Mysteries in Lamanoc Island         1

Running Head: EXPLORING MYSTIQUE ISLAND IN LAMANOC

Mysteries in Lamanok Island: Fact or Fiction?

Micah Bornea

Irish Tongco

Bianca Danica Diez

Doreen Pastrana

Marlyn Amora

Jolina Faye Munil

Ma. Katreena Serinas

Badiang Anda Bohol Philippines

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Abstract

The mystical island in Lamanoc where located in Anda is the farthest among the coastal barrios of the town, 98 kilometres from Tagbilaran. Lamanoc Island displays the beauty of unspoilt nature and rustic history and culture of early Andahanons. The name Lamanoc was derived from the practice of shamans in preparing for their rituals in Lamanoc Cave. They usually bring native chicken (manok) as the main offering to their gods. This practice still lives on until now. Though shrouded in mystery and myths the beauty of Lamanoc Island doesn’t irk tourists who keep visiting the place. Whatever the myths, the place remains an idyllic location for sandy beaches and crystal clear sea and diving haven. It has been a holy spot, where local priests and medicine men, called baylan or tambalan, made their offerings to nature spirits, or diwata who were believed to reside here, and where called upon to provide a bountiful harvest or good catch. These practices continued long after the Spanish had converted the islands to Catholicism, with people mixing their ancestral believes with the new teachings.

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Mysteries in Lamanok Island: Fact or Fiction?

Filipinos in the 21^st century still believe in Faith Healing. The notion that prayer, divine intervention or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness has been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to a myriad of techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing. For so many years investigators have studied this subject and written their findings. The babaylans in Filipino indigenous tradition is a person who is gifted to heal the spirit and the body; a woman who serves the community through her role as a folk therapist, wisdom-keeper and philosopher; a woman who provides stability to the community’s social structure; a woman who can access the spirit realm and other states of consciousness and traffic easily in and out of these worlds; a woman who has vast knowledge of healing therapies". As described by Leny Strobel

Spiritual interventions that pay homage to ancestral spirits were the usual rituals of babaylans. The rituals could be preventative or curative, and were designed to counteract the ill intent of the causative spirit. The rites were meant to empower the ill person against their affliction. As a preventative measure, the ritual can be seen as easing anxiety regarding any future attempts. As a curative measure, the ritual functions in much the same way: the ill person may feel relieved that actions are being taken to heal in a prompt and efficient manner. In these cases, the rights act as mental relief which increases the overall well being of the ill.

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Bantug in his book A Short History of Medicine in the Philippines During The Spanish Regime (1565-1898) there were "no authentic monuments have come down to us that indicate with some certainty early medical practices" regarding the "beginnings of medicine in the Philippines" a historian from the United States named Edward Gaylord Borne described that the Philippines became "ahead of all the other European colonies" in providing healthcare to ill and invalid people during the start of the 17th century, a time period when the Philippines was a colony of Spain.

In the hierarchy of Philippine alternative healers, faith healers belong to a separate category of 'specialization.' Their numbers are uncertain. A spirit’s group in the Philippines - the Union Espiritista Christiana de Filipinas - has an estimated 10,000 members trained in mediumistic-healing scattered throughout the Philippines However, the rural landscape is replete of stories of healers, saved from illness or death into sudden epiphanies to a healing craft, practicing in relative anonymity or hesitant burgeoning fame, their renown spreading through the grapevine of the rural faithful. Some started their healing craft as albularyos, medicos or hilots. Although their healing ways differ, they share an attribution of their healing power to a higher being often, a gift bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit; or, that they are merely healing mediums of the Holy Spirit. Most remembers a divine encounter, a mystical experience,  or in their childhood or early adult life, a spiritual possession or being "entered" by a being, and a life thereafter, being guided into the path of healing. Lamanok Island, From Tagbilaran City Bohol going to Anda approximately 100 km. Buses located at Dao Terminal.
This island 7km north of Anda proper has several anthropologically important caves

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paintings – made with bare hands – that date back tens of thousands of years. Travel 15 minutes by habal-habal or tricycle to the jumping-off point, where small boats bring you out to the island. On the island a small information centre will arrange your tour, which involves walking and canoeing through caves to see these ancient rock paintings as well as old dugout coffins and fossilised giant clams. In the Municipality of Anda website they describe the island as the mystical island of Lamanoc – Touted as the Cradle of Anda’s Civilization, Lamanoc Island displays the beauty of unspoilt nature and rustic history and culture of early Andahanons. According to the folklore, the name Lamanoc was derived from the practice of shamans in preparing for their rituals in Lamanoc Cave.  They usually bring native chicken (manok) as the main offering to their gods.  This practice still lives on until now.  RED HEMATITE ROCK HAND PRINTS – Lamanok point, Badiang, Anda, Bohol.  Some tourists and archeologists say that this wall exhibits unusual markings that would probably connote the writing of prehistoric people inhabited in this area.  A significant place to visit in Anda, the rock painting is located in an isolated place and inaccessible except by boat or on foot. The streaks in the cave are hematite paintings from the blood of animals; while the white color comes from gypsum or diatomaceous earth. Pigments are mixed with water, animal fat or plant juices to prepare the paint; then the mixture is applied through fingers or animal tails.
The cave is a favourite ritual site for shamans or faith healers during holy week. It had been an old burial place of Boholanos ancestors. Lamanoc Island takes its name from chickens. White chickens, to be exact, that were used by shamans as sacrifice to the spirits or diwatas.

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Method

Participants

            A total of 14 female students who were enrolled in a Filipino psychology course at University of Bohol participated in this research study. Where we explore the mystical island.

Materials

            We use camera, recorder, pen, and notebook. For taking down the important details of what Mang Fortunato has elaborated to us.

Procedure

            For this research, upon our arrival at Lamanoc Island our tour guide Mang Fortunato a very informative explained us the story of the mystical Island. Surprisingly brims with so much history and folklore. Archaeological artefacts discovered in the island reveal a thriving ancient civilizalation residing in the region of Bohol, since the Stone Age or Palaeolithic period.   First we’ve take a short walk on a bamboo path or boardwalk over a mangrove to the ocean and then it has a relaxing boat ride to the island with the lonesome parcel of limestone that surrounded by shallow waters. As a matter of fact, when the tide is low, it’s possible to wade in the water and reach the island on foot. For convenience, however, tourists reach the island in 10 minutes by paddle boat from a jetty at the end of a 310-meter boardwalk that cuts through a lush mangrove forest from the access road. When visiting Lamanoc Island, visitors are

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asked to respect the sacred site by keeping voices low and avoid horse play, unless you want to disturb the spirits that reputedly reside on the island, while asking the question to the boatmen about the mystical history of the Island in fact it applied the Katutubong Pamamaraan ng Pananaliksik such as Pakikipagkwentuhan, Patanong-tanong, Pakikiramdam, Pakikisama, and Pagmamasid. Using this methods we the researcher gained more information about the Mystical Island in the other hand; it is called the “sacred place of the spirits” where believed that faith healers or shamans can only  communicate the spirits through diwata ritual offerings and ask for safety of every tourist who wish to visit in the island. And through Pakikipagkwentuhan we have experience goose bumps because Mang Fortunato explained to us about the supernatural sightings that are not rare. He further adds that we were lucky our cameras actually worked while inside the cave, as they have been numerous occasions when his guest’s cameras malfunctioned after stepping inside the cave.

Results and Discussion

                        A mystical tour in Lamanoc Island,  The researchers conclude that, Lamanoc Island is not just a beautiful nature spot, where you can see various types of plants, animals, including some indigenous, but also it has a long mystical history attached to it, a widespread spiritual belief in which spirit of nature. This island is generally made up of limestone and the terrain.  In fact, it has been called the sacred place of the spirit. Since pre-colonial times a holy spot, where local priest and medicine

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men. Analogously baylan or tambalan, made their offerings to nature spirits, shamans or diwata, who were believed to reside here.

            A local guide, Mang Fortunato, was already explaining things to the researcher as they arrived. Lamanoc Island takes its name from chickens. White chickens, to be exact, that were used by shamans as sacrifice to the spirits or diwatas. The island is mystical, as he says. Trying to be as quiet as we can so as not to disturb the spirits living in the island, the researcher filed one by one through a narrow trail that leads upwards and opens to one of the five known caves in the island. At its mouth, pieces of secondary burial coffins known as lungons and old broken earthenware jars lay; ransacked by bandits of old, believing them to contain gold only to find skeletal remains inside. On the other hand, Mang Fortunato together with the researchers walked some steps more and came to a limestone wall smeared with a red substance. There were stories that these were blood smears from pirates massacred by angels. But from a study made, the stains were actually hematite or red iron oxide, a substance found in the nearby hills of Katipunan. The hematite paintings as they are dubbed are said to be the work of ancient Stone Age people living in the area. Up to now, no one knows what the paintings symbolize, only that they were smeared by hand. Every once in a while, they’ve pass shells of giant clams, which were believed to be used as vessels for offerings by old Boholanos baylan. Adding to the mystery of the island, Lamanoc was once said to shelter to a local witch named Ka Iska. It was said that she fled to one of the caves in the island as the townsfolk started persecuting her. From the story the

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researcher’s gather from the local guide, they never did find her body. But the real mystery of Lamanoc Island hides behind the cave named after the island itself. It is said

Those diwata rituals are still performed here by local babaylans, offering chickens to the spirits for bountiful harvests.  Supernatural sightings by visitors are not rare, the local guide relates. He further adds that we were lucky our cameras actually worked while inside, as they have been numerous occasions when his guest’s cameras malfunctioned after stepping inside the cave.

            On the other hand, every good Friday culturally itself they are arrived in to shaman area just to have a ritual in order to renew their power as a healer. Very productive one, it is recognized as a “cradle of civilization” in the province, the uninhabited of Lamanoc (sometimes spelled Lamanok) in Anda, Bohol. As for today, Lamanoc Island is still considered to be mystical for some reason. The stories about witchcrafts and some haunting spirits are still widespread and there are also some locals that can testify about the mystery surrounding the island. But for us who were just visited the island for once remains a question, is it a fact or just a fiction?