Photos

this welcomed us on our way to lumawan cave in sagada, mt. province. we are bound for spelunking and caving. i was told that what we are visiting are the wonderful stalactites and stalagmite formations inside the connecting cave, sunaguing. i wasn't told that there were earlier inhabitants of the area. =)

lumawan cave used to be a burial site for the native sagadans. before burying they bring their deceased ones inside the cave to mummify them.

the people from mt. province have their own unique mummification process (but something similar to this was practised in papua new guinea).

they do the mummification by way of smoking. shortly before a person dies, he is made to swallow huge amounts of salt water. then he is seated on a chair a top a burning fire (not to burn him, but to remove the fluids in his body). then herbs are rubbed on to his skin.

this kinds of mummy was first discovered in Kabayan, Benguet, hence, their name, kabayan mummies or ibaloi mummies.

some mummies date back as old as 2000 BC. though sagada is not so known about this, they do mummify their deceased ones and hang their coffins in caves instead of burying them.

sadly not a lot of people knew about this, not even Filipinos themselves. some mummies are even stolen from their burial sites.

thanks for viewing. =)