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The term Dumagat may have been derived from the word gubat(forest) and hubad. The more logical origin of its name is taga-dagat which referred to "sea gypsies".
They typify the outstanding negrito physical traits of dark brown to black color and curly hair. Their stature compares to an average Filipino. The women stand at 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 4 inches and the men tower from 5 feet to 5 feet 9 inches.
The Dumagats are found in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Rizal and Bulacan. They live in single-pole make-shift nipa huts along river banks during summertime and move to sturdier dwellings on higher grounds during the monsoon rains.
They live the life of hunters and rattan traders. Hunting is their basic occupation. Their weapons consist of bow and arrow. Hunting with dogs is a favorite technique. They gather rattan palms from the forest clearings and scrapes them until they are ready to be split into smaller pieces. After these are ready, they deliver them to their tabong (market) in the lowlands and exchange them for rice, sugar, salt, and other basic commodities. They also use the kaingin system of farming. They also live by fishing with hooks, traps, and spears.
Dumagats speak a language of their own among themselves. The vocabulary consists largely of Tagalog, Ibanag, llocano, and Visayan terms.
But as scholars have discovered, they can also speak with facility the language of the region to which they have migrated.
For the Dumagats, there is no wedding ceremony but a simple celebration to which the couples relatives and guests are invited and at which the union is announced. As simply as the union is made, so too is its dissolution. A Dumagat couple separates simply by mutual consent.
The Dumagats have no structured religion of their own although they claim to believe in nameless, faceless gods whom they invoke to protect them from danger. They are peace-loving people. When they die, usually of sickness or old age, their remains are placed in simple coffins of buho or bamboo and buried in silence. No prayers are offered over the graves, no sad songs chanted. Relatives and friends of the dead put aromatic herbs around their arms to serve as their perfume.
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"We ride for the awareness and increase protection of the last remaining old growth forest in the country and their people the Dumagats"
From March 29 – April 09 2007 we crossed the Luzon
Island from the China Sea to the Pacific Ocean by
mountain bike. Starting in Candon, Ilocos Sur and
ending in Palanan, Isabela on the east side. We were passing through 4 provinces and the two biggest mountain ranges in the country, the Gran Cordillera and the Sierra Madre. The route passed mainly through backroads and trails and would probably include unbikeable sections (especially on the uncharted trails of the Sierra Madre) where we had to carry all our bikes and equipment on our backs.
This was an unsupported attempt, we were
carrying all our equipment and made our own remedies on the trip. This was be the first mountain bike expedition of its kind to be done in the country.
Andrew Chinalpan (Bontoc, Mt.Province)
Andrew is an igorot with a penchant for all that
pushes human endurance, he is a mountain guide, a
champion adventure racer, tri-athlete and an emergency medical technician.
Jens Funk (Cebu City, Philippines)
Jens (German) lives in the Philippines since 2002 and is working as an IT Consultant for the German Development Service. Jens is the author of the 1st Philippine bike book “Cycling Philippines” and President of the Philippine bike foundation BIKE4U.org
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click for map and day trips
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