Huminodun

Huminodun is a legendary figure in the mythic tradition of the Ifugao people of the northern Philippines. In many versions of Cordillera folklore, she is described as the daughter of the gods whose selfless sacrifice saved her people from famine.

According to the core narrative, Huminodun offered herself so that others might eat. In some tellings, her body is said to have been transformed into the first rice grains and other sustenance, providing the means for the community to endure hunger and thrive. This act establishes her as a symbolic mother of agriculture, especially rice, and explains the abundance of crops that followed the famine.

The story of Huminodun is preserved in the Hudhud, a cycle of epic chants traditionally sung by Ifugao women during harvest season and important communal events. In these chants, she is frequently invoked as the Rice Mother or a divine benefactor of the fields, linking ritual practices, offerings, and seasonal celebrations to the myth of origin.

Cultural significance and interpretation vary by community, but the core theme remains consistent: sacrifice and nourishment, gratitude to the ancestral and divine realms, and the sanctification of rice as the staple that sustains life. The Huminodun narrative reinforces social values surrounding generosity, communal sharing, and reverence for agricultural cycles that shape Ifugao identity.

Scholars note that details differ among oral traditions, but the overarching motif of a sacrificial origin of rice endures as a foundational element of Ifugao cosmology and ritual life.