Marie posted her experience when she went up to Buscalan Village in the mountain province to get a tattoo from Whang Od. For those who do not know, Whang Od is 92 years old and she is the last Kalinga tattoo maker, according to specialists this practice is about a thousand years old. Getting a tattoo from her shows that you value tradition or their tribes culture. Though, it is not that case anymore according to Marie.
Photo from Christopher Newsom
Whang Od has become a sensation and people from all walks of life come to get a tattoo from her. She says that tour guides exploit Whang Od, tourists were not disciplined, hundreds line up to get a tattoo from Whang Od and she feels that she will die of exhaustion from this as she cannot even take a good break to eat her meal.
KALINGA BROTHERS and SISTERS. A CALL TO STOP THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF OUR CULTURE…MY STORY BEHIND THE “WHANG OD SENSATION…My husband n I recently came from buscalan tinglayan to experience the uniqueness of cordilleran culture and express our love for it. We were wishing to have our tattoos for us to promote love for indigenous culture, as we have been doing for the past years. But to our dismay, the 3-day experience angered us as we have witnessed a desecration of culture.
The famous “whang od” legend as we have known it has been corrupted both by villagers and tourists. These are our experiences:
1. One should bring thousands of pesos when going there because everything has a high tag–p1,000/day for a tour guide but u need to stay there for at least 2 nights so minimum of p2,000; p300/person/night accommodation; meals paid to your host depending on what you want to eat; tattoo minimum of p500 for the smallest size—mine cost p8,000 for half an arm. P50 per “tinik” to be used for tattooing. Altogether we spent around p18,000 for the 3 day stay plus diesel. We needed to stay for 3 days because of the line of people to be tattooed.
Next issue: villagers who became tour guides are fighting over tourists, fighting over priority lines for their clients to be tattooed. We really felt greed among them. They all depend on this as their main income. When whang od dies (god forbid), they will all loose jobs. Next: the number of tourists is uncontrollable. People flock around whang od, fight for their turn to be tattooed, take pictures with whang od…sometimes leaving whang od with little air. When we were there, she and grace, her grand daughter, were exhausted for weeks of tattooing hundreds of visitors. They could not stop as the tour guides keep insisting that their guests have to have tattoos. Both of them could not even get a decent time to eat. I never saw anyone offer them meals or snacks and stopped them to rest.
Next: tattoos had no more meaning..these became just plain tattoos. Designs were drawn on a piece of wood and people just chose what tattoo they want. There were no descriptions. After being tattooed, whang od would inform the guest of the price for the tattoo and collects the payment…now this was the point for me to really get so bothered. I realized…CULTURE is now FOR SALE!!! I wanted to cry at that point.
Next: most of the tourists lacked discipline entering the village. Ladies came in their “pekpek” shorts, sexy outfits, etc. i saw a young couple having sex in the room just above the tattooing area!!! We met young groups who had marijuana during their stay. Trash all over the place. Children asking money or candy from tourists. Oh my!!! It was all a circus!!! The biggest issue…whang od is no doubt old…what could happen if these uncontrollable situations continue? Before we left the guides said that buses of tourists have booked for the long vacation because of the APEC summit. How i wish i could protest at that instant. How could they not realize what they are doing to whang od and to their village. I am sorry to say but whang od will not die of old age…she will die of exhaustion. As for me, i had my tattoo in protest of all of these. One young tourist asked me…”trip niyo po talagang magpatattoo?” I got insulted really…so j replied “no…not at all. But I am doing this to show love and advocacy for the passing of tradition. I love my country and i walk my talk.”
PLEASE…HELP ME IN THIS ADVOCACY… WHANG OD IS BECOMING AN ILLUSION, A DUMMY OF COMMERCIALIZATION. SHe SHOULD BE A LEGACY OF THE BEAUTY OF OUR CULTURE. Please pass if you support this advocacy.
What do you think of this? Has it really turned out to be this way?
it is good that you brought this up. you have a point, but…..
i actually laughed reading the prices listed! i understand that you can afford it but what the hell, you really spent that much? haha
plus, what i noticed when i was there was you cannot make Apo Whang Od do things she dont wanna do. sometimes she makes fun of people “pupunta ka dito para mag patattoo, ang liit naman ng gusto mong ipatattoo (in butbut dialect)” and she actually dont do it if she dont want to or if she thinks you dont deserve being inked, she may or would just pass it to Grace. and sometimes you wont see Grace in the “Kubo” specially when it is ALDUB time, she’s a big fan…can you do it in your office?
when you see them exhausted, it is maybe because they want to work hard, not because they are being forced to.
yes Apo Whang Od is old and needs rest. but i think she loves what she do. she is the LAST first-gen mambabatok. she will die as one.
oo hindi macontrol pag punta ng turista doon but people there are kind and hospitable. they like tourists specially the kind ones. and just smiling at them is not kind enough…help them with their chores if you can. like washing ALL the dishes, yours and theirs. cleaning the WHOLE house not just only the room where you sleep. COOK them food that they dont usually have chance to eat (mahirap ang gulay sa kanila dahil sa mga peste, 8hrs na pagakyat at 8hrs na pagbaba ang kelangan nilang gawin para makakuha ng petchay, mag baon ka ng mga gulay na pwede mong iluto). at magbaon ka ng damit na pwede mo nang iwan para ibigay sa kanila, masaya sila sa simpleng damit, gagaan pa dala mo pag pababa ka na.
and your issue about the kids and the candies…what the! pumunta ka sa lugar nila, tapos ngingitian mo lang sila? baka snob ka pa? candy lang, wala sila sa lugar na maraming candy, langit ang candy para sa mga bata, lalo na sa mga bata doon.
you’ve been there yet you still dont know how it works up there. that is sadder than what you are pointing at.
pero naki sawsaw ka pa din dun sa mga tinutukoy mong nang e-exploit, nag pa half arm ka pa kahit ang haba na nga ng pila, at ngayon nag re-reklamo ka pa. concerned ka ba talaga sa commercialization and culture rape? o dahil mahaba ang pila ng mga naka pekpek shorts at na rip off ka ng mga tour guide? ay sus!
Firstly, Whang Od is already in her mid 90’s. 95? 96? A month ago lang kami nagpunta ng mga kaibigan ko sa Busculan and we stayed in Cordillera for almost a week dahil stranded kay bagyong lando. Pero hindi naman ganito kalaki ang binayaran namin.
200 ang tattoo ng kaibigan ko. 800 sa akin (inner arm tattoo 4 inches) tapos nung binigyan ko si Grace ng 1000, parang nahiya pa siyang tanggapin. May libro din doon ng tattoo designs and meanings na pwedeng hiramin. Where did it go?
Marijuana is legal in buscalan. The sex part, huh. . . But yeah, open ang tribo sa ganun. I have nothing to say with that.
Masaya ang experience namin doon kasi nakipag kwentuhan kami sa locals. Nakipag bonding. Uminom ng kape. Like it’s a part of our daily lives. At kaunti lang kami. This month and the next is peak season. Kung gusto ng kapayapaan, never go there when there’s holiday break in Manila. Siguradong marami talagang tao.
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About whang od and grace being exhausted, well. . . If no one bothered to give them snacks or atleast ask if they’re tired already. Did you?
WE FULLY AGREE ON THIS COMMENT… credit to miss LMV
I agree… most actually exaggerated.(sorry cant move on. :D)
1. My friend got the smallest size tattoo for 300 pesos only. Not 500.
2. I dont think it would be too crowded since there are just a few houses that can be rented. And i dont think people would fight for their turn…respect is highly practice on that village.
3. We spent 2,500 per night for one room. We were like 10 people at that time so 250 each. Fair enough instead of sleeping somewhere else. We had spent as well for our food. We had brought some canned goods and let the people cook for us(specially the rice). We paid them some amount(sorry i forgot the amount) for the service.. our way of saying thank you.
4. Children were asking for some candies. True…but this is just “paglalambing” as their big brothers and sisters… you may opt to give them or just smile at them. I actually regret going there without something to give to them. My friend does actually.
5. Your tattoo is i think fair enough for 8k. Its cheaper compared to having that here in manila. It’s big and whang od usually count the mountains, rivers and other objects.you should have ask first how much would it cost.by the way, how long did it take to finish?
Maybe.. thats one of the reasons why you have to stay for more than 1 night?
6. Going there for me is priceless. Having a traditional tattoo from that tribe is priceless. And that makes my tattoo sacred at all. And that i would say culture is not for sale!
7. Whang od and grace have always the time to rest and eat. If they dont want to do tattooing, we cant force them to do so. They wont be able to do tattooing if they will not rest and eat.
8.what makes you say that tattoos have no meaning for people going there? Does it mean you had your tattoo without knowing its meaning? Lane Wilcken had created the book for us to describe our tribe’s tattoo and the stories behind it.
9. 50 pesos for the tinik? Hmmm… not true. We didnt pay anything on the materials used. We paid for whang od and grace ‘s labor of love. We pay to say thank you for letting us experience our greatest culture in tattooing.
10.may i ask, whats your advocacy in your post? I can help spread this, but i need to understand the real point of your advocacy.
11. Out of 10, only 3 of us planned to have tattoo by whang od or grace. But when we get there, only one left not having one( since he has pending abroad application ) this is not just due to the fact that its not easy to go there, but to experience the traditional tattooing without cutting human head and to learn more about the tribe and our CULTURE which is already dying nowadays. Its really a great experience hearing their stories and not just reading it on a book.
For me , its how we interpret our experience there. Going there is not a joke. And going back with our tribe tattoo is something to be proud of. Something we cant explain why we want to have inspite of the hardships we experience. This tattoo is different as this comes with great RESPECT.
Hope she would be able to read this…
-Condemns the long line of people who wanna get tattoos
-Complains that Whang od is overworked
-Gets a tattoo anyway