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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Great discoveries in Banaue

By MA. ISABEL ONGPIN

I have balikbayans in town and the first item on their sightseeing agenda is the Banaue Rice Terraces, two thousand years old, world famous and a UN Herittage Site. I had been to Banaue twice before. The first time when I returned home from graduate school in the US utterly embarrassed that I had never seen them. At that time we hired a car and driver from Baguio, brought my mother who had lived in Baguio for decades and had never been there either. Banaue is just an arduous undertaking inland into the Ifugao mountain fastnesses of Luzon. The Halsema Highway is prone to landslides and washed out roads and even in good weather that first time you could see and feel the effects in the rough surfaces, one-way portions and rocks on the road. The next time, 15 years later we went by helicopter. Definitely, Banaue is worth the trip and the effort.

My balikbayan friends and I took 12 hours this time passing via Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya. It would have been 10 hours if we had not stopped at the Max Fried Chicken Restaurant in Cabanatuan (another item on the balikbayan list) where we arrived half an hour before serving time but were graciously allowed to sit and wait in airconditioned comfort. Next stop was after the Dalton Pass in Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya at Mrs. Gaddi’s Restaurant and Coffee Shop. She had a new (2011) Sanso painting over a large stone fireplace and a huge Aileen Lanuza painting of three women in Maria Clara dresses titled “Three Senioritas” and a lovely set of rattan chairs that were to die for.

Finally we hit Ifugao at dusk passing by Kiangan, where Yamashita came down from the mountains and surrendered in World War II, then Lagawe which is the capital of Ifugao and has the Ifugao State University. Close to 7 pm we ended our trip at the Banaue Hotel run by the Tourist Infrastructure and Enterprise Authority (TIEZA). The last 45 minutes we traveled in darkness and heavy fog. We had an excellent driver and a cheerful guide in a 2011 Starex van that made this trip a safe and successful event for seven of us.

The Banaue Hotel is well-appointed and large, a 1973 government project offering a comfortable place to stay in Banaue after the long trip. It even has a swimming pool but there were no takers among us, too cold and too much to see to linger in it.

The next day we went directly to the viewpoints of the rice terraces. Due to age and other constraints of some of us, it was agreed wewould not undertake the extensive trekking opportunities to see other terraces. Julius Velasco was our local guide, grandson of a Bolo Man, famed guerrilla fighters of the North. His grandfather still alive at 90 plus was a runner between the mountains taking messages from one camp to the other between guerrillas and the US Army. Julius showed us three vantage points to view the terraces, mountains of clearly defined rectangles with the water in them shimmering in the sunlight. Seedbeds were scattered around them growing the shoots that would be soon transplanted into the terraces. It is an awesome sight looking across, looking up and looking down. You see small footbridges hanging over streams and rocks down, down from you. Along the walls there are paths of little steps that take you up, up into the next terraces. The sky was clouded over but it was bright and clear with perfect light for photography. One viewpoint was called the Thousand Peso Point as it was featured from that angle in the old thousand pesobill.

Seeing the plants, the people, the environment of mountain and sky, trees and streams of a far mountain community settled over thousands of years, adjusted to its environment as shown by the rice terraces, now with a life of their own, is always a moving experience no matter how often you witness it. It represents a peoples’ culture evolved through thousands of years, hundreds of generations.

The rest of the day was spent visiting villages, weaving centers, and two museums. The Banaue Museum is the older one and it has marvelous photographs of the tribal peoples and their customs as well as an interesting set of letters between Gen. Yamashita and Gen. McGill, commanding general of the US forces in the area just before Yamashita surrendered himself at Kiangan. The letters between bothwere of highest civility and felicitous turn of phrase. Not unexpected from an English speaker but quite startling from Yamashita who must have had an excellent English speaker among his staff. That it was a cruel war is very much etched into Ifugao memory with Ifugao huts claiming to exhibit what they say are Japanese skulls.

The second museum which is the Museum of Cordilleran Sculptures was mind-boggling. It has a huge collection of carved figures, furniture, rice boxes, spears, sorcery artifacts, textile, everyday artifacts, of the best and rarest quality that were intelligently and clearly captioned with texts showing a depth of understanding about what they were showing that bowled us over. I must be very ignorant because I had never heard of this treasure trove of Cordillera art and felt like a discoverer. I found out later that it has been put together over the years by a plant expert and author, George Schenk, whose wife is Filipina and I would guess maybe from the area. I express utmost appreciation to them for sharing the collection to the public.

Still on my trip and will report more next column.

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