Benguet | Fire Mummies Of The Philippines

BENGUET | Fire Mummies Of The Philippines

The Pride And Rich Cultural Heritage Of The Ibaloi's

Photo was taken at the home of our guide in Mt Timbak. We registered before we were escorted to the burial sites of the mummies, the house has a very nice view of the Mountains before it, including Mt Pulag, and this dirty kitchen was homey with charm akin to it.

Mt Timbak uniquely stands out for the very rich heritage that it hoards. This is the home of the so called Fire Mummies of the Philippines, aka Kabayan Mummies. That says a lot about the rich culture of the Ibaloi's, but due to danger of losing this, it was listed in 1998 World Monuments Watch, a nonprofit organization that calls to action and challenge government authorities responsible for important cultural resources to identify sites immediately at risk, and to stimulate public awareness of the tremendous need to preserve and create sustainable uses for significant heritage made by man.

The plight and preservation of these Mummies are very real, against vandalizing visitors and thefts that would lead these revered Ibaloi ancestors to the black market. It's good to know that our government pays a close watch, we were only allowed as it is to visit these caves along the slopes of Mt Timbak, it is known that these caves century old as they were, that dates back even before the Spaniards came to colonize the Philippines and spread Roman Catholicism. The Mummy caves of Mt Timbak are famous along  to with many other sites in Benguet Province, simply because it is here that these sacred Mummies where opened to the public's awareness, hence the looting and vandalism came. I've heard accounts of Mummy caves even in Mt Pulag, and knowing that most of these caves are unprotected, it serves well that the elders of the Ibaloi tribes kept mum of these sites.

The Mummies fascinated me, seeing the human remains of a revered Filipino ancestor. I only have but utmost respect, safe in fetal position in their wooden coffins, with prayers offered by our guide before they were opened to us. 

Perhaps one of the most famous Mummy from Benguet is Apo Anno, a true  legend of folklore and is even thought to be a son of a goddess. His remains is now safe in it's sealed cave in Natubleng, Buguias, Benguet.

 The recovered remains of Apo Anno.

Apo Anno was eventually returned to Benguet in the same year. In May 1999, the mummy was sealed from public view.

More of Apo Anno from WikiPilinas

Visiting These Mummy caves is a sidetrip to trekking Mt Timbak (Mt Singakalsa), and like to hike up, to see the caves is to walk the slopes of the mountain for a good 15 to 20 minutes, with a good aerial view of the town of Kabayan Benguet. Fences are built over the sites that are open to visitors. One needs an Ibaloi guide to these graves, fortunately it's not very difficult to locate the house of the guide , locals are very friendly and easy to talk with, seems like everybody that lives here knows everyone around within a mile of their surroundings. The house of the guide is near the jump off to these hills. A scenic place, very good to the eyes and filled with pine trees all over. Some of the pines are bath in clouds, some even have Spanish mosses that can only be seen in high altitude areas.

Photo of our guide walking down the path as he leads us to visit the burial caves.

 

Photo from the outside of one of the Mummy Caves, our guide requested that we do not take photos of the actual Mummy, but that we are allowed to see it. For your eyes only.

Photo of Kabayan Municipality, a neighboring settlement or Municipality of Atok, Benguet. Photo taken along the slopes of Mt Timbak.

*** Blog updated as of November 2, 2014. Added a few photos from a return visit to Mt Timbak (Mt Singakalsa) February 2014. See the set of photos below this.

This time, our guide is a girl who walked ahead of us. A little less friendly than Vince who was our guide last year.

Registration fee is Php 30.00 fund that as I understand is to be used for the effort to preserve the heritage.

Wishing to visit the Mummies, You can reach out to the Guide Vince Gapuz at 0919-8524410 or add him in Facebook at www.facebook.com/vince.gapuz 

Thanks to Mervin of pinoyadventurista.com for the contact info.

On The Map

On a closer look. Mt Singakalsa is an a.k.a of Mt Timbac, a closer look on the map will show the Timbac Mummy Caves along the hills facing the town of Kabayan. The snaking green mark is the Halsema Highway along Atok, Benguet while the straight green lines is the Upper Agno River Basin.

Mt Timbac as shown on the map and its distance from Kabayan, Benguet and the more popular neighbor Mt Pulag. I place a circle in the Timbac Mummy caves.

Francis Balgos is a Call Center Agent, Weekend Travel Warrior, Amateur Spelunker, Sometime Surfer, Newbie Mountain Climber, Photography Enthusiast, Certified Beach Bum, A first born son, Faithful lover, True Explorer...

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