Sailing in the seas of Batanes: A short summary on Batanes Traditional Boat making

The famous lighthouse in Basco, Batanes

The wonderful view above a mountain

Last year, I spent my summer together with some of my batchmates for the Anthropology Field School 2013, which was held in Sabtang Island, Batanes from April 16-May 21. It was a very memorable and rare experience, since only few people can have a chance to go there because of the very expensive airfare as well as the distance of the said province to the center.

Near the sea of Baranggay Chavayan

We stayed on our field site (which is Baranggay Chavayan, the last barangay located at the other end of the island) for 3 weeks and we were able to immerse ourselves very well with the Ivatans  (the Indigenous Peoples of Batanes) and got to know them up close on their day-to-day activities. People from the outside (which includes me and my batchmates) were known as the Ipula. Because of the province’s small population, it’s not that hard to distinguish which one is an Ivatan or not. Also, almost everyone in a particular community knows each other, either in terms of kinship-related knowledge or whether they were classmates during high school.

During our one month stay, we crossed the Batan Island (where Basco, the province’s capital is located) and Sabtang Island occasionally to buy our food and other supplies (which is usually good for 2 weeks). In order to reach the other Island, we need to ride a boat. During the boat ride, I was really stunned and amazed by the endless blue ocean surrounding the Islands. Just imagine seeing and sailing in the Pacific Ocean and the other large bodies of water surrounding the Islands. I really felt “being one with the nature” because of that experience. We also attended different local feasts and learned many Ivatan words which helped us survived and conduct our research in the said place.

As for our Social Anthropology Research Paper (which is considered as our undergraduate thesis), me and my partner worked on Tataya, which is known as the Batanes Traditional boat used by fishermen in catching fishes. Our curiosity for boat and technology started while we’re still here in Manila, trying to research on some possible topics we can work on. Me and my partner honestly don’t know anything about boats, but we really like to gain some information about how Indigenous boats are made that’s why we pursued the topic and tried our best to know the different parts of the boat and its functions.

From our research, we discovered that 4 types of Boats exist in Batanes Island namely:

•          The Tataya which is known as the traditional boat of the Ivatans and the smallest boat among the 4 types.
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•          The Chinarem which is the second smallest boat next to the tataya. It can accommodate four to six passengers. Chinarem does not exist anymore in the Sabtang Islands since 1970’s.
•          The Falua the largest type of boat used in transporting trade products and tourists from one island to the other.
•          The Kasco or motor boat which is made of fiber glass and is now commonly used by the fishermen in catching fishes.

Tataya

Falua

During the days of our data gathering, we encountered some problems like the difficulty of finding a traditional boat maker. Because in our field site, the only existing boats were motor boats made of fiber glasses. That’s why we still need to go to the other end of the island (which is Baranggay Nakanmuan) and stay there for a night to immerse ourselves and look for boatmakers (called as a maestro). It was said to us that the best boatmakers in Batanes resisdes in Baranggay Nakanmuan. We were not failed by these rumors because we met some of the best boatmakers in the province (who also created the boats we ride to cross to Batan Island) which helped us understand how the traditional boats are made and some of the social functions included in making it. We were even lucky enough to see the raw parts of the traditional boat and how it was made and where amazed by how boatmakers themselves calculates and measures every part of the said boat. What we learned from the boatmakers themselves is that whenever they cut trees to make a boat, they always replace it by planting trees greater than the number they had cut so that balance in the forest will be maintained. Several wood varieties were used in making the traditional boat. The most common is the Palomaria or Vutalaw in Ivatan Language. They also use specific wood varieties in making the nails in order to connect and assemble the different parts of the boat.

Seaside of Baranggay Nakanmuan

Another interesting thing we discovered in our research is why does Batanes boats don’t have outrigger unlike in other parts of the country? The answer given to us by boatmakers is because the waves in Batanes were generally classified as strong, that’s why having outriggers will only cause problems when it comes to balance. We also discovered that the condition of waves varies from one barangay to the other. The boats of Baranggay Chavayan have a generally flat base because the waves there were very strong compared to Nakanmuan were the boats usually have a very thin body and almost flat base because the wave there were considered calm.  We also saw these matching with the seashores of the said barangays. In Chavayan, the seashore was very wide and settlements were elevated unlike in Nakanmuan were the seashore is very short and you can’t almost see it from afar.

Based on the outcome of our research last year, what we see is that many Ivatans now switch to using motorboats made of fiberglass because it is more practical and durable compared to the traditional ones. But they recognized how expensive it is to buy a fiber glass boat and also to deliver those boats in the area. Despite the impact of modern boat technology, many Ivatans still create Indigenous boats (especially for newly-weds) and share their knowledge to their kins (such as their sons) for it to survive. With the changing conditions of the waves and tides, the practice of making the traditional boat among the Ivatans still sails in times of today’s modernity.

*This was a brief summary from the unpublished paper that me and my partner, Monica Anical wrote as a partial fulfillment of our Requirement in Anthropology 196-Field Methods in Social Anthropology during the Anthropology Field School 2013-Sabtang, Batanes. The revised version of our paper was submitted also as a partial fulfillment for Anthropology 119-Introduction to Museology. I would like to acknowledge our Fieldschool director, Mr. Edwin Valientes for guiding us in writing this unpublished paper.

Blogpost and Photos By: Hiedi Martinez

Reference:

Anical, Monica and Martinez, Hiedi. 2013. Kapitataya. Unpublished paper from the Anthropology Field School 2013-Sabtang Batanes.