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Unveiling the Legacy of the Adasen Indigenous Group: A Comprehensive Exploration of

Origin, Historical Evolution, Community Dynamics, Religious Practices, Cultural
Traditions, and Folklore

Jafe Ardel Aldaya

Christian Clark Comodas
Michael John Flora
Rovelyn Mangyao
Rolito Quijado
Clyde Dexter Sabas
Carcar City College, Carcar City, Cebu

Abstract

The Adasen Indigenous Group, nestled within the lush landscapes of the Philippines, carries with
them a legacy rich in history, culture, and spirituality. This research embarks on an adventure
deep into the heart of the Adasen community, aiming to unveil the layers of their existence, from
their humble beginnings to their vibrant culture, customs, and captivating folklore.

Keyword

Indigenous people; origin; historical background; deep exploration

Introduction

When we hear about indigenous groups, it’s easy to envision something mysterious and
distant. But today, we’re embarking on a journey to uncover the living legacy of the Adasen
Indigenous Group, who call the Philippines home.

The community of Adasen is now considered as an Ethnolinguistic subtribe of the Tingguan

ethnic group. They are mostly located in the Municipalities of Lagayan, Langangil-ang and
Tineg in the Northern part of the Abra Province. Historically, the tribe is said to have come from
Cagayan, they then moved to Kalinga then to Abra, which they now call home. They share a few
similar practices and belief to those of the other local ethnic groups within the regions that they
have stayed in.
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Research Question

1. What’s actually the history and beginnings of their society as a whole?

2. What type of faith does the majority of their community practice?
3. Exactly, what are the folklore, attire, as well as their customs are?

Research Materials and Methods

The study made use of the descriptive method of research. The following sections describe the
selection of research publication and how the analysis was performed.

 eJournal
 Online Articles
 Cultural Blog
 Archive
 eBook

Results and Discussion

Roots, Historical Background and Evolution

Asian ethnic groups have similarities and differences among themselves. In Southeast Asia,
even as the archipelagic nature of the countries throughout the region separate the ethnic groups
in the various islands, there are still similarities observed in ethnic groups even when they’re
separated to the far ends of each country. For instance, the way some names are derived show
features that may be seen in other neighboring countries as well. This is the case for the
Tingguian or Itneg people.

“Tinguian”, “Tinggian”, “Tinggianes,” “Tingues,” and “Tingians” all mean “mountain

dwellers” and refer to the people who, to avoid the advancing Christian Ilocano, withdrew into
the Abra valley and the nearby highlands. “Tinguian” is used synonymously with the word
“Itneg,” derived from iti uneg, which literally means “the interior,” or from the combination of
the prefix i-, which indicates a place of origin, and Tineg, the name of a major river and
geographical area. The Tinguian have always thought of themselves and the other highland
dwellers of the Cordillera as Itneg, people of the interior uplands. Non-Itneg, however, tend to
refer to the inhabitants of Abra’s isolated hinterlands as Itneg and to the province’s more
acculturated population as Tinguian, especially since the latter are supposedly hardly
distinguishable from the lowland Ilocano.

The Adasen also speak the Adasen, which is not exclusive to those members living in the
mentioned municipalities. Their language is also heard and practiced as another dialect by other
subtribes of the Tingguian. This is interesting to researchers, who compared and discovered the
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origin of the languages. Thus, it is now known that Adasen is a variant of the Apayao and
Kalinga dialects.

One theory has it that the Tinguian originally inhabited the coastal areas and are the
predecessors of the precolonial Ilocano. These people would later move into what is now the
province of Abra, where they intermarried with the older population. The descendants of this
union are the present-day Tinguian. Others, however, went further upland toward the east,
northeast, south, and southeast, following the many branches of the Abra River. The group that
trekked to the northeast along the river called Tineg encountered Aeta who inhabited the region
called Apayao. Those who intermarried with these Aeta came to be called Isneg, an
ethnolinguistic group that now populates the western and northern parts of the present Kalinga-
Apayao. The pure Aeta group may be found in the Apayao region.

Spanish colonization of the Ilocano started in Vigan in 1572, but it was not till 1598 that the
Spaniards initiated contact with the Tinguian when they invaded Abra and used the village of
Bangued as their garrison. This drove the Tinguian farther up the river, where they founded the
Lagangilang settlement. Hence, attempts to convert the Tinguian were largely unsuccessful.

In 1868, Capt Esteban de Peñarrubia, newly appointed military governor of Abra province,
banished the nonconverts from their homes and confiscated their property. Their own traditional
garments were banned in the towns. Christianization increased through intimidation because the
practice of old customs was made punishable by law.

In 1973, shortly after President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, a pulp-and-paper
company, the Cellophil Resources Corporation (CRC), owned by Marcos crony Herminio Disini,
was granted a Timber and Pulpwood License Agreement (TPLA) to cut down 198,795 hectares
of centuries-old pine tree forests spread over Kalinga-Apayao and Abra (Supreme Court 2010).
This would either destroy or despoil the Tinguian’s rice fields, irrigation systems, river and forest
resources, water, fertile soil, and their homes. Legitimate attempts by the local leaders and the
people to lodge their protests were met with intense militarization, which, during the martial law
years, was synonymous with human rights atrocities. Four Catholic parish priests in Abra—
Conrado Balweg, Nilo Valerio, and the two brothers Bruno and Cirilo Ortega—vainly attempted
to mediate between the two parties. Finally, village chiefs and leaders of Abra came together in
Mayabo, Abra for a bodong (peace pact) with other Cordilleran groups, who collectively signed
a pagta (agreement) to persist in their struggle to stop the CRC.

On 4 th of July, 2011, a “closure agreement” between the government under Benigno Aquino
III’s presidency and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) provided for the
disarmament of the CPLA and its conversion into a nongovernment organization (NGO) to
implement a socioeconomic development plan that would benefit the 57 villages that had been
the CPLA’s mass base. Abra has won certain gains for itself. The yearly celebration of Cordillera
Day on April 24 is also the Tinguian people’s recollection of their victorious “anti-Cellophil
struggle” and their equally successful resistance of Marcos’s Binongan River dam project.
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Religious Beliefs and Practices

The primary religion practiced by the Adasen Itneg is Roman Catholicism, the largest branch
of the Christian church and one of the oldest religious institutions in the world. Roman
Catholicism teaches that it is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ and that its bishops are
the successors of Christ.

Formerly, in Tinguian cosmogony, supernatural beings, collectively called anito, fall under
three general categories: spirits who have existed through all time, spirits of inferior rank which
are neither benevolent nor evil, and spirits of ancestors and other mortals who are invisible but
who may enter the bodies of shamans so that they can communicate with the living.

The Supreme Being is Bagatulayan, who lives and rules the celestial realm, directing its
activities. Kadaklan is a deity subordinate to Bagatulayan. He is a friendly spirit who teaches the
Tinguian how to pray, harvest their crops, ward off evil spirits, and overcome bad omens and
cure sicknesses. In this respect, he is also known as Kaboniyan. Kadaklan’s wife is Agemem,
who is the mother of their two sons, Adam and Baliyan. His dog Kimat, is the lightning, which
might bite a tree or strike a field or house as a reminder to the owner to celebrate the padiam
ceremony in his honor. Idayaya is the deity of the daya (east) who has ten grandchildren all
wearing in their hair the igam (notched feathers attached to a stick).

Sasailo are spirits that dwell in the natural surroundings, move among human beings, and
exert influence on events and activities in human society. There are good and evil sasailo. One
good spirit who dwells in the natural surrounding is Makaboteng, meaning “one who frightens,”
also known as Sanada, the guardian of the deer and the wild pigs. Sabian is the spirit-guardian of
dogs.

There is only one person who has the power and ability to communicate with the sasailo: the
alopogan (shaman), usually a middle-aged woman. In rituals of communication with the spiritual
world, the alopogan is possessed by the spirits who guide and inspire her words and her actions.
The alopogan presides in the various rituals and ceremonies held by the Tinguian.

It is the alopogan who knows which diam (ritual utterances) to use in order to win the favors
of the deities for whom the ritual is held. The sacrificial animal is either a pig or a chicken. A
mixture of blood-and-rice and sugarcane or rice wine are offered to the spirits, but most of the
meat and wine are served to the ritual participants. The shamans call upon the spirits to enter
their bodies; when thus possessed, the shamans are transformed into the spirits themselves and
they speak to the people as such, replying to queries and giving counsel.
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The Tinguian also build elaborate structures and employ various paraphernalia for the rituals
held to cure the sick and to honor the dead. The say-ang is the most important of their
ceremonies; it is observed during the construction of the balawa, the biggest anito dwelling used
for curing sickness and the performance of magical rites. At the entrance to the head takers’
village, each head was displayed on top of a sagang, an eight-foot-tall bamboo pole that was
sharpened to a point at the top end, to secure the head. A more elaborate holder for the head was
the saloko, also called salokang or sabut, a 10-foot tall bamboo pole, the top of which was cut
into vertical strips that were pressed open and interwoven with other strips to form a basket.
After three days, the village held a victory celebration, with neighboring villagers as guests. For
this festival, the heads were transferred from the village entrance to the site of the festival.

Christian conversion of the Tinguian began in 1730 through the process of forced resettlement
called reduccion. Presently, the Tinguian population is almost wholly Roman Catholic. A typical
example is the population of Abra’s northernmost municipality, Tineg, which consists of the
Tinguian subgroups of Adasen, Banao, Binongan, and Mabaca, with some Ilocano families
scattered over the area. The dominant ethnic group and language here is Adasen.

Distinctive Fashion

The first material used by the Tinguian for their clothing was the bark of trees, which they
used to fashion headbands, loincloth, and containers. With the introduction of cloth, Tinguian
weavers eventually produced the male suit called the ba-al (clout), worn together with the balibas
(woven shirt). On special occasions, a bado (long-sleeved jacket) is also worn with this suit. A
traditional headgear made from bamboo with a low dome-shaped top reminiscent of the lowland
salakot completes the male costume.

Both males and females practice body tattooing. Among women, tattooing of the arms
conceals the marks left when they remove the strands of beads covering their arms from elbow to
wrist (see logo of this article). The older generation of Tinguian women had themselves tattooed
on the arms, from the wrist to the shoulder, as well as on their faces.

Tinguian women wore several sets of beads: one around their hair paired with brass earrings,
one around their necks, and another around their wrists. Often, another set of beads was slung
over the shoulder and went under the armpits. A piece of jewelry that doubles as a charm to ward
off evil spirits is an ornament with an ambiguously carved animal figure.

Tremendous Folklore

Epic and Folktales

The Tinguian epic is chanted in the rice fields during harvest time to provide respite from the
monotony of work. It is also recited by the fire or hearth to entertain the weavers, the makers of
rope, or the shell polishers who make cups and bowls. Tinguian mythology contains a host of
characters who play out the relationships between the sky dwellers and the mortals on earth. The
Tinguian have their own version of the great flood, which is a universal myth.
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Some Tinguian fables share common motifs with those that are widespread throughout not
only the Philippines but also Southeast Asia, such as the tale of the trickster monkey and the
turtle who outwits him, and the tale of the race between the shell and the carabao. Fables that
seem to be of foreign or Ilocano origin are nonetheless rich in Tinguian customs and beliefs.

Traditional Music and Folk Songs

Tinguian music is an activity of communal life associated with the rituals of life and death.
The Tinguian have many types of musical instruments, as well as songs, which are shared with
neighboring Cordillera groups, particularly the Kankanaey, Kalinga, and Bontok. As in any
indigenous setting, there is an integral and harmonious performance of instrumental music, song,
dance, and ritual of a participatory nature.

Tinguian songs are generally of two kinds: declamatory songs and “known” songs. The
declamatory songs include balayugos, ngayowek, and oggayam, which are all improvised songs
of welcome and farewell, or songs that have something to teach. Tinguian songs are performed
in a variety of occasions. Most popular of Tinguian songs are the rice-pounding songs.
Ceremonial occasions such as weddings, funerals, and anniversaries require that rice be pounded
until they are well polished. The rice pounders, commonly women and young maids, sing these
songs in rhythm to the pounding of rice.

Folk Dances

Tinguian dances are performed in a variety of ceremonial occasions. Many dances are
performed in this feast, but the idudo is probably the most performed. It shows the roles of the
Tinguian couple in the cycle of production: the mother clears the field, pounds and cleans the
grains, while the father rocks his baby to sleep with a lullaby as he smokes. Other fathers have
their babies in their arms. It depicts Tinguian parents taking turns minding the baby as they do
their chores such as pounding and winnowing rice.

Practices and Rituals

The Philippine theater tradition is rooted in religious rituals, of which, for the Tinguian, there
are as many as the numerous parts of every phase of their life cycle. The principal actors in these
rituals are the alopogan or mandadawak.

An example of a healing ritual for a sick infant or a delicate pregnancy involves a banana
stalk sculpture of a child, wearing a bark headband, and standing on a mat by the shaman. The
illness-causing spirit, in the person of the shaman, takes the miniature bow-and-arrow and shield
hanging over the baby for protection against the spirits. She directs it at the banana-stalk figure,
and a tug-of-war ensues between her and a pair of elderly women, who win the contest. But the
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actors in this ritual now reverse their roles, with the elderly women trying to shoot the figure and
the shaman vainly trying to stop them. In this play, the sculptured form stands for the child,
which would have died if the spirit, through the shaman, had shot it with the arrow. In the second
part, the same banana-stalk figure is now the spirit’s own child, and so the spirit makes a hasty
exit when it sees its own child in danger.

Conclusion

Therefore, We finally embrace every aspect and richness of the Adasen Indigenous Group’s
heritage as we come to the end of our tour through their world. Their history, beliefs, culture, and
stories are alive traditions that should be honored and preserved; they are not merely a reminder
of the past. Let’s continue to respect and appreciate the Adasen while acknowledging the
significance of their distinctive culture within the rich content of the Philippines. This is not
something like an endeavor; rather, it is a commemoration of the tradition that has been passed
down through the years and a tribute to the fortitude of indigenous cultures from all around the
world.

References

Huang, J. (2021). Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics. Retrieved from

https://www.scribd.com/document/417153572/Understanding-Culture-Society-And-
Politics

Maranan, E. B. (2021) & Consing, M. P. Tinguian (Itneg) Tribe of the Philippines:

History, Culture, and Arts, Customs and Traditions [Indigenious People |Ethnic Group].
Retrieved from https://www.yodisphere.com/2022/09/Tinguian-Itneg-Tribe-Culture-
Traditions.html?m=1

Abaya, D. J.; De Vera, M. P.; & Bajet Jr., M. A. (April 15, 2011). Dialects, Beliefs, and
Practices of the Tinguians of Abra. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?
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