31/01/2024
𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐩𝐨!
The view of Mindanao's highest mountain is different when seen from Kidapawan and from Davao.
On the Kidapawan side the peak rises higher than all the other peaks in the area. Nearest to Kidapawan is the MACADAC Range, which contains several peaks, but none are taller than Mt Apo's summit
On the Davao side on the other hand, the summit seems lower than the peaks of the Barakatan Peak, Mt Talomo and Mt Tamayong. Because these are much closer to the city, they look like they are higher than the summit. In some parts of Davao, the summit is not even visible.
The MACADAC Range is barely visible from the Davao side, while the Talomo Range is not visible in Kidapawan.
Mt Apo glows in Davao during sunrise, while it glows in Kidapawan during sunset.
The Kidapawan side featuring Lumut to Moivuwaw inevitably conjures up stories of the cryptid Orimaung, large wild cats that are said to inhabit the peak and which has historically dissuaded the Monuvu from climbing it out of fear.
And the Baoy to Mongovay ('home of the young women') peak harks back to an incident when a group of young women congregated in the peak, believing they would experience Tuwadnus (taken to the realm of spirits).
The stories of Barakatan, Talomo and Tamayong I have yet to gather, but I recall Mac Tiu documenting the Atawom-Landim 'Legend of Apo Sandawa.' In it, Talomo (named 'Mt Kulelan') is named after the central hero Apo Sandawa's brother-in-law (the name 'Talomo' is given to the river, which was thus named 'because this was where people met to drain the river to gather fish.')
On the Kidapawan side 'Sondawa' means 'sulphur,' and has reached spiritual connotations ('Mondawa,' literally 'to [climb] Sondawa') means to go on a pilgrimage. In some accounts it is the location of the Monuvu afterlife, Ingod to Moivuyan (the city of Moivuyan, lord of the dead) believed to be inside it (and yet in some versions, it is associated with a spirit named 'Mondawa', and is forbidden space). The peak is also strongly associated with the semi-legendary Apao, ancestor of the Monuvu on the Kidapawan foothills.
On the Davao side, on the other hand, 'Apo Sandawa' has been personified into a founding hero who led the ancestors of the Monuvu from Agusan along the Caraga coast and into the Davao gulf before going up the Talomo river, battling a giant white snake near the peak.
These differences are important, specially when representing the mountain and its associated peaks in art. You can tell if an artwork depicting the mountain was made from the Kidapawan or the Davao perspective by the way it positions the peak.
These peaks all suffer from cultural pollution. On the Kidapawan side, for instance, a portion of Lumut to Moivuwaw has been renamed 'Mt Zion' by encroaching Settlers, with the whole range being named 'MACADAC' (Mt Apo Climbers Association of Davao and Cotabato).
Mixing the perspectives to the mountain up instead of celebrating the uniqueness of each one is just another part of the chopseuy, 'bahala na' mediocrity that Filipino identity has introduced to Mindanao.
Our creatives would do well to avoid it.
