‘Antoway’: Bontoc’s unique mourning for the dead at risk of dying

MANILA, Philippines—Like every night, it was silent in a community in Bontoc, Mountain Province on Oct. 15, except for a house where an 87-year-old matriarch died, as people, most of them elders of Barangay Bontoc Ili, sang Luisa Tafaleng the antoway.

Tafaleng, who died on Oct. 13, was well-regarded in the community that depended on her “sacrifices,” which people believed was the reason they had great palay yields over the years.

“She did not eat fish, not even beef. She did not go out often, either,” Rosa Angannoy told INQUIRER.net as she described how Tafaleng lived a life of service to the people of Bontoc even when it required her to disregard her self-interest.

According to 67-year-old Angannoy, Tafaleng had lived her life to the fullest. “There is no doubt,” she said, pointing this as the reason they sang her the antoway, which is a chant performed when someone of old age dies.

She said that the antoway is chanted when the deceased is 70 years or older, as the chant is in itself joyous, explaining that in singing the antoway, they are celebrating a life well-lived.

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According to research conducted by Santino Tangilag, an instructor at the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC), antoway is a chant for those who died of natural causes, like illness.

However, this chant is not to be performed if the parents, or one of the parents, of the deceased is still alive, even if the person who died was of old age, as they believe that there is no reason for parents, or a parent, to celebrate the death of their child.

As Tangilag stated, with antoway, the people celebrate the death of a person because he or she had lived her life to the fullest, with one elder saying that “the life lived by someone of old age should be celebrated in joy even in death.”

But there is more to antoway.

‘Take with you our prayers’

Angannoy said that while they celebrate the life of the dead in antoway, they sing their prayers out, too, hoping that the “father” will hear them as they believe that the deceased, like Tafaleng, will take with her their prayers.

“Like last night, as I led the antoway, we told her to ask the ‘father’ to give us someone who is willing to be as dedicated as her,” she said in Ilocano as she explained that antoway has no fixed lyrics.

“We base the lyrics on what we are asking her, like for Barangay Bontoc Ili’s palay or for one of her children who is in Baguio City to receive medication,” Angannoy said. “Last night, we asked her, as well, to pray that we would reach old age, too.”

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She said that this is why antoway is done as a group, stressing that it is really important that they sing their prayers out together, especially since what they are asking the deceased is for the well-being of everyone, too.

“With antoway, we are like singing our prayers until the wake ends,” Angannoy said, adding that on the last night of the wake on Oct. 15, they sang for five to six hours.

All of them stood and sang in a festive mood, she said.

Anako, in contrast to antoway, is a chant performed when someone died young, with an in-ina, or an old woman crying out with sorrow over a life that ended but not yet lived to the fullest.

Bound by love, care

Tangilag pointed out that in Bontoc, a parent is not only a parent to his or her children but of other children, too, so it is believed that those left behind, related by blood or not, can seek the departed’s guidance.

This, as with antoway, it is believed that when a person dies, he or she will bring all of the people’s wishes to the “father”, especially requests for the bereaved and everyone in the barangay.

He said that antoway is like the Gregorian chant used by Catholics when praying to God: “It is the communication of the people [of Bontoc] with the sacred one as Christians would communicate with the ‘father’ above.”

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According to a study of some of Bontoc’s songs, like the antoway, which was conducted by Jonnelle Fagsao, who is from the MPSPC, too, the songs highlight “spirituality, love and relationships, and lamentations.”

As Tangilag stressed, it is a privilege when one is sang the antoway, where an elder chants one phrase, like an intention or narration, and the rest reiterates what he or she has said.

Angannoy said that with antoway, they express their love for the departed and the bereaved, and seek help from the “father” through the intercession of the one who died.

“We hope that she’ll bring our prayers to the ‘father’,” she said.

‘Don’t let this die’

As Angannoy said, she has been singing the antoway for over 50 years already, starting when she was just 13 years old. Now, she is worried that in the next few years or decades, antoway would disappear.

This, as she said that only a few young people are taking part, or engaging, every time they are singing in a wake, indicating that most, if not all, have lost interest. “I don’t know if the next generations would still sing the antoway.”

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“Now, most people here in Bontoc already have a hymnal, which they are using when singing in a wake,” she said as she called on young people to start immersing themselves when the elders perform the antoway.

“So that this won’t die,” she said.

Bontoc, which has 16 barangays has a population of 24,716, and as pointed out by Angannoy, only Bontoc, which is one of the towns of Mountain Province, has this ritual for the dead.

“We tell the young that with antoway they can have someone be with them at the wake of their father or mother, so they should not let this disappear. We tell them to understand what antoway is and that they should already learn how to do it,” she said.