Apfo’or: Mayoyao’s Pride

Figure  1  Maybe as old as over two thousand years old

The Apfo'or burial tomb found only in Mayoyao, Ifugao is one of the reasons tourists wanting to see the beauty and pride of Ifugao should not let go visiting the place.

Tourists are only going to Banawe in order to see the famous Banawe Rice Terraces. But that’s a very big mistake because one is only seeing just a small part of the real rice terraces and missing a lot of history and tradition of the people, one of which is the thousands of years old burial tomb or known locally as the Apfo’or– anyway, blame it to the government’s department of tourism for their lack of advertisement to promote the whole beauty of the people of Ifugao.

According to Leandro, the man who took us for a short visit around Mayoyao to show its pride, the tomb was created thousands of years ago by people who have large tract of lands and lots of animals as bases for wealth.

Each tomb is only used by the family clan who owns the tomb. From what I understood, the tomb is used from the father, wife, children and grandchildren. So, when a person has no children, there is a big chance it will not be used by him or her. Like what happened to a tomb made by a childless woman. The people used it for another family relative, a brother, because if the childless lady used it first, it cannot be used again because most of the clan members will want to have children, unless there are family members who will not bear a child.

There are still seven burial tombs remaining and they are located in different places of Mayoyao, usually on a higher ground. It is made up of selected stones put on top of each other and cemented with a special kind of soil or clay carefully collected by the builders.

The entrance of the tomb is covered by a wide large stone. Its height is tall and inside is wide enough so people can stand up and move and may accommodate about five to ten people.

An interesting practice is the corpse will not remain inside for a long time. When it already decomposed, the bones are collected and brought home and be hung beneath the house.

A coffin is not used for the dead, but the body is wrapped with sticks of pampas grass joined and knotted together. The body was then brought inside the tomb and left lying down. However, in a tomb where victims of killings were brought, the body will be left in a sitting position on the wall – probably as support – and be put lying down only when its death is avenged.

The tombs were built through “Bayanihan” or cooperation of the people of Mayoyao. The whole community helps, like carrying up stones from the river up to the mountain where the tomb is going to be constructed, bringing up foods, and cooking.

Figure 2  A supposed to be tomb for a childless woman

Leandro said that 100 bundles of grains of rice were brought up to the site where the tomb in the picture above was made, and twelve animals, particularly pigs, were butchered to be used in feeding the workers, and probably, for ceremonies held during the construction and dedication of the tomb.

Six of the Apfo’ors are no longer used but are being preserved for historic records and for tourists’ attraction while one is still being used until today.

Even though a few of the tomb’s dome already collapsed, and a budget has been set aside before for their repair, the owners didn’t want it to be touched due to some traditions that must be performed before anything is done. They need to butcher a lot of pigs to clean it and what probably stopping the families to do anything is the other works that go with the rituals. Leandro hopes that in the near future something will be done to overcome the taboo of touching them without so many sacrifices so that the original structure will be retained and strengthened and be preserved for the next generations to see their culture of the old days.

Figure  3  The replica of the original Apfo'or

One of the things that the government of Mayoyao did to give the next generations a glimpse of the original apfo’or was a built replica of the original tomb; however, it is made up of cut stones and cement was used in contrast to the original stones and clay that were used in the original. If I had my say, they should have built the Apfo’or replica using original materials, since the stones and clay are not that expensive, to give it a more realistic look. Then label it as “For Art and History” or anything like it to avoid the pains of butchering pigs for its maintenance.