THE FORGOTTEN GRAVEYARD

CEMETERIO DE TAMPUS

Down on the eastern part of barangay Mataas-na-Bayan lies an old cemetery as old as the Boac Church itself. It used to be protected by a wall of adobe stones and an iron gate that have all but disappeared now.

Here lies the remains of some of Boac’s most noble gentry who helped found the great town, celebrate it, shed blood, sweat, tears to build a God-empowered people therein, and defended it in the name of freedom in the days of old. The sacred ancient graveyard and all associated with it have all been sadly forgotten.

Perhaps the quest for the good life for some, the focus on things considered more important than memorials and remembrances of things past, has led to its complete deletion from our collective memory.
Cemeterio de Tampus, as it was called then, has been converted into a cornfield with informal settlers from elsewhere now calling it their home. No candles burn on All Saints Day. One who lived there offered to light a taper we took out.

A few stones and empty chambers built above ground still stand here, eaten up by the elements and balete vines twining around wherever they could, to remind us what happens when mortals forget.

An old film, "Siberiade", tells of a Russian village whose history throughout most of the 1900s mirrors that of the greater country. The first generation focused itself with building a road so they could travel to the rest of the world; the second generation worked on perfecting its own political principles; and the third became obsessed with newfound oil on the land. The quest for oil led to the destruction of an ancient cemetery, symbolizing the loss of old Russian culture and tradition for the sake of financial gain and temporal power.(us.imdb.com; encarta)

Could this type of forgetfulness be symbolic of a town’s continuing loss of culture and tradition creeping through its soul without relent?