Posts Tagged ‘Opdas Cave’

See the Old Graves at the Tinongchol Burial Rock

TINONGCHOL BURIAL ROCK

There are two burial sites at Benguet. These are the Tinongchol Burial Rock, Timbac Caves, and Opdas Cave. Here, century-old mummies were kept in huge jars or makeshift coffins. The mummification practice by the ancestors made it possible for some cadavers to remain intact; some have their tattoos evident up to now.

The bridge leads to Tinongchol Burial Rock, a huge boulder into which the Ibalois carved out openings and laid their dead to rest.

The Tinongchol Burial Rock which is almost as big as a regular three-storey building, houses centuries-old mummies. This came about through the labor of the people of the old times, who bored holes on the solid shoulders where they interred their dead.

Making the holes and spaces in the rock was not easy. No iron tools were found inside when the tomb was discovered. The Ibalois drenched the rock with a ginger solution that softened the stone and made digging easier.

Coffins molded from pine trees peek out from the two openings we can see. Sadly, there are writings on some of them, the kind made by permanent marking pens. Even the isolation and height of the rock passages did not deter people from vandalizing the sacred spot.