HANUNUO

The Hanunuo inhabit southern Mindoro

Island, particularly in the towns of Mansalay and San
Pedro, but some have relocated to the towns. This
tourist-friendly community of Hanunuo Mangyans
was developed by Antoon Postma. He is a Dutch
anthropologist and paleographer who has lived with
the Mangyans since 1965. Together with his wife,
Yam Ay, they worked together in documenting and
preserving the Mangyan heritage.

The Hanunuo People

Photo by: pinterest.com

Hanunuo means “genuine” or “true”. The

Hanunuo claims to be the true Mangyan because
for them they have preserved their old traditions

The Hanunuo People

Photo by: Franz Decena
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
The Hanunoo live on Mindoro, a Philippine island located just to the southwest
of the main island, Luzon.

The Hanunuo Mangyan live in the

municipalities of Mansalay, Bulalacao, and some
parts of Bongabong in Oriental Mindoro, and in
the municipality of San Jose in Occidental
Mindoro.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

The Hanunuos are fairly tall in

structure, and their bodies are slim and
well proportioned. They have oblique
eyes, flat nose, prominent cheekbone, flat
forehead, and olive skin. Men have their
custom of sporting a long braided hair in
the upper part of their head with the rest
of their hair cut short, if not shaved.
Women hang up their hair behind their
heads, sometimes held in place by a beaded band which serves as ornament. Their
hair is long and wavy.
 COSTUME
To the Hanunuo, clothing or rutay in their own term is one of the most
important criteria in distinguishing the Mangyan from the non-Mangyan. A Hanunuo
male wears a loin cloth called ba-ag and a shirt namely balukas. A female wears
an indigo-dyed short skirt called ramit, and a blouse which they call lambung. Many
of the traditional style shirts and blouses
are embroided on the back with a design
called pakudos, based on the cross
shape.
This design is also found on their
bags made of buri (palm leaf) and nito
(black fern), called bay-ong. Both sexes
used to wear a twilled rattan belt with
pocket (hagkos) at their waist. Long hair is
the traditional style for a man. It is tied in
one spot at the back of the head with a
cloth hair-band called panyo. Women
also have long hair often dressed with
headbands of beads. The Hanunuo
Mangyans of all ages and both sexes are
very fond of wearing necklaces and
bracelets of beads.

The Traditional Costume of Hanunuo

Photo by: Mangyan Heritage Center

BELIEF AND PRACTICES

One of the most common superstitions of the
Hanunuos is when you are going out, even if you’re
all dressed up and ready to go, you are not allowed
to leave your house once you heard the bird kulo-
kulo (Mindoro Bleedinh Heart) tweet or sing. You
should wait 1-2 hours before you go or else it is said
to believe that something bad will happen to you on
the way. The same goes with butiki (lizard) and tuko
(gecko).

Kulo-kulo
Photo by: Jacob Images
 During courtship, a young man convinces the
girl of his intension through the use of ambahan or the
traditional poetry of the Hanunuo Mangyans of Oriental
Mindoro. In between the recitations, he plays his subing,
a three-string guitar. Marriage plans including the dowry
are arranged by both parents. The actual wedding is
short, the greater part consists of admonitions and
advices dispensed by a magdadniw, a kind of minister.

The ambahan
Photo by: Mangyan.org

Subing
Photo by: asza,com

As most people marry within their

locality, they often have to wed cousins; this is
permissible after performing a cleansing ritual.
At first, most couples settle with the wife's
family, moving on only later. A set of brothers
is allowed to marry a set of sisters, and a
widow or widower is encouraged to marry
the sibling of the deceased spouse.
During merry making, the musical joust is participated in both sexes. Gitgit, Kudyapi,
Kinaban, and all string instruments , are usually played by men while those played
by women are the lantuy (a bamboo flute), taghup or tanghup (a whistle made out
of bamboo).

Gitgit. Kudyapi
Photo by: metmuseum.org. Photo by: tagaloglang

Kinaban Lantuy
Photo by: johnpalmes Photo by: bamboomusic.50webs

Hanunuos have two burial occasions. The first takes place after death. The second
after a year or two years when the bones have to exhumed. They believe in a
supreme being called Maha na Makaako who watches over them and loves them.
They also believe that their supreme being has a son called Presidents who executes
his father’s command. They also believe in evil spirits and immortality.

SOCIO-POLITICAL
Relation of the individual to the community is one dominated by the spirit of
cooperation and togetherness. They have no written laws. Whatever they have in
the form of laws has been handed down to them by their elders verbally in the
presence of an elder, a judge who decides the matter. Justice is then meted out to
the offending and the offended parties. Different offenses are given different
punishments.
Together with their northern neighbor the Buhids, the Hanuno posses a pre-Spanish
writing system , considered to be of Indic origin, with characters expressing the open
syllables of the langguage. This syllabic writing system , called Surat Mangyan, is
being taught in several Mangyan schools in Mansalay and Bulalacao.
Hanunuo Mangyans possess a system of writing which is a descendant of the
ancient Sanskirt Alphabet. In the Mangyan syllabary, there are eighteen characters,
three of which are vowels and the other fifteen characters are written combined
with those vowels. For writing the materials, they use the s/yawor a bob-shaped knife
for inscribing and the bamboo, either split or whole, with paper.

Mangyan Script
Photo by: pinterest.com
 SONGS AND DANCES
Patad-patad is an old dance from
Samar .Hanunuos have a dance which they call
taruc or patad-patad wherein they make the
same sound and harmony with the feet
stamping with some vigorous kicks to the striking
of a bell [agung). They strike this bell with a stick
called hotarac.

Hanunuos dancing Taruc

Photo by: Mangyan Society and
Culture Website

English Translation Filipino Translation

Don't be noisy, baby
H'wag ka ngang
dear!
magulo
The wild iro might come
May laog
here.
nanunubok
The one out of the deep
Mula gubat
woods.
susugod
How to fight him when he
Wala kitang
comes?
panghamok
Broken is our spear in
Sibat nati'y
two
napulpol
and our bolo
Itak ay anong purol
disappeared!
 My sweetheart, my love
so dear,
O liyag, aking hirang
when I left, in coming
Kanina nang
here,
lumisan
coming from my house
Galing sa 'king
and yard;
dingdingan
all the rice that I have
Palay na inanihan
stored,
Akin lang iniwanan
I have left it there
Hinangad kong
behind,
katuwang
because I hope here to
Di basta palay
find
lamang
one more valued than
Sa lakad sa ilog
my rice!
man
One to be my partner
Maging sa
nice
kaparangan
to the water, to the field,
Kaakbay ko saan
a companion on my
man
trips,
Kaabay sa higaan!
and one who will share
my sleep!

LIVELIHOOD
In the past they cultivated cotton trees
and from these obtained raw materials which
they wove in a crude hand loom called
harablon. The process of weaving was called
habilan , which starts with the gathering of
cotton balls and piling them to dry in a flat
basket (bilao) . Afterwards, the seeds are
removed and the cotton is placed on a mat
and beaten by two flat sticks to make it fine.
Next the cotton is placed inside a container
made out of banana stalks(binuyo) and woven.
Hanunuo Crafts made of banana stalks

Photo by: Jacob

 The Hanunuos practise swidden farming . This type of farming is different from
the kaingin system practised by the non-Mangyans which is often very destructive
when it is done with no proper safeguards to prevent the fire from spreading to the
surrounding vegetation. A fallow period is also observed so that the swidden farm
will revert back to forest. The Hanunuos managed their swidden farming skillfully.

RELIGION
The Hanunuo Mangyans have no definite religion but they tend to be animists. Some
of their beliefs are the spiritong nangangaso or hunter spirit and the spiritong
nangsisilo. (silo = noose) . The spiritong nangangaso is all about the spirits in the forest
who chases after you. This spirits have a spear or sibat which they believe if you got
hit by it , within 3 days you will die. Only the good spirits or familiar spirits can see
these wounds from the spear, since they are caused by bad spirits. The
nagmamarayaw, a village priest or tribal shaman who can talk to this “good” spirits
and asks the spirits about what happened and what they need to do to “heal”
these wounds and save the life of the Mangyans. While the spiritong nangangaso
waits in the rivers for people to pass by and that person would get sick before they
reach their final destination. When this happens, Hanuno Mangyans would say “
siloin ng masamang espiritu" or catch the bad spirits.They also believe in evil spirits,
spirits that eats people and spirits that shoots arrows. People affected by these soon
die.

HOUSE SETTLEMENT PATTERN

Being more stationary than the other

Mangyans, their houses are more permanent
structures made out of light materials, elevated up
to four or five feet from the ground, supported
bamboo posts or sturdy forest lumber and roofed
with nipa materials or cogon grasses. The whole
house is a big room used for sleeping, eating,
workroom ,etc.
Hanunuo Dwelings
Photo by: Jacob Images
REFERENCES:
Hanunoo.(2019).Ethnic Groups of the Philippines.Retrieved Nov. 13, 2019,From:
http://www.ethnicgroupsphilippines.com/people/ethnic-groups-in-the-
philippines/hanunoo/
Swidden Farming and Agricultural Change among the Hanunuo Mangyan.(1995).
Mangyan Heritage Center.Retrieved Nov. 13, 2019, From:http://Mangyan.org/
catalogue/735
The Hanunuo Mangyan.(2016).The Blogging Tortol.Retrieved Nov.13,2019, From:
https://thebloggingtortol.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/the-hanunuo-
mangyan/