THE

MANDAYA OF
DAVAO
ORIENTAL
Mandaya
The first people upstream.
Derive from man “first” and daya “upstream
or upper portion of a river”.
Features of a Mandaya

 High forehead
 prominent cheekbones
 broad noses
 thick lips
 angular features
 generally hair
Five Principal Groups of Mandaya
 Mansaka- those who lived in the mountain clearings
 Manwaga- those who lived in the forested mountain area
 Pagsupan- those who make a living in a swampy banks of
the Tagum and Hijo river
 Managusan- those who lived near the water
 Divavaogan- those who are found in the Southern and
Western part of Compostella
The Geographic Location
 Mandaya are scattered in some parts of Davao Del Norte,
Compostella Valley and Surigao Del Sur.
 The concentration of their settlement which still exists
today, is the heart of Davao Oriental particularly Baganga,
Caraga and Cateel.
 Has the oldest municipality in Eastern Mindanao, Caraga.
Two types of Mandaya Family
1. Nuclear Family – consisting of the parents and the
children
2. Polygamous Family – consisting of two or more wives
with their children
 According to the Mandaya law, the wife cannot have more
than one husband but the husband can have more than one
wife.
 Polygamy became taboo as the Mandayas adopted the
monogamous family system and as polygamy was
outlawed by the government.
Marriage and Family
 Bethrothal was practiced
 The selection of the spouse was based on kinship
considerations , domain affiliation, and personal
characteristics.
 The process of courtship is exhausting.
 The courtship and marriage is done through the
help of the man’s parents.
Stages of Marriage
1. Pakisayod - It was made through the use of bayok, a figurative or poetic
chanting involving the representatives of the families of the boy and the
girl.
2. Pagtawas – It is where the boy rendered service to the girl anher family.
3. Kasamongan – When both families meet to set the date of the marriage.
The dowries will be sent to the parents and relatives of the bride
4. Pagtulod – The final celebration of the matrimony that means “it is
goodbye now” and the marriage ritual will follow.
Wedding rites – It is held at noon or sundown officialated by a likod or any
respected man in the settlement. The celebration could last from three days
to a week.

 The couple will first stay at the bride’s family where they will share a bed
only after 3 days of getting married.
 The wedding involving a second wife or later wives could not equal the
first in lavishness and preparations.
 Only the man can have many wives and if the wife will be caught having
an affair with another man, she will suffer with severe penalty and could
even lead to death.
 The Nobility of a Girl
 It could be measured by her
ability to weave abaca cloth
( dagmay) as the tedious and
complicated process of doing
so required outmost patience.
Religion
 Aram Yengoyen wrote that the Mandaya religious structure depicted an
elaborate heirarchy of spirits and a group of female shamans (balyan),
whose generally function was the interpretation of supernatural and how it
related to man and nature.
 For the Mandayas, the Magbabaya ruled the supreme being. The
Tagamaling owned the forest and nature, while the different kinds of spirits
had their respective turfs.
 Their indigenous belief was described as animism.
 Ritesand rituals serves many purposes such as thanksgiving, healing and
farming.
Balyan – The one who performed the rituals and a Balyan should
always be a woman. Man could only perform as Silag ( healer ).

Mandaya Gods
 Mansilatan and Baly – (father and son) who are good gods.
 Padaugnon and Malimbong – (husband and wife) the evil
gods.
Spaniards – With their might and power, affected greatest change among the
Mandayas. They introduce Christianity.
 Every baptized Mandaya child had to take on a “Christian name”.
 Native Mandaya names which were without family name were considered
pegan and therefore taboo.
After Baptism – The child is called Christiano and no longer a Mandaya.
 The unbaptized, branded as infieles, were not allowed to enter school or
transact business with government. They were relegated to lower status as
uneducated, uncivilized or simply ignorant. Thus, education was
instrumental to massive Christianization.
Education
Oral
 tradition and indigenous arts started the informal education of the Mandayas.
Practices, values, weaving skills were taught with both young and adult.

Respect by women especially by men was primary and compulsory.

The convento was served as the first school.

The religious catechism was indespensable.

The ability to speak English became a “measure” of intelligence and superiority.

The pursuit of education among the Mandayas almost totally depended on the price and market of copra as it is the main

product of the Mandayas.
Health and Medicine
 Relied on Silag (male healer)
 Balyan - regarded as priestess, summoned the spirits to cure the illness whose
ailments are not common.
 The discovery of new herbal medicines came in various ways such as
observations of animals through dreams or visions and through accident.
 Modern medicine as practiced by a Mandaya started with the arrival of the
Americans who introduced vaccines, intravenous injections, pills and
ointments.
 The first vaccination were conducted in schools. As children experienced fever
after innoculation, many parents complained and hid their children.
 Treatments did not require parental consent.
 Beliefs, Practices and Values
1. A sound of the limokan bird is a bad omen for someone who is about to
leave the house.
2. Children must be inside the house immediately after the sunset because the
budbud denizens are already roaming around. Bumping into them will make
one ill.
3. When a deer passes under one’s houses, its owner will die.
4. Killing a fat deer pertains death to the hunter.
5. A house must be abandoned after one of the household member dies in it.
6. Decisions handed by the Matadong or Likid are inviolable.
7. Respect to the household is obligatory.
8. Coveting another’s wife or husband is a capital offense punishable by death.
9. A Palakub (clapping) of the casket’s cover is done before the remains of the
dead are place inside. The loud thundering sound produced by the Palakub
drives away the evil spirits that might attempt to snatch the body.
10. Pregnant wives are encouraged to eat ubod ng uway or young coconut if she
wishes her child to have fair complexion.
11. Before the delivery of the pregnant woman, the kabaywa ( native lemon tree)
branches are fastened to the walls to drive away the wakwak or kikik ( men or
women possessing evil power).
12. It is believed that if the pregnant wife died, she may turn into matianak
(Pregnant devil woman).
Economy
 The main economic activity of the Mandaya is kaingon or swidden
farming.
 Main crops include rice, sweet potato, sugarcane, tocacco, cotton, abaca and
coffee.
 With the exception of rice, these plants are planted without alluding to the
spirits.
 But in all cases, the Mandaya starts to clean their fields only after the
appearance of the seven starts known as the Payo-payo in November.
 After the land is cleared, a pole is place in the centre of the field in honour
of the spirit Omayan.
Visual Arts and Crafts
The
 clothes of Mandaya are considered by many
as among the most beautiful in Mindanao.
Mandaya custome motifs are characterized by

block designs, line patterns, rick racks, scrolls,
curvilinear motifs, diamond and crosses. Another
popular motif is the crocodile done at various
levels of abstraction.
 Mandaya women wear cotton blouses called
dagum. Usually red, black and blue
decorated with animal and geometric
designs.
 Oldwomen and Christinized bailana often
wears black blouses. The badu nang bubay
(women’s dress) is ornately designed as the
blouses of Chinese influence.
 Thedagum nang usog (men’s clothes) has
sleeves which may be long or three forths in
lengths and embroided with lenama.
 Literary Arts
 Mandaya literary arts expressed the
group’s attitudes towards life, nature,
morality and the world in general.
 They include proverbs, myth, riddles,
folktales and epic poem.
 Examples:
Riddles Tuong san tutukanon ko
(Guess what it is)
 Mandaya riddles are rich in
Tagbi na dadalaga-ay
imagery.
( Only a small girl)
 They provide a clue to the way Matigam mana-i sang kasigulman
Mandaya see the world; thems ( Yet knew how to sew in the dark)
are deriy from familiar things Answer: Honey Bee
in nature, so that they can be
easily understood. Tagadi ako
 In style, they are mostly ( wait for me)
unrhymed but are expressed in Tagadi ako
rhymatic verses. (wait for me)
Answer: feet
 Proverbs
 Mandaya proverbs serve a pedagogical purpose.
 They are employed by the parents “to quality,
strengthen or validate their advisoryand
Example:
disciplinary role for the upbringing of the young”.
Yang ataug aw madugdog
 Other Mandaya proverbs provides outlook of life (an egg once broken)
and the virtues needed to survive in this world. Di da mamauli
( will never be the same)
 Instyle, the use of metaphor and assonance is
marked.
Mandaya Creation Myth
 The Mandaya creation myth tells the story of limoken, a bird
that use to have the ability to speak. It laid two eggs, one of
which hatched into a woman and the other into a snake. The
snake left for a place where the sea and the river met; there it
exploded and became a man. He lived alone for many years
until one day, while crossing the river, a long strand of hair
caught his legs. After a long search, he found the owner of the
hair. They got married and the children they begot are the
Mandaya.
Folktales ( oman-oman)
 Mandaya oman-oman (folktales) are entertaining and contain moral
values.
 They are a collective expression of the group’s attempt to articulate
it’s experiences and outlook toward life and the world.
 They usually starts with phrases like “once upon a time” or “long
ago” and are characterized by the absence of repititions which
marked other Mandaya literary genres such as folksongs, ritual
songs and epic poem.
 These tales are narrated.
 Itis believed that folktales are better told in the evenings because
the tagamaling or tagadiwatany (friendly environmental spirits)
came out to help the narrator’s memory.
Examples:
 “Amo aw buwaya” ( the monkey and the crocodile)
 “Buyag na butingin” ( underscores the virtues of politeness and
kindness)
Songs ( Dawot)
 The Dawot (songs) of the Mandaya are chanted to entertain people
on special occasions.
 They are performed by a Magdadawot (native bard) who is
expected to have mastery of the intricacies of the ancient art of
chanting the panayday or versification of the poem. He is also
expected to render the panayday into various traditional melodies
and to be proficient in the use of the couplets.
 Ittakes several days to chant through the several hulubaton or
narratives of the dawot.
 Examples:
 Sadya na Yalabo (The Banishment of the Sadya) which takes
approximately three nights to narrate.
 Yangagaw si Dilam ( Dilam takes Tibay’s Bethrothed by Force) which
takes around four nights to tell.
 Syukli ni Obang ( The abduction of Obang) it takes about four nights to
narrate.
 Pyalid si Sadya (Dilam uses storm to Abduct Sadya) it takes seven days
and seven nights to narrate.
 Maylan (Maylan’s Death and Ressurection) it also takes seven days and
seven nights to narrate.
 Musical Instruments
 The Kobing or a slender piece of bamboo resembling a Jew’s
harp and is played while dancing.
 TheKudlong or a two stringed instrument similar to the
kudyapi of the Maranao.
 The Gimbal or native drum made of tree trunk of deer skin.
 The Nakuyag or an instrument resembling a Spanish
tambourine and is played to accompany the gimbal.
 Nakuyag Gimbal

Kudlong
Kobing
Mandaya Language
 Mandaya Language belongs to the Austronesian, Malayo –
Polynesian linguistic genealogy which is still spoken by the
pure blooded Mandaya in Baganga, Boston, Cateel, Caraga
and Manay Davao Oriental.

TWO CATEGORIES OF MANDAYA LANGUAGE