Not Sweating the Small Stuff

Living Animist Tradition in the Philippines - Offerings and Incantations for the Spirits of the Forest

You don't imagine in your travels that you'll see a living animist tradition. With its practices in tact and still being conducted.

A couple of years back, I was traveling round the Philippines.

I took a bus north from Manila to Bontoc. From there, I caught a jeepney to Banaue on the edge of the world-famous rice terraces ...



... and then rode a motor tricycle ...


... to a point where I walked over the mountains on a dirt track ...


... and down into a village called Batad:

On the outskirts of this tiny village, I came across this old anito - a statue used as the focus for offerings to the spirits of the forest at the time of the rice harvest.


Returning to Australia, Filipinos from Visayan island of Samar told me of similar practices in that region of the country. And they are probably extant throughout Micronesia.

Food and other offerings are usually set out on a nearby three-tiered square wooden platform, each tier with offerings for a different type of spirit.

The offerings would include various foodstuffs (fish, meat, bananas), and the first rice of the harvest. These foodstuffs could be cooked – but this must not involve salt. There are often other kinds of offerings, such as wine and cigars.

To begin, incense is lit and blown in the direction of each of the four major points of the compass – north, south, east and west - to attract the spirits of the forest.

The farmer would then intone:

O spirits of the forest - spirit of the east, spirit of the west, spirit of the north and spirit of the south

Come here and eat

We have prepared these offerings in good faith and as a sign of respect. They are clean and there’s plenty for you

Thank you for looking after the crop and keeping away danger

Thank you for giving us a bountiful crop

This is my family so when you see them don’t harm them. This is my son, this is my wife … .

If they step on you or bump into you, please forgive them

Chatting to Philippinos back in Australia, I'm told that each day when moving around his property, a farmer would say to the spirits:

Excuse me, I’m just passing through

And when traveling through the forest:

Please can I pass by?

I guess, living in an industrial urban environment, I am more than a little intrigued by the otherness of such long-gone cultural and agriculture practices - rooted as they are in the life of the land.