#Bontoc

[mankadavi]

Kabigat with the Head of Chal-chal's Son

Once upon a time, the Moon, a woman named Kabigat, was making a large copper pot. While she was working, the son of a man named Chal-chal, the Sun, came by and watched her. Kabigat dipped her pip-i, a paddle, into the water and rubbed it over the stone. She then pounded the molten copper with the stone in her hand. The son was amazed by the pot as it grew large and beautiful. Suddenly, Kabigat looked up and saw the son and immediately struck him with her pip-i, cutting off his head! Although Chal-chal was not there, he knew Kabigat had cut off his son’s head. He rushed to where they were and put his son’s head back on his body, and the boy was alive again.  Then the Sun said to the Moon, “Because you have cut off my son’s head, the people of the Earth will forever cut off each other’s heads.”  

[thedalatribune]

© Paolo Dala

We're Only Humans

All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog.

Charles M. Schulz

[rugged11th]

Meadows...

actually a swidden, but with the flare-up of the Butbot-Betwagan tribal conflict a few years back with casualties rising on both sides, the agricultural mountain patch seems seldom attended

[joerojasburke]

A woman's headband or necklace fashioned from snake vertebrae, called a tsuli by the Bontoc-speaking people of the Philippines. I came across it at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

Worn by married women only, they were considered to be exceptionally powerful. Supposed to boost fertility, but also to protect against malevolent spirits, poison, or malicious magic, the necklaces were worn by women always when they were outside the village (Maramba 1998: 50). Wearing such adornments while working in the fields was supposed to protect against strokes of lightning; placed on the abdomen of a parturient, the string was said to safeguard an effortless and secure birth

[jeremiebaldocchi]

15 Avril, 10h34 - Bontoc, Philippines #travel #travelphotography #travelphoto #voyage #voyages #philippines #philippines🇵🇭 #philipinestravel #luzon #luzonphilippines #bontoc #bontocphilippines (à Bontoc) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrIa_9zSRWJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[onesteptrekkers]

Maligcong Twin Hike

MT. FATO & MT. KUPAPEY

Location: Bontoc, Mountain Province

Features:

🌿 Majestic Maligcong Rice Terraces

🌿 Sea of Clouds at Mt. Kupapey summit (seasonal)

🌿 Rock formations at Mt. Fato summit

🌿 Friendly and Cute Guide dogs

🌿 Scenic trails covered with rich Fauna and Pine trees

🌿 Fascinating bonfire and picnic spot

You can experience this for only:

3599 php/head

Package Inclusions

Round trip AC Van transfers (MNL-Bontoc-MNL)

Diesel and toll fees

1 night Homestay accommodation

Registration and Guide fees

3 full board meals

Wood for bonfire

Coffee and snacks for picnic

OST Staff service fee

For further inquiries, send us a message: m.me/2367177550221206

Facebook: One Step Trekkers

Instagram: @onesteptrekkers

Tiktok: @onesteptrekkers

Email: onesteptrekkers@yahoo.com

Mobile: +639052815228

[aeshnalacrymosa]

Philippine weapons and attire

The mannequin is wearing Bontoc loincloth, hat, and pasiking (woven backpack) and holding a Bontoc shield.

The glass case behind the mannequin is displaying headhunting axes from the Mountain Province peoples.

Philippine spears for fishing, hunting, and combat

 Museo Oriental de Valladolid -mejor colección de arte oriental en España

[johanna-0123]

[issela-santina]

I watched a documentary tonight about the Bontok people (Mountain Province, Philippines) having zero concept of, let alone tolerance for, rape and here are the pros and cons that made it that way (I might add more points I can recall if I have the energy)

pros:

women are kept away from war not because they're considered weak but because they're literally the ones sowing in the rice fields so if they die, there will be famine

no bra? no problem!!

if you're a Müllerian working in the rice field and the Wolffian dudes are battling in your midst you can just show off your pussy and it will ward them off or curse them; logic being something like “thou shall not stare at where you came from”

as per the previous bullet: if a man makes you lift your skirt, curse him

if you hurt a woman, say goodbye to your masculinity

if a couple gets into a fight, the very design of their house and neighborhood means the rest of the village will likely intervene if the fight will not stop

heartbroken? your ex's housemates will help you find a new partner

divorce is legal (for comparison, divorce is not legal in the Philippines)

incest is illegal, brothers and sisters separate once they hit puberty

power differential between male and female but masculinity is morally forbidden to disparage femininity

fathers get to care for their babies!! and do household chores!!

cons:

arranged marriage, especially when you're rich

patriarchy: all the elders are men

the grandmas police the village

the marriageable ladies can let a guy in their house but the marriageable guys can't have a lady in theirs

your elders and parents whip you with a stick as a kid

no privacy

cancel culture is forever: if you do something heinous they will not forgive you

strict gender binary explanation as of the time documentary was released; they could adjust to queer people but that would be a different branch

colonialism still got to these people

the daily grind of agriculture makes you too physically exhausted to make people suffer (given that they have rice terraces nestled in the mountains, I think this one's understandable)

[issela-santina]

I'm frustrated to not immediately find an online way to stream the documentary Walang Rape sa Bontok but it's a must-see for everyone who gets this thread; for now here's just a talk with the researchers behind the docu

I got to hear from Carla and Lester as well when I watched it

Carla spent years in Bontoc during her research; she could walk around without a bra and nobody catcalled her but when she moved to Cagayan, a nearby province, all that catcalling is back

she used to call the Indigenous perception of it “simplistic” (because breasts are just breasts, why are we making it complicated?) but she regrets the term now — I myself would have just said it was a straightforward way of thinking, no bullshit

it's that no-bullshit way of thinking that allowed women to just walk around without the need for a blouse

and whenever the villages were at war, those women would just show their own pussy off so the men would leave them alone (their belief: it will curse you to look at where you came from)

the cons I saw were things like corporal punishment and zero privacy but otherwise the very structure of Bontok culture, alongside the limited accessibility of its geography that made it harder for colonizers to just barge in, has been quite effective in preventing rape for so long until the past few decades

I'm still thinking about it

white people ruined the non sexual intimacy of nakedness methinks

[mankadavi]

bontoc gothic

[thedalatribune]

© Paolo Dala

The Talubin - Can-eo Road

Traveling from Banaue, Ifugao to Sagada, Mountain Province is one of the best road trips I've experienced. To me, the Talubin - Can-eo Road is the most beautiful scenic route in the Philippines.

[rugged11th]

Road Junction

Circle, Bontoc

[arkipelagic]

Hi! Do you know any books by Indigenous authors from the archipelago rather than Filipino ppl researching or writing about them (acknowledging all these terms are fraught)

Chiva: A Reader on Ibaloy History and Culture is written by “a combination of professional researchers and non-academics” which includes native perspectives so you might wanna check that out.

anything by june chayapan prill-brett; she is half igorot and has been studying bontok societies for a long time. she was featured in the documentary walang rape sa bontoc.

if you want to include bangsamoro authors, who are indigenous to their lands but are not categorized as Indigenous Peoples per se, then you can go for The Rulers of Magindanao in Modern History, 1515–1903: Continuity and Change in a Traditional Realm in the Southern Philippines by datu atty. michael ong mastura. he is chinese-maguindanaoan and one of the (many, many) descendants of sultan kudarat.

this one i haven’t read but i’d also keep an eye out for Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader, which may include lumad or moro authors.

[jeremiebaldocchi]

15 Avril, 10h29 - Bontoc, Philippines #travel #travelphotography #travelphoto #voyage #voyages #philippines #philippines🇵🇭 #philipinestravel #luzon #luzonphilippines #bontoc #bontocphilippines (à Bontoc) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrIawFDyY4L/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[southeastasianists]

High in the western slopes of Mount Data sits a unique boulder. It's not the shape or sediment that sets it apart, but the unique inscriptions that decorate it.

In the 1950s, a small group of local farmers stumbled across the boulder, noticing its collection of prehistoric petroglyphs dating back over 3,000 years. They are the only engravings of their kind to be discovered in the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines, and the set is one of two in the whole country.

The petroglyphs were officially documented in 1972. After close inspections by experts, an estimated 200 rock carvings were identified. They also believed that the petroglyphs were carved sometime after 1500 B.C. With its suggested age, these remarkable engravings found within ancestral lands serve as proof that the culture and history of Cordillera Indigenous tribes can be traced all the way back to the Bronze Age.

Further findings suggest that a metallic tool was used to carve the images. Most of the engravings depict anthropomorphism through geometric patterns. The most evident include V- and U-shaped carvings that were associated with sexual organs, bows and arrows, and a human figure with outstretched arms. Some of the carvings were called Binutbuto, which means “penis-like” in the Bontoc dialect, while the rest were said to depict the female genitalia. The boulder that the petroglyphs were carved on has been called Binutbuto Rock ever since. The bows and arrows were associated with hunting. As to the human figure with outstretched arms, it was believed to represent a god or a tribal elder or priest.

According to the oral traditions of the Bontoc people of Alab, the people who created the petroglyphs are buried in nearby caves.

Today the petroglyphs continue to fade due to natural erosion, people stepping on them as they use the rock as a scenic viewpoint, and active vandalism. The location was submitted to UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2006, but has yet to receive a conservation status or protective measures.