Mapagpaonod and a German Climber of Mt. Iriga

If we take the etymology or root word of Mapagpaonod as onod, or a tuber; then we can see a concrete example and beauty of patience and tolerance. For a tuber literally grows under the ground. It crops up beneath the stem of a plant; hence, a root crop like our native alyon, bungkukan, namo, kamote, kamoteng kawoy. Its a UG, an undergrowth. Yet, growing or going under does not mean condescension or submission. For a plant, it is its nature. For us, human beings, to go under is an act of tolerance and patience. It is an act of humility, of denying the self to give way to others; of understanding people and their differences. Imagine what a wonderful world we will have if only people have the patience and tolerance to let others, who are different from them in race, religion or rank; be themselves. Globalization, which has shrunk the world into a barrio, needs this value so much as multi-culturalism is creating inevitable and unnecessary tension among people, anywhere in the world.

Mountain climbing is one endeavor where one's patience is tested to the limit. The Filipino pioneering climbers to Mt. Himalaya very well know this. So is the German traveller Feodor Jagor who was able to climb the summit of Mt. Iriga, after two failed attempts, in 1870. Here is the record of his triumph and the first account of a foreigner who has ever climbed the mountain:
"About six o’clock on the following morning the ascent began. After we had gone through the forest, by availing ourselves of the path which we had previously beaten, it led us through grass three or four feet in height, with keen-edged leaves; succeeded by cane, from seven to eight feet high, of the same habitat with our Arundo phragmites (but it was not in flower), which occupied the whole of the upper part of the mountain as far as the edge. Only in the ravine did the trees attain any height. The lower declivities were covered with aroids and ferns; towards the summit were tendrils and mosses; and here I found a beautiful, new, and peculiarly shaped orchid. [153] The Cimarrons had cut down some cane; and, beating down our road for ourselves with bolos, we arrived at the summit a little before ten o’clock. It was very foggy. In the hope of a clear evening or morning I caused a hut to be erected, for which purpose the cane was well fitted. The natives were too lazy to erect a lodging for themselves, or to procure wood for a watchfire. They squatted on the ground, squeezed close to one another to warm themselves, ate cold rice, and suffered thirst because none of them would fetch water. Of the two water-carriers whom I had taken with me, one had “inadvertently" upset his water on the road, and the other had thrown it away “because he thought we should not require it.”

[Altitude.] I found the highest points of the Iriga to be 1,212 meters, 1,120 meters above the surface of the Buhi Lake. From Buhi I went to Batu." (from Reisen in den Philippinen by Feodor Jagor, Chapter XVIII)

Had Jagor given up, had he not the patience to go on, we would not have been given this record of how our mountain was like during the Castillan times. By having the patience, Jagor also proved true the adage of our forefathers: "Sa paturo-turo, malulubot a bato."