Tandok

“A traditional way of

Anti - venom”      

•  Tandok is a traditional method of healing or a local faith healing. It is used to remove rabies from the body of a human that caused from the bit of animals like dog, cat, mouse, monkey and etc.. It consists of making incisions in the bitten area to make it bleed and put a horn of carabao that will stick to the wound. The faith healer will suck it to remove the rabies out of the body.

• This is Lolo Sebastian Gaton. He is 80 years old, live in Butag, Bulan, Sorsogon. He is a popular in the way of healing “the Tandok”. He is a good healer. Lolo Sebastian had been a healer for almost 30 years. His father was also “paratandok” a healer, through observing to his father he learned also how to heal or tandok. He learn a lot of healing until his father decided to teach him how to heal and when his father passed away he is the one who continue healing o pagtatandok. Until now he used the traditional method of healing “tandok” that made him to become a good and popular healer not only in their place but also in other local places in Bulan. His expertise in this kind of traditional healing made him popular, that most of his clients used to visited him whenever they need his help.

• This are the materials that needed by Lolo Sebastian in healing “tandok”. The horn of the carabao, leaves of talaonod plants, trunk of camila plants (make into powder), oil, cotton, and blade.

             

• The process of healing “tandok”

Put some oil in the leaves of talaonod.Then wrap it to the horn.

He put the horn in upper right part of the back of the patient.

He suck the tip at the end of the horn to heap the blood that has rabies.

When he observed that the skin turns to purple, he cut it using a blade and he used again the horn to suck the blood with a rabies to remove it from the body of a patient.