in ecological terms. Turned to ash, the dead don't take up valuable space, and don't pose any danger of contaminating water sources. But Filipinos have been slow to accept the practice. At funerals, I've heard relatives of the deceased expressing their discomfort with cremations, from fire being so all-consuming to the bones having to be ground after the cremation.

Cremations have also created new challenges for culture. What to do, for example, during the waiting period as the cremation takes place? In the cremations I've attended, people usually passed the time eating. Others engaged in loose banter, sometimes bordering on the irreverent. At one cremation that took a bit longer than usual, I heard people whispering about the deceased, who wasn't exactly popular, "Even the flames take longer to consume the jerk."

The eating and the jesting are, of course, part and parcel of more traditional Filipino funerals. As cremations become more popular, it will be interesting to see how we institutionalize the waiting period. Will we see it as an extension of the wake, with people playing cards or singing on the karaoke? Or will we see more solemn prayerful activities? Or will we see more commemorative activities, maybe PowerPoint slide presentations reviewing the deceased's life, accompanied by eulogies?

It's anyone's guess, but whatever those activities might be, they'll have that Filipino imprint, showing how we can grieve for the dead even as we celebrate life.