RE-DISCOVER and RE-CONNECT with Your Cultural Roots

Babaylan is a Visayan term which refers to an archetypal Filipino community leader (other Filipino archetypes include the datu and panday) who functions as the community’s religious leader and ritual expert, healer, culture-bearer as well as one having extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of nature and people. Historically, while the babaylan is often a woman, the role and functions of the babaylan are open to both males and females.

The Buhay BABAYLAN Lecture-Ritual Series is a series of presentations and discussions that cover current researches and continuing practices of the Babaylan for students, teachers and mainstream Filipinos wanting to re-discover their cultural roots.  The lecture-ritual series is aimed at introducing the Babaylan to a new generation of Filipinos and how the essence of the Babaylan can be an inspiration for empowerment in an era of technology and globalization.

A ritual is included in the program in order to achieve both cognitive understanding and experiential appreciation of the life and practices of the babaylan.  The ritual honors both traditional knowing and contemporary thinking which serves as the integrative space for learning and seeking the Babaylan spirit.

The first session of the Buhay BABAYLAN Lecture-Ritual Series will be held on April 30, 2011, Saturday, 1:30 to 4:30 PM at Bahay Nakpil-Bautista in Quiapo.

The first resource speaker of the series is Ms. Fe Buenaventura Mangahas with the topic, “The Babaylan as a Teacher.”  Ms. Fe Mangahas is a Commissioner of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, a commissioner of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women and the Director of the CCP Women's Program.

Ms. Mangahas would be sharing her experiences in doing research about the babaylan and how she became interested of the babaylan.  Moreover, Ms. Mangahas would be speaking why the babaylan as a teacher is unique.

The ritual will be facilitated by Ms. Leah R. Tolentino, a faculty member of the doctoral program of the Asian Social Institute where she incorporates rituals as a means of embodied knowing.

Registration fee is P100 for students and P150 for non-students and professionals.