My House, My Heritage

My attendance to a seminar on heritage conservation last week (March 5-7) in Ilocos called to mind my desire of detailing here the unique architectural design of a typical Benitinanon house. As usual, my excuse for the delay is "the exigencies of life". The workshop up north however afforded me the focus to draw the floor plan of that particular structure. One would be surprised to note that apart from the uniqueness of the house floor plan, many of the necessities therein and the words that described them are strange to the younger generation.

Necessities/devices such as "eusong", "sumwan", "tadyaw" are now alien to the younger Baleten-on. Their uses in the postmodernized household are no longer required. Hence, the words associated with them die a natural death. Benitinan and some other upland sitios in Balete which by their remoteness remains unaffected by the changes brought about by Information Age play a very important role in being the living source of the past becoming extinct Ilayanhon culture.

As one can notice, the "sala" or the living room holds a prominent space in a typical Benitinanon house. It is a multi-purpose hall used differently in various seasons. During harvest time, it serves as the storage of rice where the owner then set up a "paraka", a huge sack that can store as much as ten cavans of rice. When fiesta came, the space turns into a social hall and later on a lodging area for the visitors. In olden times, the "sab-ongan" or loom sets near a window in the sala.

A house is literally relocated to a favored site by the entire community.
The act is commonly called "Eayungan", a variation of "Dagyaw",
"Tuwang-tuwang" and "Sagibin"

The "kwarto", or bedroom which usually a pair of small dark rooms is homely. It has no window as the night is colder in the mountain and it is seldom used during the day. The 'balcon" serves as the holding area for callers who have not won the trust of the household members while the "pantaw" is for trusted friends who have to wash up their muddy feet and are allowed to come inside the house. It is an open space where household members can have emergency laundry or wash up before going to rest (They do the laundry and take a bath in the creek or in the spring--the innovative and the fortunate though construct a "tarog", an aqueduct made of bamboo, from a spring down to their "pantaw"). It also serves as the "bangerahan" or kitchen sink where one can do the dishes and prepare food.

A "Dapog" 

Beside the dining area is the "dapog", a table-like space made of wood and earth where one cooks. A "dapog" has a "sumwan", a hardwood with embers in it. The household makes fire from the "sum-ean". Hanging atop the "dapog" is a "doe-doe", a salt block wrapped in a piece of cloth. Adjacent to the "dapog" are the "eusong" and "hae-o", mortar and pestle made of hardwood.  Underneath the dining area is the "pensa", a cage where poultry or even livestock are kept. The "mô-mô" or morsels from the dining table are dropped down through the bamboo slats for the chicken to feast on.


Back at the seminar workshop I just attended, the speaker, a Harvard-educated linguist, posed a question: Can we do something to prevent our heritage and language from going extinct? There was a resounding yes from the audience. Inside, my mind and heart cried out. If I can entice my daughters to be critical of the richness and uniqueness of a typical house, then maybe I can help them enrich their Weltanschauung (worldview) vis-a-vis the dominance and seduction of the Information Age and globalization to the younger generation.