Array of culture
At the boundary of Ifugao and Mountain Province is a larger-than-life statue of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, a huge apparition in white and blue that in the distance
seems to float out of the rising fog.
In Bontoc, capital of Mountain Province, the marketplace offers a variety of
beans both fresh and dried, from chili beans to lentils, and the white beans
come in different sizes. But one can’t find any pastry or sweets native to the
region because, unlike other Filipinos, the Cordillera people don’t seem to take
to kakanin.
The Bontoc Museum showcases the full array of Cordilleran culture, from the
Gaddang, Isneg and Ibaloi, to the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kalinga, Kankanaey and
Tingguian. (Igorot, or "of the highland," is the generic term for these Filipinos,
as Iluko, or "of the bay," is for those of the underlying region. The Ifugaos are
said to be the artists of the Cordillera, the Bontocs the warriors, the
Kankanaeys the gardeners and farmers—but these are easy categorizations as
all of them, in fact, are warriors, artists and farmers.)
There’s a wooden food tray with sections for rice, viand, salt and pepper.
There are married men’s hats, snake bones as married women’s headdress, a
wide shell as a bachelor’s waist decoration.
From the various tribes come woven fish traps, lunch boxes, winnowers, frog
catchers, zithers, jew’s-harps, flutes, salted-meat containers, ritual backpacks,
ceremonial bowls, betel-nut pouches, rain shades, sleeping caps, bark
raincoats, locust baskets, feather headdresses, head baskets (used during
headhunting days), a brass gong’s handle made of a human jawbone, a baby’s
burial jar, a death chair, shrunken heads.
Ifugaos have elaborate ceremonies. They worship 1,500 deities, who govern
everything from planting rice to weaving materials. In the museum is a carved
wooden chest used to put a curse on people. There’s an open basket in which,
when spirits are called down to the village to help heal the sick, a chick is
placed to awaken the spirits with its constant chirping.
At the back of the museum is an open space showcasing full-scale models of
the various abodes of the Igorots, from the ulog of the maidens to the pit
shelter of the swine.
Fabled town
An hour’s drive away is the fabled town of Sagada, a smaller provincial version
of Baguio. The extensive quarrying of stones and gravel for building and road
constructions sends fragments of stones pouring down the mountainsides,
forming mounds on the roads and often rendering them impassable. The
uncertainty of weather and road conditions adds to the sense of adventure.
The way to Sagada runs along precipitous mountainsides above the clouds,
with awe-inspiring panoramas of more rice terraces of varying heights and
widths, hanging bridges across gorges, swift rivers across valleys, slender
waterfalls, sharp ridges and monolithic boulders, the ever-moving fog and the
ever-present pine trees—surely among the most breathtaking sights in the
whole archipelago.
You may stop by the road, stretch out your arms, catch in your cupped hands,
and gulp down the sweetest, coolest mineral water from a spring on a mossy
rock.
This is a land of enchanted lakes and limestone caves. Sumaging Cave, the
biggest of these, is the most awesome, with an underground waterfall and
lagoon and several passageways connecting to smaller caves.
There is also a burial cave where in olden times the dead of noble clans were
put in wooden coffins and arranged on crags near the cave’s mouth, while
farther below in the pitch-black darkness the corpses of criminals were thrown
down so their souls wouldn’t be able to find their way back to trouble society.
This place is eerie, even if sunlight falls upon the decaying coffins.
Walk across Calvary Hill, the Christian cemetery on a grassy knoll, and move
slowly to the edge of a ridge, and see below the pine-covered Echo Valley.
You may shout a syllable and expect to be answered with an obscenity.
You may espy with binoculars across the green valley the famous hanging
coffins on the gray cliffs. They’re not literally hanging in midair, of course, but
perching on pegs and protruding from the fissures of crags. They bear the
remains of village elders and chieftains, the only ones in the community reserved
with a resting place on those cliffs.
A natural high
The town proper is dotted with eateries and watering holes that stay open till
midnight, and souvenir shops that carry Igorot artifacts and Sagada weave.
For the frequent European or American visitor, Log Cabin serves a hearty
dinner of exceptional pasta dishes (particularly the Bolognese and the pesto).
For the adventurous, there is the Igorot dish pinikpikan (seared chicken
portions, slabs of smoky-flavored salted pork or native ham, simmered with
potatoes), served with violet upland rice. And not to forget the native wine
tapuy (at P40 a glass, already refined for foreigners, amber-colored like
brandy, and without the floating pop rice).
An aluminum French-press kettle of brewed Sagada coffee, equivalent to five
cups, is P20, or P4 a cup (look what the Starbucks generation has been
deprived of!).
A walking distance away, breakfast is the famous Sagada yogurt with granola,
honey and slices of banana or papaya. And this followed by a large cup of
steaming mountain tea with lemongrass and honey.
Strolling to the yogurt house in the crisp air of morning, you see on the wayside
the large pink angel’s trumpets, that nightshade the locals are known to dry in
the sun and smoke to get their natural high.
No wonder some Metro Manilans who’ve been here before express a desire to
retire in the bosom of these mountains among the people who live in the clouds.
What more do you need in life?
|