Warm bodies and cold nights in the Cordillera

(Note: I'm reprinting this because it chronicles long-time practices by which we in the boondocks cope with the freezing Siberian wind.)

Reprint

Warm bodies and cold nights in the Cordillera

Source: Inquirer Author: Maurice Malanes

Date: 2000-02-08

CORDILLERA'S nights are no longer as chilly as in the past weeks. But lowlanders are wondering how Igorot upland folk, particularly those at the peaks of Cordillera's mountain ranges, are keeping their bodies warm during the cold nights.

Eskimos can sleep the icy nights away by sleeping naked side by side with the rest of the family under a leather-with-fur blanket inside their igloo.

Igorot folk also share blankets during cold nights, a practice that Benguet's Kankanaey folk call bindayang.

Unlike the Eskimos, however, the Kankanaeys do not undress but would rather put on more clothes before lying under the blankets.

Under the bindayang, two family members of the same gender (brother-brother or sister-sister), would double up or combine their blankets and embrace each other, sharing body warmth as the chilly Siberian winds creep into their grass-thatched home.

This practice of sharing body warmth, called sak-kob, is usually done by children or unmarried siblings.

Of course, a man and his wife also practice sak-kob. They are joined in by the youngest un-weaned child. What a couple does beyond sak-kob is another story.

Kankanaey children also keep their bodies warm by wrapping themselves with jute or nylon sacks, aside from a blanket or two that they share through the bindayang. A sack can be big enough to accommodate two small children.

One-room affair

The typical Benguet Kankanaey home with grass roof and wood or reed walls is a one-room hut where family members dine, share stories and riddles, and sleep. The floor, which is either made of wood or reeds, is raised three to four feet above the ground.

At bedtime, the floor is swept of dirt and a big mat is spread. During cold nights, the mat is reinforced with old blankets or carton boxes. Up to this day, many upland folk are too poor to buy foams or mattresses.

Helping give heat to the homes of many Igorot folk is their kitchen stove called dapeng or dapengan, which is also set up inside the single-room house.

To build the foot-high dapeng, soil is placed in one corner of the house where three hard stones called dakilan are placed.

Each side of the rectangular or square dapeng is protected with thick lumber or round wood to keep the soil and ashes from spilling into the floor.

Like a double-burner gas range, two sets of dakilan can be put up to allow the family to build two fires and to accommodate two pots.

Today, some homes would rather have only two stones, on top of which two parallel iron or steel bars are placed. This new dakilan has space for three or four pots.

At early dawn, usually at the second crow of the rooster, the mother or father builds a fire from dry firewood and start cooking ange or pigs' food, which consists usually of sweet potato, yam, banana stalks and camote vines.

The fire helps heat the house when it gets chilly at dawn. Some children are up by then and gather around the fire to fix the firewood and keep their cold-numbed fingers and toes warm.

Kitchen fire

Keeping warm around the kitchen fire is called anido by Benguet Kankanaey folk.

Usually, an early morning guest during the cold season is invited for anido and for a cup of hot coffee or mountain tea.

To help heat the house the whole night, some families keep pieces of hard wood burning through a technique called lub-on.

A portion of the unburnt wood is buried in ashes to slow down the burning. For safety, the wood must be short enough not to exceed the dapeng's edge.

The dapeng stove has other uses. Three to four feet above it is a suspended shelf or rack made of reeds or bamboo called su-u-an, where rice and other grains are dried.

In fact, the whole ceiling of the house is a su-u-an, where unhusked rice and other grains are stored. Because of the smoke from the kitchen fire, the stored grains are free of beetles or bokbok.

The su-u-an just above the kitchen stove is used to heat palay (unhusked rice) or pagey, which must be immediately dried so that it can be pounded for the next meal.

The traditional Benguet and other Igorot houses may be small and simple, but they serve many purposes, such as for dining, cooking, sleeping and stocking food for the lean months.

But while it may be foggy and chilly outside, no baby would cry and die from the cold inside an Igorot village home.