The ambahan is one of the forms of poetic expression of the Hanunoo Mangyans of

Southern Mindoro.

This ethnographic map shows 8 different indigenous groups in Mindoro. Mindoro is part
of the MIMAROPA region. The acronym stands for Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon,
Palawan. (See Philippine map on the left.)

On the ethnographic map of Mindoro, from north to south are the locations of the Iraya,
Alangan, Tadyawan, Tau-buid, Bangon, Buhid, Hanunoo, and Ratagnon groups. Though
these groups are collectively referred to as “Mangyan/Mangyans,” each group has its
own language, customs, way of life.

The Hanunoo-Mangyans are the only ones who claim the name “Mangyan” for their
tribe, combining it with “Hanunoo” which means “real” or “genuine.”
Buhid and Hanunoo groups have preserved their pre-Spanish writing system rooted in
the Indic (ancient Indian) writing systems, and the wealth of literature associated with it.

Shown here is the Surat Mangyan syllabary, intimately associated with ambahan poetry.

This chart is used in Mangyan elementary schools to teach their children to write, thus
assuring the continued use of the script among the Mangyans.
When writing in Surat Mangyan, you spell words based on syllable sounds, not by
letters. Here’s a simple guide to writing your name in the Mangyan script:

Source: https://rochiecuevas.blogspot.com/2017/10/surat-mangyan.html

The ambahan is to the Mangyans what the haiku is to the Japanese: treasured, living
elements of a culture that is uniquely theirs.
There are certain similarities between the haiku and the ambahan:
• Both are centuries-old.
• Both are home-grown poetic forms that continue to be written today.
• Both have characteristic elements that are culture- and language-bound, creating
their distinct structures:
o The haiku has a non-rhyming, 3-line, 5-7-5 syllable format.
o The ambahan has a mono-rhyming, 7-syllable format with more flexibility in
length. (A monorhyming poem has the same sound at the end of each of its
lines.)

An important feature of the monorhyme scheme in the ambahan is that rhyming is

consequent, i.e., all lines must end in whatever syllable sound the first line ends with.
See this example, translated into Filipino with monorhyme intact. Since the first line in
the translated version ends in ‘a,’ all other lines end with ‘a’ too.

Magwika ka’t bahala

sa gunita’y iwala
Ako nama’y may wika
sa isip nakataga
magpahanggang kabila!

While this is the general rhyming rule in composing ambahan, certain deviations are
allowed, as when consonants belonging to the same phonetic class [voiceless, voiced,
or sonorant*] are combined with the rhyming vowel to sustain the required monorhyme
pattern.

* These are just technical terms used in phonetics to identify and classify the sounds
produced when we speak letters aloud. Composers of ambahan, like other poets, aren’t
necessarily aware of these terms, and they don’t have to be. But they are conscious of the
sounds produced by the words they use, and apply the rules of their craft accordingly.

In many languages, including Tagalog and Mangyan, the letters that fall under the different
categories of speech sounds are:
• Voiced consonants: b, d, g (Place your finger on your throat and make the sound of
each letter: buh, duh, guh. The vibration in your throat, and the air you kind of force
out when you say these sounds is what makes them ‘voiced.’)
• Voiceless consonants: k, p, t (Place your finger on your throat and make the sound
of each letter: kuh, puh, tuh. There’s little to no vibration in your throat, and you don’t
have to force out air to say these sounds. That’s what makes them ‘voiceless.’)
• Sonorants: all 5 vowels, and the sounds of m, n, ng, l, r, w. (When you say these
sounds, there’s a continuous air flow throughout your vocal tract – your voice box,
lips, and nose.)
These aspects of the rules governing rhyme in the ambahan are the reasons why the
following Mangyan words can be considered rhyming:

• inwag and ma-ayad

The final vowel sound of ‘a’ is in both words, and both final consonants g and d
are voiced stops.
• humbak and dagat
The final vowel sound of ‘a’ is in both words, and both final consonants k and t
are voiceless stops.
• sundong, lumon and tayutom
The final vowel sound of ‘a’ is in all three words, and the final consonants ng, n,
and m are all sonorants.

The Tagalog translation of the above ambahan also sustains the heptasyllabic (7
syllables per line) format, as you can see when we separate the syllables in each line
with slashes. Count them!

no. of syllables
Mag / wi / ka / ka’t / ba / ha / la 7
sa / gu / ni / ta’y / i / wa / la 7
A / ko / na / ma’y / may / wi / 7
sa / I / sip / na / ka / ta / ga 7
mag / pa / hang / gang / ka / bi / la! 7

The haiku and ambahan differ most significantly in 2 aspects:

• The haiku is literal while the ambahan is allegorical*.
• The haiku is composed for contemplation, with such contemplation not tied to
any specific occasion or context, while the ambahan is composed for
 practical/social uses and traditionally recited/chanted only in the proper occasion
and context.

* Allegory, often described as an extended metaphor, is a figure of speech in which a story, a

situation, or a set of related ideas or principles, is expressed through symbolic characters,
objects, and/or events. An allegory, therefore, has 2 levels of meaning: the literal, with the
characters, objects, events taken as they are; and the figurative, with the same characters,
objects, and events seen as representing elements of the text’s intended meaning(s).

More specifically, the ambahan is used for occasions when something embarrassing,
unpleasant, sensitive, important or precious needs to be said, for example in contexts
like the following:
• educating children
• courting
• asking one’s host (when one is a visitor) for food
• bidding goodbye to a relative
• verbal contests in festivities like someone’s reburial (but contests are held without
prior agreements, and with no rules or betting involved)

These aspects of the ambahan are evident in the video “Ambahan of the Mangyan Tribe,”
which you were assigned to view in the previous assignment.

The video was taken at the very first Indigenous People Youth Camp sponsored by the Non-
Timber Forest Products at Tanay, Rizal, in April 2014.

Also interesting to note is that the ambahan traditionally used a special language meant
exclusively for ambahan poetry. The words in the special language differ greatly from
the ordinary Hanunoo-Mangyan language, as can be seen in these examples:

There is also a type of ambahan that borrows words and expressions from neighboring
tribes with whom the Hanunoo frequently interact, mainly the Buhid.
The most recent type of ambahan has absorbed not only conversational Mangyan but
words also from Spanish, Tagalog or Bisaya.

This is an example of an ambahan on childhood, from the Mangyan Heritage Center

website (https://mangyanheritage.odoo.com/).

Mangyan children are raised on the principle of experience being the best teacher. As
the Center’s website points out: “Mangyan parents believe in hands-on learning for their
children, even if it involves risks. Early tool use teaches skills and builds character.”

If we consider the allegorical nature of ambahan in interpreting this example, we could

also see it as advice, not just on how to use a bolo, but also on how to manage our own
skills and abilities, for which the bolo is a metaphor: we must hone these skills and use
them (‘grind it hard on a whetstone, hack and test it on some wood’) because that is the
only way to see how effective they are (‘how it cuts on a bamboo plant’).

Here are other examples of ambahan from the Mangyan Heritage Center website.

Ambahan on childhood play and quarrels:

Ambahan on adolescence:

Ambahan on food and work:

Ambahan on courtship:
Ambahan on marriage:

Ambahan on old age and death: