THE RITUAL FOR BURYING the dead in Sagada, Mt. Province, is a bit of a sport requiring agile legs and strong arms. Tommy Hafalla discovered this while photographing the death and burial of Lakay Sumbad, 86.

When the price of liquefied petroleum gas shot up, Lakay used firewood to cook. He climbed trees to get the branches he needed. One day, he lost his footing, fell and broke his back. He was bedridden for a year until he weakened and died.

For three days, Lakay sat on a death chair, a practice called the sangadil. It is believed that a person is still mingling with the living until after the third day.

Friends and kin chanted around the corpse, imploring him not to return and scare the children, assuring him not to be sad. They clapped and beat tin cans, creating a joyous noise. They asked Lakay to greet those who went ahead whom he should consider allies.

The night-long storytelling about the dead?s life, including comic moments, is called the baya-o.

Visitors ate three meals a day. On these occasions, at least 18 pigs are butchered. If the dead is a member of the kadangyang (nobility), 21 butchered pigs is the norm.

No embalming

Wrapping the dead took place near the hearth. Hafalla shot the process using light from a small window. There was no embalming.

Lakay was put back into a fetal position. If the dead couldn?t be bent, his back was broken so he could be folded and fitted into a small, homemade coffin of less than five feet long and with his name scrawled on it.

If the coffin?s lid couldn?t close, the men stomped on it and tied it so there won?t be a gap.

Lakay?s hut is two kilometers away from Echo Valley?s cliffs where Sagada?s coffins are hung. For the past 70 years, the caves and crevices in the town have been filled so the coffins are put high on the cliffs so they could not be disturbed by humans and animals.

Funeral run

The men built a temporary scaffold to hoist the coffin. Before that, they ran with the coffin?it wasn?t a stately funeral march.

If Lakay?s bodily fluids dripped on a shirtless coffin carrier?s body, his good traits reportedly flowed to that man. So the men ran and tried to grab the coffin throughout the stretch of rolling terrain as though they were trying to ?steal? a basketball. There was blessing in death.

Hafalla?s ?Cliff Hanger? was chosen in the traditional rite category at the recent Humanity Photo Award in Guangzhou. He was the only Filipino placer among 110 awardees from around the world.