Ilocano Tree Spirits Of The Northern Philippines

It was 37 degrees yeasterday and about 80 plus percent humidity. The humidity is never much below that, so the hotter it gets, the closer to unlivable it becomes. It was bearable as I lay under a tree in a hammock on my wife's sisters farm near Vigan, Ilocos Sur because I was under a tree. As the world warms, we owe trees more respect than we give them.

Across the Philippines in forests and especially around older buildings, massive Acacia trees can be found. Giants like these, with massive trucks that a dozen people can put their arms around, reach into the sky shading whole city blocks with the broad spread of their canopy. I often hear these refered to as trees where the spirits live and they are protected and given respect. I was told a story recently about a church that wanted to remove some of the old Acacia, but people objected because it would upset the spirits. Here, like in many communities with indigenous beliefs, there is a respect by Christian authorities for beliefs that go beyond what one might find in a Christian church in the U.S. There is an acceptance here that some American churches can learn from.

In the forests, those cutting trees are said to ask the permission of the spirits of the tree before cutting it down and apologize to avoid bad things happening. It is a relationship that respects the tree and the place and that is something missing in our modern approach to land and place. It makes me wonder what rent in the fabric of their worldview the Itneg people of Apao, Tineg we visited felt when their whole forest was stripped against their will by a corporation to make plastic wrap?  It is a microcosm of the essential struggle of our time.

Often when we go to places that are abandoned or into a forest area people speak the Ilocano term "Kayo Kayo Bari Bari" which is a phrase that is said to let the spirts know you mean no harm and are just passing through. I use it myself out of deference for things I don't know enough about to not believe in and to show respect for local traditions. It shows respect for a place and a relationship of deference to that place. 

The belief that the tree has a spirit is ahead of its time. It is only our mechanistic Western worldview that rejects the natural world as something we are in relationship with and not superior to. As science is discovering, trees are complex beings that communicate and live in intricate webs with the world around them; including us. What do they know that we don't? If we turn off our chain saws to listen and ask them, we may find out someday.

It is only right that we should show respect to the spirits of trees and the forest. Indigenous communities like the Ilocanos knew things that science is only just discovering. Having respect for a tree means you must have a relationship with it and show deference to it as a powerful being no different from yourself. Once you recognize that something is a being, it has rights and you have responsibilities and that is what we need to get back to.