Once, they were headhunters
A project commissioned by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) for Senator Loren Legarda's DAYAW show
Photographs by Dino Dimar
Written by Floy Quintos
Not many Filipinos know of the Bugkalot of Nueva Vizcaya, of their history as nomadic farmers and jungle foragers. Those who do may know them better as the Ilongot, a people once renowned as fearsome headhunters.
The Bugkalot occupy the forests and mountains of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, and Aurora provinces. In Vizcaya, the Bugkalot are concentrated around forests of the headwaters of the Cagayan River. The Taan River is especially important to them.
Unlike other indigenous peoples of the Cordilleras, not many early studies or documents exist about the Bugkalot. The few documents and studies refer to them by the more popular name, Ilongot.
It was for their ferocity and daring as headhunters that the Ilongot were well-known. Long after other Cordillera peoples had been pacified, the Ilongot were still actively practicing headhunting.
A successful headhunt allowed a young man to transition to adulthood and married life.
The definitive text on the practice and psychology of the Ilongot headhunter was published in 1980 by anthropologist Renato Rosaldo. Having lived with the Ilongot for many years, he was able to study a society that had been shaped by headhunting from 1883, the time when the Ilongot were first documented, to 1974, when the practice waned.
The cult of the warrior-headhunter was deeply-rooted in Ilongot culture. A successful headhunt allowed a young man to transition to adulthood and married life. Men who had taken heads were accorded the right to wear the prestige symbols that marked their status.
Rosaldo tried to explain the need for taking heads by linking this to the Ilongot concept of “liget”—a deep and troubling depression that afflicted Ilongot youth and led to anger and aggression. Only after having successfully taken a head, could one’s sense of order and balance return.
In 1967, a group of Ilongot leaders came together to establish the Bugkalot Confederation, an organization of Ilongot clans with the aim of establishing a new identity. Now, as Bugkalot, their past as headhunters could be erased. As Bugkalot, the concept and image of the war-like Ilongot could be rehabilitated.
But much as their storied, controversial past could be rewritten, the Bugkalot ties to forests, mountains, and river cannot be erased. In their agriculture, their ways of fishing and harvesting, the Bugkalot still very much resemble their Ilongot forebears.
The dry method of planting rice is more favored by the Bugkalot. The steep terrain and the small land space have made them experts in this method of agriculture.
In the once lush jungles that covered these hills, sunlight needed to reach the plotted gardens below. A unique system of pollarding or cutting the branches of trees was developed.
Using lengths of rattan vine as slack bridges strung between trees and branches, the men would travel through the forest treetops, cutting overhanging branches and allowing the sun to nourish their hard-grown crops.
It is also said that this system was used for the warriors and headhunters to travel, noiseless and undetected through the treetops.
But much as the old ways still prevail, the Bugkalot face a quandary. In 1995, the Casecnan Dam was inaugurated. It was supposed to feed the waters of the Taan River into the Pantabangan Dam, thus irrigating the rice fields of lowland Nueva Ecija farms. The dam was seen as a boon to lowland farmers. For the Bugkalot, the waters of the river that once nurtured their culture flow onto their lands less freely now, as the full might and effectivity of the dam are felt.
For Frederick Barcelo, a young Bugkalot father, the preservation of what remains of their culture is a cause urgent enough to devote his life to. As a worker in the local barangay, he spends time with the Bugkalot elders, recording what they still remember of the old ways.
The dam has affected more than just the flow of the waters of the Taan river, he says. “ Because of the noise of the dam, even the animals of the forests—deer, boar and wild fowl—have retreated deeper into the mountains. Our means of river transport has also been affected as the waters are receding. Our traditional ways of fishing have also been affected as there are no more fish.”
In the face of so much change, Frederick chooses to focus on his mission to preserve as much of traditional Bugkalot culture. “The time may come when we will have to leave this place in order to survive. I hope that we will be able to bring the ways of our ancestors with us.”
This story has been published in the book called Dayaw.
Senator Loren Legarda proposed the idea for the Dayaw documentary series, which is now available as a book, as part of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts' (NCCA) roadmap. Using print and broadcast media, the objective is to popularise both our tangible and intangible cultural legacy.
Senator Loren Legarda is a supporter of Philippine arts and culture as well as the preservation of our national legacy.
For the book, Dino has been commissioned as both the art director and photographer.
For assignment and print inquiry, please send a message to dinoldimar@gmail.com
All images are copyrighted property of Dino Dimar © All rights reserved
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