THIS PLACE SHOULDN’T HAVE EXISTED
The odds are plainly stacked against it.
After all, this is the 21st century. There’s a decent cellular reception, reasonably passable roads and it’s about an hour drive from the main village of Banawe. Surely there’s a better way of making a living.
Not for the Ifugau people, a native Filipino nation, that have been building rice terraces and fighting the elements for thousands of years. Situated smack in the middle of the Rice Terraces region of Northern Luzon, Philippines, this is the small little-known village of Bangaan.
Bangaan lies just slightly off the road from the relatively more familiar site of Batad (which we shall cover in another post).
It might as well be completely off the charts. When we got there, we were the only non-Pilipino around.
Out of the way and out of sight? Perhaps.
We disembarked our rented Jeepney and took a narrow steep route down to the valley below. We navigated the vertically carved steps all drenched in rain (it was the middle of the dry season), and there we were – wondering how such a place managed to beat the odds and be.
And the odds are pretty high. No matter how pastoral this photo may look like, living in Bangaan isn’t easy. Certainly not for the few dozens of Bangaanians that call this tiny assembly of small shacks – home. The villagers live off their thousands year old rice terraces. They may not wear their traditional and ornamented Ifogau attire – nobody in the area does anymore – but they do keep the ancient old rhythm. Women plant rice. Men harvest rice. Most of all though they are busy maintaining their small patches of rice against mother nature.
Fighting the elements
Fighting the element is no simple task in this area. The mountainous region facing the mighty Pacific receives an annual rainfall of about 1,700mm (6’5”, more or less – almost three times that of London). Combine that with some very steep slopes and what you’ll get are terrace-crunching mud slides.
The apparent reason for all that hard work would be tourist money. Bangaan looks like the sort of place whose sole existence is to showcase the “traditional way of living” to a never ending string of tour groups. “there got to be a line somewhere with a kiosk selling tickets and another one peddling over-priced soft drinks”, we thought to ourselves as got closer.
Only there was none.
This was not a carefully orchestrated show made especially for foreigners with cameras and cash.
This was for real.
The terrace-people of Northern Luzon may have lost their colorful traditional clothes, but they haven’t lost their traditional way of life.
Despite the hardships.
Thank god for that.
Have you visited the Rice Terraces of the Philippines?
What was your take?