COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE PRACTICES

1. Kalon -
A. Initiated by the parents.
-This type of parental arrangement is not enforced. If any or both refuse, no marriage
rituals take place. However, the parents and community exert effort to convince the couple.

B. Initiated by the man.

-This is the traditional way of courtship among the Ibaloy. When a young man is
interested in a girl, he will ask and older person to visit the girl and ask her if she wants to
marry the young man. If the girl agrees, the wedding will immediately follow.

-The Ibaloi man need not court a woman, instead the former chooses a woman he
wants for a wife and expresses his love through an intermediary with a good reputation in the
community and through parental agreement.

2. Kaising – This is another way of courtship where the parents of the girl and the boy decide
that the two should marry. In most cases this agreement is reached when the children are still
young. To conclude the agreement, the parents will butcher one or two four-legged animals
like pigs, carabaos or cows. For young couples, a young pig or cow may be butchered.

The elders called panglakayen or mambunong (religious practitioner) will bless the animals
and the ceremony. This ceremony is performed to let everyone in the community know that
when the boy and girl reach the age of maturity, they will be married to each other.

Another ritual is performed when the couple are of age to signify that they can now live as
husband and wife. Animals butchered for the feast are cows, carabaos and pigs which come in
pairs of male and female.

One reason for the kaising practice is that when the boy and girl are married, the parents’
remain within the two families. Another is that this is also a way of strengthening the
friendship between tribes and to resolve conflict between two clans or families.

One of the reasons for this practice before was for the rich clans and families to keep their
wealth within their class. Thus this arrangement happens despite the children’s wishes or
decisions. “Baknang koma ket para soni baknang ngo”. (The rich should only be for the rich)

The party that breaks away from the agreement has to repay all expenses incurred. They also
suffer public censure.

3. Sihop/suhong (Forced marriage) – When a girl becomes deformed or disabled as a result

of an incident caused by the boy during their youth. Whether the incident was intentional or
accidental, the boy is constrained to marry the girl when they grow up.

Parents decide who their children should marry. The young couple are kept in a cage-like
structure or a room until both agree that they should get married or the marriage is
consummated. They are usually kept in the room for three days. The person who refuses will
be penalized.

DEATH AND BURIAL PRACTICES

PROCESS:

When the someone dies, the people will wait 4 days till burying, sometimes 7 for the
rich/powerful people.

In the 1st day, the same day the person died. The people will butcher a pig for the deceased to
eat (spiritually). The people will then clean the body and change his/her clothes.

In the 2nd day, the people will butcher another pig before putting the deceased person in the
coffin. But in the olden times, the people would let the dead sit in the living room, right side
of the main door.

In the 2nd to the 3rd day, the children of the deceased will give the dead an offering. Starting
from the eldest to the youngest. One by one, they may offer pig, cow, or carabao with tapey.
if they would offer a cow or a carabao, they must always accompany the offering with pig.

In the 4th day, the people will butcher cow or carabao. They may also butcher the animal of
the deceased. The burial is done in the evening for the elders and afternoon for the young
ones.

After burying. In the morning, the people will butcher another pig for breakfast and after
breakfast, the people will clean the area.

After 7 days, they will butcher 2 pigs, one male and one female for the feast. Of course, with
tapey or rice wine since it is like a staple Then after 1 year, the people will extract the coffin
of the diseased, change the coffin, wrap the bones around a blanket or with new clothes. then
they will butcher animals, pigs. Which will last 1 night and 1 whole day.

FIRE MUMMIFICATION
-One of the old practices of the ibaloi. The body is first put through a saltwater purge where
four litters of salt water is forcibly orally ingested by the corpse. The boy is cleaned and then
sat on a high chair called 'sangachil' or 'sangadil' where the body is drained and cleaned once
more.

The body placed once more on the chair but a weak fire is put underneath it. Its smoked for a
few days until the body shrinks and it is placed in the burial cave.

In other practices when a coffin is simply buried, the Ibaloi would bury their loved ones at
their family house. The coffins are usually buried under houses or in the backyard.

Burial ceremonies for the Ibalois are commonly a community affair and not an intimate
gathering which most are accustomed to. It is believed by the Ibalois that sacrificing a horse
during a community wake would be a way for the dead to safely arrive at Mt. Pulag.

However according to other sources, the horse is freed to safely roam around to the top of the
mountain rather than killed. The mountain is a sacred place for the Ibalois as they believe it is
the abode of their ancestors, and the springbode towards a journey to the great beyond.

KESHENG JA WARAY BATBAT

Kesheng ja waray batbat is a ritual performed for the exhumation of human bones by the
Ibaloi of Luzon,Cordillera(Benguet).

This kind of tradition are performed when the dead person keeps on insinuating his/her family
or other relatives,but other spirits are giving inflicts to his/her family members,they will go to
the "mambunongs".Then,the mambunongs will make rituals and he/she will talked to the
spirit of the dead and asked why she/he keeps on insinuating his/her family members.If the
"mambunong" IS done talking to the spirit,he/she will identify the needs of the dead
according to what the spirit says. Example,if the dead wants to clean it's grave or the dead is
not comfortable.

The "mambunong" request to butcher a pig or chicken for offering as part of the ritual.As well
as buying some clothes or other stuffs wherein the spirit needs.Here,the mambunong
continue the ritual,he/she will spell some ritual prayers,offer all the offerings that the spirit
needs and asked to stop on insinuating.

Ibaloi believes that Kesheng Ja Waray Batbat helps the person to get better and healed.This
kind of tradition or belief of the Ibaloi's are continuingly fulfill until this generation.

OTHER DETAILS

1. During the cleaning of the body, someone talks to the body to relax.
2. If the deceased is a woman, they clean her body inside the house while if it’s a man, they
will clean it outside the house.
3. During the wake, the mambunong will sing some badiw along with the elders.
4. The offerings called the “opo” that will be given to the dead like the animals will serve as
the “paw-it” or “pasalubong” to the ancestral spirits.
5. They will cut elongated slices of meat and hang them inside and outside the house. The
number of meat will depend on the financial capability of the deceased or his ritual capability.
The number of meat that will be hanged inside will be equal to the numbers of meat that will
be hanged outside.

For Batbat
1. Kadaring- the spirit of the deceased that is bothering a family member.
2. If the kadaring requested for an animal, the most commonly used is pig because the cries of
the pig while being butchered is said to be heard by the kadaring. The mambunong will check
the internal organs like the liver and if it has something wrong with it, they will have to
butcher another one.
3. The kadaring might also possess one family member in order to express what he wants like
change his blanket, request for a new shoes.
SCRIPT

Mayat jen mashem tayon emin. Hajay I Ibaloi group.

In english, Good afternoon everyone and this is the Ibaloi Group. To satrt off our report on
the Courtship and Marriage practices, we will have Yesha explain to us what Kalon is.

(YESHA)

Next will be the Kaising. Now, this tradition is mainly done by those in the higher classes of
Ibaloi. The parents will be the one to arrange the marriage even before the two reach the age
of maturity and sometimes even if the two are not yet born.

It will start with what we call, in Ibaloi term, Tong-tong, or agreement. The parents will
arrange the marriage, when will it happen, what age will they marry and what not. So this
results in others not even knowing that they are already set to marry someone.

After the agreement a mambunong will bless and that means that the agreement will sure to
take place when the right times comes. They will butcher a four-legged animal to seal the
agreement.

When the two reaches the age of maturity another ritual will happen and to let the community
know that the two are now eligible to marry and that the marriage will soon take place.
Before they start the marriage, the couple will be locked up in a room or tied together to get to
know each other. Usually, this takes up to three days. Whoever refuse to push through the
marriage will have to pay all of the expenses incurred from the day of tong-tong.

The purpose of this practice in the Ibaloi community is to resolve conflicts and strengthen
friendship. It is also used to keep the wealth in the family. As I said earlier, this is commonly
used by those in the higher classes. There was an expression back then, “Nu baknang para
ngo so ni baknang” meaning, the rich should only be for the rich.

The last one would be the Sihop or Suhong. When a young man causes an accident where the
girl gets blind or crippled or anything, whether it was intentional or not, he has to marry the
girl. Refusing would only result to penalizing he will be put to shame by the community.

Death immediately activates a series of prohibitions or taboos that the Ibaloy call ngilin, which forbid
work and sexual relations.