(Ist of 4 parts)
SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ – Without doubt, the carabao has earned a distinction all of its own in the heart of Filipinos and a hallowed place in national consciousness. Among all animals in the country, it is the most beloved by the rural folk and is considered as the country’s “national animal” although no official document says it is so.
Yes, sadly, it has never been officially declared as the country’s national animal. It has no official status as established by law – like the Philippine eagle as the national bird, sampaguita as the national flower, narra as the national tree, and arnis as the national sport – either by proclamation by the executive department or through an enacted law.
But the carabao is at the heart of many Filipinos. It has been part of the times and life of the people and the nation for centuries.
Beginning history
The carabao is not native to the Philippines, unlike its close cousin – the tamaraw.
The tamaraw, found in Mindoro Island, is one of the species of mammals belonging to the Asian water buffalo tribe of Bovini, the other two being the anoa of the Island of Celebes, and the arni or Indian wild buffalo.
It was by nature’s design, or call it by stroke of fate, that the carabao was brought in from elsewhere in Asia to Philippine shores centuries ago.
Belonging to the domesticated Indian wild buffalo species, only theories can be relied on as to how this mammal was brought to the Philippines.
One account indicated that a long time ago, land bridges connected the Philippines to mainland Asia. Through these bridges, the first settlers arrived on foot bringing with them ancient flora and fauna. One of the animals brought in was the water buffalo.
Another theory said that when the land bridges disappeared several thousand years ago, another settler came by boat. They lived by hunting, fishing, and farming. In farming, what they could have used were the buffaloes they brought along with them when they came in.
Still, another group of settlers arrived about 200 years B. C. and another in 1,300 A. D. They were known to be fun-loving people and among their favorite sports was “carabao-racing” and “carabao-fights”. They used the carabao as draft animal in agricultural works and in time big patches of land in the country were used for cultivation of rice, sugarcane, corn, tobacco, vegetables and others.
That “carabao” brought in was the swamp-type water buffalo and was a blessing of sort as it was fitted for the need for farm power and other uses in the dominant agricultural landscape in the country. Had it been the other type, the riverine water buffalo, it could had been a different story as this type is largely for dairying.
It is interesting to note that the swamp-buffalo had been called different names at the time. One of them was “kerbau” which was local name for the water buffalo by the Malays and Indonesians who were the among the first settlers in the Philippines.
In time, the Visayan or Cebuano word “karabaw” came out as the name for this animal. It was apparently from the word “kerbau”. Over the years, it settled to the English word “carabao” and the Tagalog term “kalabaw”. In other local dialects, it is called “damulag” (Pampango), and “nuang” (Ilocano).
The name carabao is unique to the Philippines. Elsewhere in the world, it is known as water buffalo.
In time, too, the carabao came to be regarded as “native carabao” in the country.
Unquantified contribution
In terms of monetary value, man’s labor is oftentimes valued at man-hour compensation rate. Goods and services are also commensurately valued and paid for in pesos. The carabao’s labor contribution is not usually quantified.
Results of a study in 2002, however, revealed that about 66 percent of the population in the Philippines used the carabao for draft. The study also estimated that the value of the contributed draft power of the carabao was $1.48 million.
This contribution was divided among the products such as rice, corn, coconut, and sugarcane and some others in smaller values. Its contribution for meat was $115.32 million, for hide, $10 million, and for milk, $1.68 million.
Easily, the immense draft power of the carabao in rice production can be gauged in such work as land cultivation – plowing to break the soil, harrowing to break the clods of soil, and leveling to level the paddy field for transplanting; and the hauling of the harvest.
In the olden times, when big threshing machines were the ones being used, the carabao was harnessed to haul in bundles of newly harvested rice for big piles of harvested rice for threshing. In the advent of smaller farm machines, the carabao was used for bringing the threshing machine near the bundles of harvested rice for threshing right in the paddy field.
The popular use of the combine harvester has now relegated the carabao for dukit or plowing the areas near the levees and corners of paddy fields not reached by hand tractors, karyada or hauling the rice grains harvest, and manog caro or hauling of harvested sugar cane.
Where machines cannot do the job, the carabao’s power is relied upon slowly but steadily.
The carabao is also a ready power for certain kinds of work in the growing and production of sugar cane, corn, tobacco, vegetable and other crops.
There was a time, too, that the carabao was used to thresh the harvested palay. It goes round and round stepping on piles of the rice harvest to separate the grains from the stalks. Also, in the traditional work of producing sugar, the carabao was the power called upon to rotate on and on the huge stone mill to crush the sugarcane for its very important syrup for producing brown sugar.
In time, this animal came to be known as the “beast of burden”. Other meaningful appellations given to it included “mainstay of Philippine agriculture”, “the farmer’s tractable and docile ally on the farm, on the hills, in the valley, and on paved pathways”, a “living tractor”, and a “walking fertilizer factory”.
(To be continued)
