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- The mountain rice terraces at Banaue, Ifugao Province, Cordillera
Region, Luzon Island in North Central Luzon are a World Heritage Site
inscribed by UNESCO in 1995, and are commonly referred to as the ‘’
Eight Wonder of the World ‘’. The terraces were built over 2,000 years
ago for rice production by the Ifugao tribes who first migrated to The
Philippines from Taiwan.
- They are renowned in that for 2000 years they
have successfully contoured the mountains in harmony between humankind
and the environment. The terraces are situated 1500 meters above sea
level [ 5,000 feet ] and cover an area of approximately 4000 square
miles [ 10,500 square kilometers ].
- The Terraces are located in more
than one location. The Banaue Terraces are the more famous but equally
important are similar terraces to be seen at nearby, Battad, Mayoyao,
Hapao and Kiangan.
- The terraces capture and manage water from the
higher natural forests. The water is held and efficiently managed to
maximum advantage for rice production by the Ifugao people..
- The
Battad Terraces are at Barangay Battad in Banaue some 12 kilometers
from Banaue. These are the famous tiered amphi-theatre styled terraces.
The Mayoyao Terraces are at Mayoyao which is in the center of many
astonishing views. Here the dikes are tiered with stones and here
native wild rice is grown. This wild rice is either red or white and is
called ‘’ Tinawon ‘’.
- The Mayoyao Terrace Clusters are also at
Banaue, some 44 kilometers from Poblacion. The Hapao Terrace Clusters
are in the municipality of Hungduan some 55 kilometers from the
capital Hungduan. These are distinquished by their stone wall
supporting terraces. Here also are the Napulawan Terraces. The Kiangan
Terraces , Nagacadan, contain the large terraces called ‘’ Julungan and
Nagadan ‘'.
- The excursion to these Terraces from Manila is 9 to 10
hours each way and requires a stay of several nights. A good example of
the Ifugao village amongst the terraces can be seen at Bangaan Rice
Terraces from Poblacion.
THE WORLD HERITAGE LISTS the '' Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras
1 The Rice Terrace Clusters of Banaue: Battad and Bangaan
2 The Rice Terrace Clusters of Mayoyao: Mayoyao Central
3 The Rice Terrace Clusters of Kiangan: Nagacadan
4 The Rice Terrace Clusters of Hungduan
- '' The
rice terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras are an unmistakable
example of a landscape resulting from the combined works of nature and
man, illustrative of the evolution of human society and settlement over
time, under the influence of physical constraints presented by their
natural environment and of successive social, economic and cultural
forces.
- The four Clusters presented in this nomination are the best
surviving examples of tribal management still in practice. Traditional
Methods are used in the maintenance of environmental balance, the
buffer zone of private forests ringing the terrace group, the terraces
themselves, the villages, and the sacred groves. The cultural practices
of the tribes remaining within these clusters reinforce the traditional
maintenance methods. The rice terraces are an expression of the
Ifugao’s mastery of the watershed ecology and terrace engineering. It
is also a complex farming system consisting not only of the terrace
ponds but also the swidden farms and the muyongs ( private forests ).
- All these components of the terrace systems must be taken together if
the rice terraces are to be conserved and maintained. the organically
evolved landscape which results from an initial social, economic,
administrative and or religious imperative and has developed its
present form by association with and in response to its natural
environment . . . a continuing landscape is one which retains an active
social role in contemporary society closely associated with the
traditional way of life, and in which the evolutionary process is still
in progress. At the same time, it exhibits significant material
evidence of its evolution over time.”
History
- The rice
terraces of the Cordilieras are the only monuments in the Philippines
that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures.
Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the
few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted any
foreign domination and have preserved their authentic tribal culture.
The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people,
their culture, and their traditional practices.
- The terraces,
which spread over five present-day provinces, are the only form of
stone construction from the pre-colonial period.
- The Philippines alone
among south-east Asian cultures is a wholly wood-based one: unlike
Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, for example, in the Philippines both
domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines
were all built in wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace
hamlets. It is believed that terracing began in the Cordilleras some
two thousand years ago, though scholars are not in agreement about the
original purpose for which it was employed.
- It is evidence of a high
level of knowledge of structural and hydraulic engineering on the part
of those who built the terraces. The knowledge and practices, supported
by rituals, involved in maintaining the terraces are transferred orally
from generation to generation, without written records. Taro was the
first crop when they began to be used for agriculture, later to be
replaced by rice, which is the predominant crop today.
Description
- The
terraces are situated at altitudes between 700 and 1500 m above
sea-level and are spread over most of the 20,000 km land area covered
by the provinces of Kalinga Apayao, Abra, the Mountain Province,
Ifugao, and Benguet. The population density of the region is 100 to 250
inhabitants per square kilometre. The nomination covers four clusters of
the best preserved terraces in the region. Each cluster still remains
complete, with its basic elements of a buffer ring of private forests, terraces, village, and sacred grove.
- Terraced rice
fields are not uncommon in Asia. To contain the water needed for rice
cultivation within the paddies, even gently rolling terrain must be
terraced with stone or mud walls. High altitude paddies must be kept
wet and have to rely upon a man made water collecting system.
- The
principal differences between the Philippines terraces and those
elsewhere are their higher altitude and the steeper slopes ( 70’
maximum as compared with 40’ maximum in Bali ). The high altitude
cultivation is based on the use of a special strain of rice, which
germinates under freezing conditions and grows chest high, with non
shattering panicles, to facilitate harvesting on slopes that are too
steep to permit the use of animals or machinery of any kind.
- The
construction of the terraces is carried out with great care and
precision. A course of marker stones is first laid out on a concave
slope, backed by heavy broken gravel fill set into cuts into the
natural slope to prevent slippage. As each course of dry stone walling
is added, the level of fill is raised.
- An underground conduit is placed
within the fill for drainage purposes, when the level of fill reaches
within a metre or so of the desired height, a layer of hard-packed
earth is laid down on the gravel fill, as the base of the 20 to 30 cm
of soft, thorough worked clayey topsoil. The stone walling is on
average about 2 m high, though some walls may rise to as high as 6 m.
- The
groups of terraces blanket the mountainsides, following their contours.
Above them, rising to the mountain-tops, is the ring of private woods, which are intensively managed in conformity with traditional
tribal practices.
- These recognize the existence of a total ecosystem
which assures an adequate water supply to keep the terraces flooded.
water is equitably shared, and no single terrace obstructs the flow of
water on its way down to the next terrace below.
- There is a complex
system, of dams, sluices, channels, and bamboo pipes, communally
maintained, which drain into a stream at the bottom of the valley. The
villages or hamlets are associated with groups of terraces, and consist
of groups of single family tribal dwellings which architecturally
reproduce the people’s spatial interpretation of their mountain
environment. A steep pitched thatched pyramidal roof covers a wooden
one-room dwelling, raised above the ground on four posts and reached by
a ladder which is pulled up at night.
- Clusters of dwellings form small
hamlets of interrelated families, with a centrally located ritual
rice field as their focus. This is the first parcel to be planted or
harvested; its owners make all the agricultural decisions for the
community, manage its primary ritual, which includes a granary housing
carved wooden gods, and the basket reliquary in which portions of
consecrated sacrifices from all agricultural ceremonial rites are kept.
- A short distance from the cluster of dwellings is the ritual hill,
usually marked by a grove of sacred betel trees round a hut or open
shed where the holy men live and carry out traditional
rites.
Legal status
- Individual terraces are privately
owned and protected through the ancestral rights concept of ownership.
Ownership is rigorously enforced by tribal law, which is administered
by mumbaki ( holy men ). Ownership of terraces and muyong ( private
forest ) can only be transferred to next of kin by inheritance. The
rice terraces were declared National Treasures in Presidential Decrees
Conservation history
- The
concept of conservation is hardly applicable in the case of the
Philippines rice terraces, since they have been at the core of the
socio-economic structure of the peoples of the region for the past two thousand years. It is only in the later decades of the 20th century that the
social equilibrium of these communities has become profoundly
threatened. Some terrace clusters continue to be impeccably worked and
maintained, many are being abandoned and left to decay.
- The successful
Christianisation campaign of the 1950s brought to an end immemorial
Pagan tribal practices and rituals that are essential to maintaining
the human commitment to balance nature and man in the landscape. Today
only the older generations remain to work on the terraces and the
agricultural workforce is inadequate. The economic circumstances of all
but the most affluent terrace owners do not permit them to hire
additional workers. The fragrant terrace grown tinawon rice is now a
status symbol, served on special occasions and low land rice is
purchased for everyday consumption.
- The environment has also
been severely damaged by deforestation, and as a result streams have
run dry, massive earthquakes have also changed the locations of water
sources. As a result terrace dams have had to be moved and the water
distribution system re-routed. In the past attempts to preserve terrace
economies have been made sporadically, but have focused on single
factors from the complex of interacting factors involved, and as a
result have had little, if any, positive impact. The new Master Plan
that went into effect at the beginning of 1995 under the guidance of
the lfugao Terraces Commission is the first to adopt a holistic
approach.
Authenticity
- As with the concept of
conservation, authenticity is not a factor that can be called into
question with the Philippines rice terraces. They can function only the
direct result of the achievement of a delicate balance between a wide
range of factors - climatic, geographical, ecological, agronomic,
ethnographic, religious, social, economic, political etc. Once these
are disturbed the whole system begins to collapse, but so long as they
all operate together harmoniously, as they have over two millennia, the
authenticity is total. The authenticity of the four areas is so far
intact.
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- Culture and its Terraced Qualities
- The terraces
are of great significance in that they are outstanding examples of
landscapes devoted exclusively to one of the three staple crops that
cover most of the world, rice, wheat, and maize. Rice production falls
essentially into two main groups, high-altitude and low-level
production. The Philippines terraces are outstanding examples of the
former group.
- They also illustrate a remarkable continuity, since
archaeological evidence reveals that this technique has been in use in
the region for some two thousand years, virtually unchanged. The
social, religious and economic structures within which they have
operated successfully for that period are still in place, especially in
the areas that are the subject of the nomination, although under
intensive threat from 20th century development.
- The rice terraces of
the Cordilleras are of special interest as an example of sustainable
land use in steep, mountainous terrain, involving protection of the
watershed forests, careful use of water, extensive soil conservation,
and development of cultivation suited to the conditions. The near-total
absence of chemicals in rice production is an added feature.
- That this
system has endured over two thousand years is remarkable, it offers many
Iessons for application in similar natural environments elsewhere.
- The
rice terraces of the Philippine Cordillera are outstanding examples of
living cultural landscapes devoted to the production of one of the
world’s most important staple crops, rice.
- They preserve traditional
techniques and forms dating back many centuries, but which are still
viable today. At the same time they illustrate a remarkable degree of
harmony between humankind and the natural environment of great
aesthetic appeal, as well as demonstrating sustainable farming systems
in mountainous terrain, based on a careful use of natural resources.
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