Ancient ‘Ulahingan’ epic now digitally preserved

DUMAGUETE CITY — After more than 50 years, the precious recordings of the Ulahingan epic have been digitized for posterity and are now under the care of the Silliman University Library.

The epic, which was recorded by the late Divinity School faculty member Dr. Elena Maquiso in the 1960s, originates from the Arumanen and Livunganen Manobo tribes from Cotabato City. From old tapes, the recordings were made into digital files and are now placed in a hard drive at the library’s Filipiniana section.

The digitization of the epic was made possible through a partnership with the Ayala Foundation (AFI), an entity devoted to preserving precious local historical artifacts. With the help of AFI, a sound engineer from the United States was tasked to remaster and convert the half-a-century-old recordings into mp3 files.

“This is helpful both for scholars and the public in general,” College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Earl Jude Paul Cleope told GMA News Online, adding that the digitization of the Ulahingan will be useful for future scholars and those interested in local history, as the recordings are considered “cultural gems.”

Cleope also said that the next phase in the preservation of the Ulahingan is the resumption of the epic’s translation. Maquiso originally intended to make ten volumes of books dedicated to the translation of the epic, but she was able to publish only five following her death in 1995.

Cleope said he published a sixth edition between 2006 and 2007, and he intends to finish producing the remaining volumes with the help of Rev. Samaon Bangcas, the student who introduced Dr. Maquiso to the Ulahingan.

“Preserving the Ulahingan is very, very crucial to the preservation of Philippine history, especially now that the Manobo is both a threatened language—only a few people understand and speak it—and an endangered tribe that lives in a very dangerous place where the tribe members contend with rebel groups and bandits,” Cleope told GMA News Online.

Derived from the root word ulahing or “to chant,” the Ulahingan is an oral history of the Manobo tribes, recounting their struggles and journey to paradise through chanting. It tells of the tribes’ origins and experiences from the colonial period of the Spaniards and Americans up to the present. — AT, GMA News