#luzon

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Pancake batfish (Halieutichthys sp.) post-larval stage, portrait, Anilao, Batangas marine protected area, Luzon, Philippines, Verde Island Passages, Pacific Ocean.

Alex Mustard

[meta-holott]

1978 Philippines, Luzon, Manila

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

May I request the northern Luzon giant cloud rat? These rodents can get as large as 50 cm, and I need more people to know about them.

Of course!

Have you seen the northern Luzon giant cloud rat (Phloeomys pallidus)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onAug 25, 2025

[filipinfodump]

Why the Dead Come Back No More

Myth from the Ifugao People

A very long time ago there lived a very kind woman with her three little children. She loved her children so much that she worked hard to be able to feed them. One day she fell ill and in a short time she died . Her spirit went to Kadungayan, of course, as she lived a good life. But one night she thought of her poor little children whom she left on earth. She imagined that no one cared for them and that they must be hungry and cold. She pitied them so much that she decided to go back to earth. When she reached their house, she called her elder child to open the door for her. The children recognized their mother's voice and opened the door at once. She went in and spoke to them but they could not see her because it was very dark and their fire had gone out. The children were too small and they did not know how to build a fire. So the woman sent her eldest child to beg fire from the neighbors as she felt very cold. The poor child went to the first house but when she told them that she wanted fire for her mother who had come back home, the people just laughed at her. They did not give her fire. She went to the next house, but the same thing happened. Thus, she went to the next house, from house to house but no one believed that her mother had come back. They thought the poor child had gone out of her mind. So the poor child went home without the fire. The woman was very angry at all the unkind people. She said, " Am I to die a second death because men are so selfish? Come, my children, let us go to that better place where I came from— Kadungayan. There are no selfish people there." She took a jar of water and went outside in the yard. She shouted to all the people, "Ah, what selfish people you are. From this time on all people will follow my example. No man will ever come back to earth after death." With these words she smashed the jar on a big stone. This made a terrific sound. All the people became silent with fear. The next morning the people came out to see what had caused the great voice. They saw the bits of broken jar and they found the three children dead. They now knew that the woman had really come back home that night and that in her anger at their selfishness had taken her three children with her. The people were so sorry for not having given fire to the little girl. Since then no dead person has ever come back to earth. From Philippine Folk Literature Series: Vol. III, The Myths (2002), compiled and edited by Damiana L. Eugenio, published by The University of the Philippines Press (shopee, amazon)

[blog-region]

[arkipelagic]

[Time Trowel] The Ifugao Rice Terraces are 400 years old. That matters.

The terraces were built by communities who responded to political and economic change with innovation and resolve. This is a story that shou

Based on two decades of research, we now understand that the terraces were likely constructed around 400 to 500 years ago. In archaeological terms, that is recent.

These terraces were not built in isolation from colonial events. In fact, their construction and expansion coincided with Spanish colonial pressure in the lowlands. The Ifugao were never isolated during the colonial period. They maintained active engagements — economic, cultural, and political — with neighboring groups and colonial agents.

The terraces are better understood as part of a larger strategy to engage, negotiate, resist, navigate, and adapt to external forces.

Radiocarbon dating has been essential in rethinking the timeline of Ifugao history. A radiocarbon date of AD 1300 from the Banaue confirms that people were already living in the region prior to Spanish contact.

Excavations at the Old Kiyyangan Village (OKV) site suggest even earlier occupation, with dates going back 1,000 years before present (BP). However, these early dates do not indicate the presence of rice cultivation.

Botanical analyses from these layers have not yielded rice remains, suggesting that wet-rice agriculture was not practiced during the earliest phases of settlement. This absence reinforces the idea that intensified rice terrace construction was a response to later colonial entanglements rather than a long-standing tradition.

(…) Their terraces were part of a deliberate political and cultural strategy. They were built in response to threat, not as a product of isolation. They show how upland communities adapted and asserted control over their future in a rapidly changing world.

But the national curriculum continues to sideline these histories. Philippine nationalist history, largely shaped during the American colonial period, emphasized a singular story of nationhood. This story focused on heroes, battles, and key dates that followed a linear narrative of colonization, revolution, and independence.

While this framework helped create a shared sense of identity, it also flattened the historical experiences of communities that followed different timelines. Groups like the Ifugao, Kalinga, Subanen, and Aeta groups are often described as untouched by colonization or outside the mainstream, when in fact they actively shaped their own histories and contributed to broader national developments.

[mothmiso]

Cordillera Administrative Region (2) (3) (4) by J.M. Rosario

Via Flickr:

(1) Wilma Gaspili, a traditional tattoo artist from Benguet. (2) Watwat (commonly described as a slice/slices of boiled pork that is distributed or shared as part of the meal of an Igorot feast) and pinuneg (blood sausage) (3) Saint Bernard dog sleeping beside walis tambos or soft broom near Lion's Head along Kennon Road, Camp 6, Baguio City. (4) Fruit stall in La Trinidad, Benguet.     

[nuuskamuikkanen]

They’re so ❤️