The best yearend gift that the Subanen ethnic group received last year was the hope of reviving a dying tradition.

The Subanen’s thanksgiving ritual Buklog was inscribed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Need of Urgent Safeguarding last December.

“We are very thankful for Unesco about what happened to Buklog. For us Subanens, it is a way of life and if we lose Buklog, we also lose our culture. Practically speaking, Buklog is a tradition that is diminishing,” Subanen Jessril Ruales said.

This ritual is conducted as an exhibition of the community’s appreciation to the gods and deities after a good harvest, recovery from sickness and disasters or when someone is appointed as a new leader. However, it is rarely practiced nowadays due to financial reasons and other influences outside their tradition.

The balyans or the local shamans who play an important role in the Buklog are also decreasing in number. According to cultural master Nilda Mangilay, there are less than a hundred spiritual leaders left in the Subanen community and only a few of them are young people.

The inscription of Buklog to Unesco’s List of ICH in Need of Urgent Safeguarding was declared during the 14th Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Meeting in Bogota, Colombia last Dec. 4-19.

For the Subanens, this inscription means that they need to further the safeguarding of this cultural heritage.

The first mechanism that the community has been doing is the education of the youth with the importance of Buklog through the School of Living Traditions. A learning guide supported by different cultural agencies has been made and there is a plan of translating its content to Subanen-Bisaya.

Protecting the environment is another effort done by the community as part of the conservation. Without farms and forests, Buklog will not exist. There were threats before of converting their lands to mines and palm plantations.

Nestor Horfilla, a cultural worker and former Archeology professor, helped in the nomination of Buklog to the Unesco list. He said that the safeguarding of this tradition can’t be done by the Subanens alone and there’s a need of support from people outside the community.

“The inscription is very helpful to inform the non- Subanens and the agencies that it is important for the Buklog to be safeguarded,” Horfilla said. “This gave more efforts from the community and they have pledged to safeguard it and they would need the help of other sectors of society.”

The nomination of Buklog to Unesco was initiated during a Buklog in 2018 attended by Subanens from different parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula. The cultural leaders converged and realized that this ritual needed urgent attention. They then sought help from different local government units, organizations and agencies.

The formal nomination was applied to Unesco through the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

“The inscription of Buklog in Unesco’s List of ICH in Need of Urgent Safeguarding is a recognition of the Subanen. The heritage of their deep spirituality, the sense of harmony and their resiliency. It is also a reminder for Subanens that they have the responsibility to transmit the heritage to the young generation. And hopefully, others would recognize and help them too,” Horfilla said.