Sunggod Teh Kamanga Festival brings Manobo traditions to life in Bukidnon

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For the Manobos of Quezon, Bukidnon, the annual event serves as a connection to their ancestors, and their way of reaffirming that their culture, though battered, lives on to this day

QUEZON, Bukidnon – A man teeters on bamboo stilts, towering over the throng below, his balance precise, his expression determined. Around him, other Manobos move to the pulsing rhythm of drums and bamboo instruments, their colorful garments a striking contrast against the scorching pavement. 

It was the start of the Sunggod Teh Kamanga Festival held on Monday and Tuesday, February 17 and 18, where the tradition in Bukidnon lives and breathes in every ritual and dance.  Sunggod teh kamanga is literally translated as “feeding the whetstone.”

Every year, the Manobo indigenous people of Quezon, Bukidnon, gather to celebrate a ritual as old as their ancestors. The Sunggod Teh Kamanga, although a spectacle, is an assertion of identity, a moment when the indigenous community — often pushed to the peripheries — takes center stage to show their culture.

FESTIVAL RITUAL. Two Manobo elders sacrifice a chicken during the Sunggod Teh Kamanga Festival in Quezon, Bukidnon. Froilan Gallardo/Rappler

Quezon Mayor Pablo Lorenzo III said the annual event is significant, especially for the Manobo minority. Accounting for only 10% of the town’s 109,624 residents, the Manobos have long depended on nomadic, slash-and-burn farming in the mountains skirting Bukidnon and Davao. 

For many of them, the annual festival is one of the few opportunities for them to publicly express and show a way of life that is rapidly changing.

“They give their best showcase in this festival and it gives them pride to show their culture,” Lorenzo said, watching as hundreds of Manobo schoolchildren danced barefoot under the noonday sun on Monday.

The annual festival is a deep well of tradition in Quezon where competitions are organized to feature the bag-id ha kagtubo, a fire-building contest, and “Galing hu bato hu Kamala,” where participants grind corn with stone tools. 

BALANCING ACT. A Manobo on bamboo stilts participate in the Sunggod Teh Kamanga Festival in Quezon town, Bukidnon. Froilan Gallardo/Rappler

There’s also the kagpana, the skillful use of bow and arrow, and kag bulawit, the throwing of spears. Each event ties the present to a past where survival depended on these skills.

Some of the most solemn moments this week took place away from the crowds, in rituals that marked the start of the planting season.

There, Manobo elders sacrificed a chicken, its blood sprinkled onto farming tools in a centuries-old tradition meant to ensure a bountiful harvest. 

Every detail matters — the position of the chicken’s body, the way its blood pools on the earth.

Lyle Justin Egay, chief of the Quezon public affairs and information office, explained, “Everything in the festival is symbolic and has great meaning for the elders who even take note of exactly where the sacrificed chickens would fall to the ground.”

BLOODY RITUAL. A Manobo elder sprinkles blood of a sacrificed chicken on agriculture implements during the Sunggod Teh Kamanga Festival in Quezon, Bukidnon. Froilan Gallardo/Rappler

Since its inception in 2009, the Sunggod Teh Kamanga Festival has served as both a cultural celebration and an act of defiance against erasure.

Lorenzo said organizers ensured authenticity, and that the dances and traditional games remain true to their roots.

This requirement gives the festival more meaning for the Manobos wanting to have space to show their culture, he said.

But for the Manobos who took part in this year’s Sunggod Teh Kamanga, it was a connection to their ancestors, and their way of reaffirming that their culture, though battered by time and modernization, lives on to this day. – Rappler.com