Customs of the Tagalog - Background of the Author
Juan De Plascencia (Spanish Friar of the Franciscan order)
Born to the illustrious family of Portocarreros in Plasensia in the region of Extremadura, Spain in
the early 16th century.
He was one of the seven children of Pedro Portocarrero, a captain of Spanish schooner.
Juan de Plasencia grew up during the period known as the Siglo de Oro, a golden Age when arts
and literature flourished in many parts of Spain, among them his native Extremadura.
Fray Joan de Puerto Carrero, del convent de Villanueva de la Serena, was his real name.
Fray Juan De Plascencia came together with the first batch of Franciscan missionaries in the
Philippines.
Arrived at a port in Cavite, a few kilometers south of Manila on the 2nd of july 1578
He was the author of the first religious book titled “Doctrina Christiana’’
It was a little book of prayers written by Franciscan Friar Juan De Plasencia. He derived its name
from the Latin term Doctrina Christiana meaning the “teachings of the church” It was printed in
Gothic letters and Tagalog characters on a rice paper.
preserves a record of the ancient Baybayin script,
Content and Contextual Analysis
• 1589, wherein it tackled the practice and traditions of the Tagalogs during the Spanish Period.
TAGALOG/BARANGAY - The name originated when the people came to this land by means of boat
called barangay. The head is called “Dato”.
The unit of government is called Barangay ruled by a chieftain, and consist of 30 to 100 families
together with their relatives and slaves
CHIEFTAIN/DATO - The chief who governed the people and were captains in their wars whom they obey
and reverence.
The Three Castes : NOBLES, COMMONERS, SLAVES
MAHARLIKA - Nobles, were the free-born whom they call Maharlica.The highest among all social classes.
They do not pay tax or tribute to the Dato, but must accompany him in war, at their own expense.
If a Maharlica married a commoner or a slave the children will be divided. The 1 st, 3rd,5th, and so on will go
to the father. The 2nd, 4th and 6th will go to the mother.
In this manner, if the father were free, all those who belonged to him were free; if he were a slave,
all those who belonged to him were slaves; and the same applied to the mother.
If there should be more should not be more that one child he was half free and half slave
Those who became slaves feel under the category of servitude which was their parents’, either
Namamahay or Saguiguilid.
If there were odd number of children, the odd one was half free and half slave.
The Maharlicas could not, after marriage, move from one village to another, or from one barangay
to another, with paying a certain fine in gold, as arranged among them.
Failure to pay the fine might result in a war between the barangay which the person left and the
one which he entered.
It applied equally to men and women, except that when one married a woman of another village,
the children were equally divided between the two barangays.
ALIPING NAMAMAHAY - The commoners, are also called Aliping Mamamahay. They live on their own
houses and are the lords of their own property and gold
ALIPING SAGUIGUILID - The slaves, who are also called, Aliping Saguiguilid. They serve their master
in his house and on his cultivated lands and may be sold.
ORNAMENTS – a decorative object or detail that adds quality or distinction to a person or place or thing.
SIMBAHAN – a temple for adoration.
PANDOT – Festival or worship
SIBI - They constructed, for the purpose of sheltering the assembled people , a temporary shed on each
side of the house with a roof, called SIBI.
SORIHILE - On the posts of the house, they set small lamps, called sorihile. In the center of the house,
they placed on large lamp, adorned with leaves of the white palm wrought into many designs
NAGAANITOS - The whole barangay, or family, united and joined in the worship which they called,
nagaanitos.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS :
• Badhala, whom they specially worship, the title seems to interpret it as “all powerful” or “maker of
all things”.
• People also worship heavenly bodies such as sun, moon and stars.
• They worship different things such as li-cha which are images that have various shapes.
DIAN MASALANTA - patron of lovers and of the generation
LACAPATI & INDIANALE - patrons of cultivated lands and of the husband
BUAYA- or water lizards
TIGMAMANUGUIN- a serpent or rat or a bird which was singing in the tree
SACRIFICE and ADORATION :
MANNER OF SACRIFICE – proclamation of feast and offer to the devil of what they had to eat. Done in
front of an idol, which they anoint with fragrant oil from musk, civet or gum and aromatic woods.
CATALONAN- officiating priest or priestess do the poetic singing and responding people. “Possessed by
the devil”.
OFFERINGS - good piece of cloth, chain of gold or gold ring, goats, fowls, swine, jar of rice, buyos, fried
food and fruits. Recovery of a sick person, prosperous sea voyage, good harvest, triumph in war, healthy
child delivery, and happy married life.
PRIEST OF THE DEVIL
SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS - They believe in witches such as hocloban, mancocolam, mangagauay, and
the likes.
CATOLONAN - Can be a man or a woman, and is an honoreable among the natives
MANGANGAUAY - A witch who deceives by pretending to heal the sick
MANYISALAT - Remedies to lovers that would make them abandon their own wives.
MANCOCOLAM - Fire from himself at night
HACLOBAN - They kill by saluting or raising their hand
SILAGAN - Rips the liver of someone wearing white and eat it
MAGTATANGGAL - Shows himself at night without his head or internal organs
OSUANG – A sorcerer
MANGGAGAYOMA - Another type of witch that made charms for lovers
SONAT – A preacher
PANGATAHOJAN – A soothsayer
BAYOGUIN - “Cotquean”, a man whose nature inclined toward that of a woman
BURIALS - Normal people, usually buried beside their houses.
• If he is a chief, he will be buried under a porch, but before this, they will mourn first for four days.
• But if the deceased had been a warrior, a living slave was tied beneath his body until in this
wretchd way he died:
• the grief was also accompanied by eating and drinking.
NEGRITOS
• Negritos has also form of burials. They dug a deep, perpendicular hole, and placed the deceased
within it, leaving him upright with head or crown unburied.
• On top of which they put, half a coconut which was to serve him as a shield.
CASANAAN - It is a place of punishment, grief and affliction called Casanaan which was a place of
anguish.
SATAN/SITAN - There were also other pagans who confessed more clearly to a hell, a hell, which they
called, as have said, casanaan: they said that all the weak wet to that place, and there dwelt the demons,
whom they called sitan.
TIGBALANG – Vibit or Phantoms
PATIANAC - When a woman died in childbirth, she and the child suffered punishment, and that at night,
she could be heard lamenting.
