Praying in the Local Language

Dr. Anongos starting the Tukab ceremony at the BSU Centennial celebration, Cultural Night.  Photo Credit: BSU ICT Personnel (Estimber/Donly/Hamshu)

I heard someone joke that if we pray in the English language, the blessing might fall in the USA or any of the countries where English is the native language.  I think the idea behind this yarn is that the prayer would be more straight from the heart if it were in the language very much close to the one praying.

A recent activity here at Benguet State University, which is celebrating its Centennial Year, was a Cultural Night.  Dr. Stanley Anongos, the Director of the university's Center for Culture and Arts, found it appropriate that prayers said in local languages be part of the program.  It will be performed as a ceremony following the Tukab rite.  Tukab is a practice common to many Cordillerans.  As I understood it from him, it is a ceremony before opening jars filled with wine to be served to people gathered on certain occasion.  It is called Duhat in the Ibaloi parts of Benguet, Tukab or sometimes pronounced as Tekab in the northern part of Benguet and the Mt. Province or Tukab and Huap or Tukab in parts of Ifugao.

Dr. Stanley asked me to be among those who would say a prayer in my Ifugao-Tuwali language.  I had some hesitations - first, the university have elders and I believed that Tukab performance is more appropriate to elders, and second, I have stage fright and the ceremony was to be performed in view of fellow employees and students.  But my reason couldn't prevail as I too believed on his advocacy of cultural preservation.  In the end, I have to prepare something to say.

Here was the piece I prepared, in the Ifugao-Tuwali language (a rough English translation followed):

He’an Maknongan an emi pangidawdawatan

Ituwen emi amamlongan, aam-amungan

He’an Naabbaktun Mangitudtudu

Alpuwan di anammin an laing ya udbagi timpu

Uddudhungan da’mi ni’ bahan

Wagaham hituwen punihkulan

An emo teyya natawotawonan

Hinggatut di mabilang

Adi kuma mipulpullang

Ya adi matawwanan

Hana ta hantu da’en buhi

Adi matchu’ adi miwili

Ha’ey mika’ut hinan luta

Humalungabngabda ya bumunga

Ta da’min tatagu ya mid umulhi

Hana daen mangipaput an empleyadu

Mipaputda ya mapromotedah ngunu

Hanadaen munpunihkul

Pumasa dan maid miikul

Ta hanat annamin ya mibakbaktu

Bot-on dah’mi pamhod

Ta imimiy emi iliod

Di’et on ami tumokpa

Laing mu kumay alpuwana

Ta mumbalin on linggop, maid magod

English translation:

To You our God, to whom we offer

This our happiness, our gathering

You who is the Highest Teacher

Source of Wisdom, and Owner of Time

We implore you look down upon us

Bless this school

Which has advanced in years

Hundred now is the count

So it won’t be forsaken

Nor taken for granted

And we do hope that this jars

Will not run dry nor thrown away

And things we dig into the soil

That it will be robust and bear fruit

So no one would get stiff

Our hope for hardworking employees

That they’ll be cared for and get promoted

And our hope for our student

That they be passed and no one left behind

So that everyone will be able to rise

Bind us in your Love

So it would be smiles that we bring around

And should we spit out

Let it be from your Wisdom

So it would become peace and no one gets hurt

However, in the actual performance, it was probably my stage fright that overwhelmed me - perhaps due to the large audience and I was in an attire I liked wearing but I was not used to - that my tongue did not get the rhyme of my supposed second line.  And as I was thinking of which lines to succeed, I totally forgot my rhymes and eventually the rhythm that I have to device spontaneity.  The result was that something I was supposed to say in a minute took a longer time,

I still think that my companions (five of them) and I were able to deliver the CCA director's idea. Some colleagues said positive critique of it.  

There's just one feedback that made me ponder a little more.  Someone said, why do we have to bring pagan practices back?  I understood the comment upon the belief that the culture of our ancestors is in conflict with the present Christian faith.  I have not snapped back to the person who said it but in my mind, I believed that practices of olden times such as Tukab can be Christianized.

And if blessings will be granted, I believe that it will befell the Cordilleras because it was said in the local languages.