Warm bodies and cold nights in the Cordillera

CORDILLERA'S nights are no longer

as chilly as in the past weeks. But

lowlanders are wondering how Igorot

upland folk, particularly those at the

peaks of Cordillera's mountain ranges, are keeping their bodies

warm during the cold nights.

Eskimos can sleep the icy nights away by sleeping naked side

by side with the rest of the family under a leather-with-fur

blanket inside their igloo.

Igorot folk also share blankets during cold nights, a practice

that Benguet's Kankanaey folk call bindayang.

Unlike the Eskimos, however, the Kankanaeys do not undress

but would rather put on more clothes before lying under the

blankets.

Under the bindayang, two family members of the same gender

(brother-brother or sister-sister), would double up or combine

their blankets and embrace each other, sharing body warmth as

the chilly Siberian winds creep into their grass-thatched home.

This practice of sharing body warmth, called sak-kob, is usually

done by children or unmarried siblings.

Of course, a man and his wife also practice sak-kob. They are

joined in by the youngest un-weaned child. What a couple does

beyond sak-kob is another story.

Kankanaey children also keep their bodies warm by wrapping

themselves with jute or nylon sacks, aside from a blanket or two

that they share through the bindayang. A sack can be big

enough to accommodate two small children.

One-room affair

The typical Benguet Kankanaey home with grass roof and wood

or reed walls is a one-room hut where family members dine,

share stories and riddles, and sleep. The floor, which is either

made of wood or reeds, is raised three to four feet above the

ground.

At bedtime, the floor is swept of dirt and a big mat is spread.

During cold nights, the mat is reinforced with old blankets or

carton boxes. Up to this day, many upland folk are too poor to

buy foams or mattresses.

Helping give heat to the homes of many Igorot folk is their

kitchen stove called dapeng or dapengan, which is also set up

inside the single-room house.

To build the foot-high dapeng, soil is placed in one corner of

the house where three hard stones called dakilan are placed.

Each side of the rectangular or square dapeng is protected with

thick lumber or round wood to keep the soil and ashes from

spilling into the floor.

Like a double-burner gas range, two sets of dakilan can be put

up to allow the family to build two fires and to accommodate

two pots.

Today, some homes would rather have only two stones, on top

of which two parallel iron or steel bars are placed. This new

dakilan has space for three or four pots.

At early dawn, usually at the second crow of the rooster, the

mother or father builds a fire from dry firewood and start

cooking ange or pigs' food, which consists usually of sweet

potato, yam, banana stalks and camote vines.

The fire helps heat the house when it gets chilly at dawn. Some

children are up by then and gather around the fire to fix the

firewood and keep their cold-numbed fingers and toes warm.

Kitchen fire

Keeping warm around the kitchen fire is called anido by

Benguet Kankanaey folk.

Usually, an early morning guest during the cold season is

invited for anido and for a cup of hot coffee or mountain tea.

To help heat the house the whole night, some families keep

pieces of hard wood burning through a technique called lub-on.

A portion of the unburnt wood is buried in ashes to slow down

the burning. For safety, the wood must be short enough not to

exceed the dapeng's edge.

The dapeng stove has other uses. Three to four feet above it is

a suspended shelf or rack made of reeds or bamboo called

su-u-an, where rice and other grains are dried.

In fact, the whole ceiling of the house is a su-u-an, where

unhusked rice and other grains are stored. Because of the

smoke from the kitchen fire, the stored grains are free of beetles

or bokbok.

The su-u-an just above the kitchen stove is used to heat palay

(unhusked rice) or pagey, which must be immediately dried so

that it can be pounded for the next meal.

The traditional Benguet and other Igorot houses may be small

and simple, but they serve many purposes, such as for dining,

cooking, sleeping and stocking food for the lean months.

But while it may be foggy and chilly outside, no baby would cry

and die from the cold inside an Igorot village home.