AN OLD grave in Simunul Island into which a house has encroached.

Seaside villages of the Sama ethnolinguistic groups in the island-municipalities of Sibutu and Simunul (also Simunur) in Tawi-Tawi are marked by houses on stilts and narrow roads offering scenic views of this far-flung Philippine province.

Tucked within these communities are pockets of cemeteries which have notable graves dating back centuries.

These graves have either coral stone or wood grave markers called sunduk and sometimes a grave frame called kubul.

Carved stone sunduk in Sibutu. Grave markers for men are upright pieces that are either hexagonal in shape, pointed on top or resemble a phallic symbol. Women grave markers are normally characterized by the flat slab, comb-like. Those of children are small and flat.

In the Sama communities, the grave markers are normally carved of wood or stone, while anthropomorphic forms characterize those of the Sama subgroup Sama Dilaut or Sama Badjao.

Also, some are boat-like to symbolize peaceful journeys of the dead into the afterlife.

Female sunduk in Simunul. Artistically-carved

These old grave markers and grave frames are beautifully carved with ukkil designs, some fully carved showing the artistry and grandeur of mortuary arts in this part of the country.

Aside from floral, a number of the designs include manuk-manuk (chicken), kura-kura (horse-like), unduk-unduk (seahorse-like) and duyung-duyung (sea cow-like).

One grave in Sibutu, which has both sunduk and kubul and with carved floral decorations, is carved with Arabic texts and a star on the upper portions of the frame.

Floral motifs dominate the ancient grave plots in both Sibutu and Simunul, some now damaged by the elements and built over with newer structures.

An example is the damaged stone grave across the Sheikh Makhdum Mosque in Simunul where a house has almost encroached into its area.

In fairness to the residents, there was an attempt to repair the damage by bracing the sunduk and cementing the cracked and detached portions of its kubul.

Details of sunduk and kubul in a Sibutu grave. Unrivaled

Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa, whose late husband was a Sama from Simunul, notes that these graves “carry symbols of religious, mystical and aesthetic importance.”

“These remnants of stone mortuary arts, unrivaled in the Philippines both in concept of design and technique of execution, points to the Samalan-speaking Islamized Hindu-Malay, pre-Hispanic ancestors of the Sama people,” she explains.

She adds, “The apparent antiquity and wide distribution of tombstones and grave monuments throughout the Tawi-Tawi chain of islands establish the earlier existence of thriving communities or settlements already predisposed to Islam for more than a century prior to the construction of Simunul Island’s Tubig Indangan (Sheikh Makhdum) Mosque in 1380.”

Ancient grave in Sibutu. Aside from Tawi-Tawi, Sulu also has ancient grave sites with artistic grave markers.

Other sites in the country with grave markers but of relatively recent construction are in Basilan and in places with a Muslim population such as in Zamboanga, General Santos City and even in Maharlika Village, Taguig.

Author’s note: The information in this article was sourced from Amilbangsa’s book and personal observations during a recent fieldwork to Sibutu and Simunul. Thanks to Algabra Bandahadi of the Mindanao State University Sibutu High School for his assistance in the photographic documentation in Sibutu’s barangays Nunukan and Ambutong Sapal.