babaylán

Babaylán is a term used to describe a class of spiritual leaders, healers, and ritual mediators in various indigenous communities of the Philippines. The role is most often associated with women, though it could also be filled by men or gender-diverse individuals in some communities. The babaylán is typically regarded as someone with special knowledge of spirits, ancestors, and deities, and as a conduit for communication between the physical world and the spiritual realm.

In practice, babaylán perform a range of duties, including healing using herbal remedies, divination, and leading religious ceremonies. They organize and conduct rites for important communal events such as harvests, marriages, and rites of passage, and they oversee offerings to ancestral spirits and nature or household deities (anito or diwata in some languages). Their authority often rests on training, lineage, personal reputation, and a demonstrated ability to interpret and appease the spirit world.

The social position of babaylán varied among groups. In many communities, they held high status and were integral to the cosmology and daily life of the people. The arrival of Spanish colonial rule and the spread of Catholicism challenged these indigenous practices, resulting in suppression and significant cultural change. Some babaylans were persecuted or restricted to underground practice, while others adapted elements of Catholic ritual into their own ceremonies.

Today, interest in babaylán has grown in ethnographic studies and among Filipino Indigenous rights movements. The concept is often invoked in discussions of traditional spirituality, gender and power, and the revival of indigenous knowledge in contemporary contexts.