WHS#71

In the Philippines, you grow up hearing about them; seeing pictures of them; memorizing them for your Social Studies or Araling Panlipunan quiz; even having them in your wallet (on the opposite side from President Quezon's face). The Ifugao Rice Terraces! And if there's one thing that unites Pinoys, it's rice. The crop is grown all around the country in the iconic Asian rice paddies. And what happens when you live in the mountains where there's no flat land to make paddies? Well, most would just move to better grounds, but for the people of the Philippine Cordilleras, they created terraces. Now, as an avid traveler, agricultural terraces weren't exactly new to me, and, I'm guessing, for many of you reading this as well. I had previously seen the maize and potato terraces of the Andes, vineyards of Europe, and olive terraces of the Levant. What makes these terraces so special? The sheer beauty of it! In other parts of the world, terraces are basically auxiliary attractions. The Incas just happened to build terraces to support their impressive cities, the Europeans their vineyards nearby their various manors, the Balinese their rice terraces as part of irrigation systems that also provide their temples, and so on. Many of those are either deserted and unkept, rather recent, or not scenic. It's different here in Ifugao, where the terraces, their beauty, their culture, their people, and the experiences they offer are what make a trip to them. I could've spent a whole week in Ifugao just to see different terraces and maybe even a whole month to see those in the other provinces, some of which one would pass on a side trip to Sagada.

I spent 3 days in Banaue, including a day trip to Sagada. The night bus from Manila is pretty convenient, arriving early in the morning and departing at around 5pm. I communicated with a local guide, Jhun Ognayon (really nice guy), ahead of time, and he was there at the bus station (the side of the 2-lane highway, by the tourism office) to pick me up. The terraces are all around the town of Banaue, but these aren't the WHS, and they're not what I'm here for. These terraces are mostly abandoned now, as people prefer to work in town than in the fields. The WHS and the real treasures of the province are all living agricultural landscapes, where one can actually find farmers working and endless fields of rice growing. I visited 3 out of the 5 clusters on the list: Batad, Bangaan, and Hungduan (actually a municipality with several clusters of terraces). The other 2 clusters, Mayoyao and Nagacadan, are in the Mayoyao and Kiangan municipalities, respectively, which are a bit farther away from the town of Banaue, so with my time constraints, I decided against including them. Mayoyao is also known for its native tombs and other cultural properties found within the terraces, which was really tempting, but would warrant a whole day's hike for itself. Though I would definitely return to see Mayoyao, I ended up really impressed by and satisfied with the 3 I visited. This was in May 2019, and the terraces are a bright green in this time of year, and some of the grains were already big and golden, which I learn means that they're ready for harvest. After checking in and settling down, we left for Batad, over half an hour from the town by the scenic highway carved into the mountainside.

Batad is, by far, the most impressive set of terraces I've ever seen, and I believe, the most impressive in the world. It's commonly termed as the "amphitheater" terraces, but it only covers one semicircular slope of the mountain, which makes it more like "theater" terraces. This does mean that it doesn't seem infinite like the clusters in Banaue and Hungduan, but just how scenic it is more than makes up for it. From the saddle, it's a short trek (about half an hour each way, though pretty steep and across some unstable rocks) through the jungle to the village, where the terraces come into full view. The trek's approach really builds up the suspense of the view too. There's a little tease before you arrive in the form of a few small terraces. The view from the village is the most iconic view, but Jhun and I took another short (also about half an hour each way) trek to the highest point of the terraces, where I believe the best view is. From the village, the view faces the terraces with a bit of an angle, so it's more like a postcard. Trekking into the terraces, however, opens up a whole new perspective to the view. As easy as it is to appreciate the steepness from the village viewpoint, that steepness becomes so much more real when on one side, you see the other terraces hundreds of meters below. From the top, the whole site is just all around, and I could really finally take in the whole scene and what this all was. The path we followed was literally the edge of a terrace, where we spotted a 70-something year-old woman tending to her rice crops. My guide had a few words with her in their native language, and that really brought home for me how amazing this landscape is. The stunning scenery, the extremely distinct culture so close to home yet unrecognizable, the deathly view on one side, the rice crops brushing by my hands on the other, it was all so breathtaking - including the hike itself. Even Jhun was having a hard time catching his breath. You can also trek to the Tappiya Falls behind the mountain, but I opted against it due to time constraints and the fact that I've seen many great waterfalls both inside (check out Tinuy-an in Surigao!) and outside the country. We also joked that we didn't need to trek to a waterfall as so many seemed to spill onto the highway. Water isn't exactly a scarce resource here, but it's still important to note the importance of the irrigation systems such as those used in the terraces in that the distribution and storage of water resources for agriculture is still especially hard up in the mountains.

After Batad, we kept driving towards the 2nd WHS cluster, Bangaan. This is the smallest cluster, it seems, as it consists of just a small village and the terraces around it. Don't let that fool you, the village here is actually the highlight, unlike the slight eyesore it is in other clusters. In Batad, the village is starting to modernize. Most buildings are already concrete with painted metal roofs and walls, but in Bangaan, you can see a traditional village, almost completely brown. The best view is from the side of the highway, where a makeshift zipline for transporting goods to the village can be seen. The nearby Duclingan terraces, which I'm actually unsure of if they're part of the WHS Bangaan cluster, are just as impressive down the road. They are situated in a river valley, called the "Snake River" for the snaking path of the river, and the terraces seem to cling to the edges of the river, creating a really beautiful view. The next day, we saw the very scenic but non-WHS Banaue central cluster and the Bayyo village terraces in Mountain Province en route to Sagada. The highway itself passes in the middle of some living rice terraces, but their scenic value is somewhat muted by the terrain and the fact that the highway snakes in their midst. The Banaue terraces truly seem endless, and it may surprise people that it isn't part of the WHS, but upon actually walking through them, I discovered that there wasn't a single rice crop in many of them. Bayyo, on the other hand, seems really scenic and actively-used, so I'm not sure why they weren't included in the nomination other than maybe lacking a defining outstanding characteristic or simply not being located in Ifugao. I can't really judge that one much since the viewpoint by the highway is some distance away.

On the 3rd day, I visited the Hapao cluster in the neighboring Hungduan municipality. We had to stop at the tourism office there first, as Hungduan only allows treks with guides from the municipality. This was probably the most off-the-beaten-track of the ones I visited, but also the most in-depth experience, since I trekked the greatest distance here to get to the Bogya hot spring. The trail starts in a not-so-scenic part by the Hapao Barangay Hall, but even from there, the vastness of the terraces is already apparent. The trail goes through some jungle before coming into the terraces about 2km in. The jungle is home to a lot of interesting fauna, including a strange green stem that was quite crunchy and sour, a delicacy for the locals. When we finally reached the terraces, I felt so at home with all the rice around me. Soon after this, the view opened up and I saw the iconic view of Hapao: a wide river valley with equally wide and vast terraces. These were very much in contrast with those of Batad, being more horizontally impressive. It was also great to be on a trail with barely anyone in sight, aside from the occasional passing delivery man with packages maybe a third of his body weight perched on his head. God, I don't know how they carry so much while walking so fast. Anyway, as I go on, the terraces get narrower as we go up the valley until they simply line the river, the flat terrain giving way to the mountains at last. Canals of clear cold water line the paths until I reach the end of the terraces and I see the source of the main canal: a diversion channel from the river. Speaking of source, this is also where the hot springs are, and they're quite a nice place to chill after the hike. I, however, was more drawn to the river beside the hot spring, where travelers over the years have stacked rocks to form a really cool collection of rock towers right on the shallow river bed. It's a really cool atmospheric place to end the hike. We then walked all the way back to the road, tired but happy with the experience. While we did encounter a few tourists, mostly white backpackers it seems, I loved the authenticity of the experience in Hapao. Everything is just the way it is without tourists, so it really sparkles naturally, like a real dreamland. In the middle of terraces, you’d see the occasional church or storehouse or palm tree pop up, and yet not disrupting the scene. You can just feel so close to not only nature, but also the way of life here in the mountains.

The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are truly outstanding in all of the agricultural landscapes of the world. Their setting in the high-altitude steep slopes of the Cordilleras gives them their unmatched beauty as well as isolates and preserves their unique cultural heritage. As a fellow Pinoy, I really couldn’t understand a word of their language, and apparently there are so many more distinct dialects and languages within the province and the region. Their traditional customs are so rich and unique that only they represent the Philippines in UNESCO’s list of Intangible World Heritage. The culture is the backbone of this site, and without it, we wouldn’t have these world-class treasures of terraces. They’d be abandoned like those in Banaue, fall into disrepair, and lose all the history they hold, and all that was once, and may again be, in danger of happening. The draw of employment in the cities means that fewer and fewer in the younger generations will stay and maintain the terraces and the culture. The terraces will need more and more protection as the years pass.

As to why the terraces of the other provinces have not been included in this protection, I still don’t know. All 5 terrace clusters in the WHS are actually part of the Ifugao province, manifesting the unique Ifugao culture. However, neighboring provinces like Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Benguet are also home to beautiful terraces and rich cultures of their own, as I saw in Bayyo. Even Ifugao and the Banaue municipality have more inaccessible terraces that could be worthy of inclusion in the WHS. From what I’ve seen from my own experiences, though, the few terraces inscribed were indeed there for a reason. They really are the most beautiful and impressive agricultural terraces that I’ve seen, and quite possibly, in the world, especially Batad. Though they obviously aren't the first or only spark of innovation in agricultural terraces around the world (their age is still debatable from as early as over 2 millenia ago and as late as around 5 centuries ago, either way the concept was passed down from Southern China), they are still unique for their natural setting and perfect execution. Altogether, they form an exemplary ensemble of the cultural impact on natural landscapes, united by their place as influences and icons of Ifugao heritage. I’ll forever reminisce of walking through the endless rice fields, golden crops of grain on one side and a steep, deathly fall on the other, with the forested mountains and terraces and blue skies all around me, the clean mountain air blowing in my face. They’re absolutely worth the long trip to the Cordilleras, even a sleepless night bus ride. At least, that’s what I think as I get on the bus to leave behind me the Ifugao life, as I leave the dreamland. It’s a sight everyone must see, smell, feel, hike, and absorb to believe.