TRIBU sa KORDILYERA

The Philippines, named after King Philip II of Spain in 1618, was already of interest to Spain before the Spaniardseven reached the land. In 1565, reports of huge gold mines in the Cordillera reached the Viceroy of Mexico, which led to the first official Spanish expedition to the Cordillera in 1576. King Philip III, waging the Thirty Year War which needed funding, sent orders for large expeditions to the Philippines. In 1620, Captain Garcia de Aldana Cabrera offered the resisting Igorot tribal leaders clemency if they were willing to accept Catholic religion, obey the Spanish government and pay a fifth of all their mined gold to the Spanish King. They refused and the Spanish conquerors built forts and organized military troops to start the exploitation of the gold mines. During the years that followed, the Spanish managed to trade gold despite setbacks from the Igorots, who because of their resistance remained relatively independent from Spanish rule. The price that the Igorots had to pay for this independence was that they became different from their colonised brothers. The Philippines staged Asias first nationalistic revolution in 1896, and declared its independence on June 12, 1898. The newly founded country was soon taken over by the United States of America. The US was the first foreign nation to fully invade the highlands of the Gran Cordillera to push the mining operations in the territory. On September 27, 1927, the Benquet Concolidated Mining Company discovered one of the richest veins of gold ever, at a time when the USA was entering the Great Depression. This was the start of a real gold rush into Cordillera region: in 1929, there were 94 mining companies, by 1933 there were 17,812. This extreme growth had tremendous results for the landscape; it changed the original one way Mountain Trail into a busy highway despite the road slides and cuts that occur up to this day. Again, similar to the fight against the Spanish, the indigenous inhabitants protested against the destruction of their land and the neglecting of their rights. Mining operations continued to grow and by 1939 the Philippines ranked among the worlds leading gold producers, and second to the state of California among US producers.From 1936 to 1946 the Philippines was granted domestic self administration under the Commonwealth of the Philippines as a transitional period to complete independence. From 1941 to 1945 the country fell under Japanese rule, and was liberated by the USA. The USA subsequently recognized Philippine independence on July 4, 1946. The independent republics policy shifted towards the integration of the cultural minorities into mainstream culture. In 1966 the Philippine Congress passed the Seperation Bill, dividing the old Mountain Province into four new ones: Banquet, Mountain Province (Bontoc), Ifago and Kalinga-Apayo. The political elite hoped that the creation of several provinces would, by increasing the regions representation, increase development spending in the area. Under the Marcos administration, politicization of the Cordillera took a new turn. National government development projects in the area were against the interests of the indigenous peoples, and were strongly resisted by them. Particularly important were the Chico River Dam project and the Cellophil project. The first threatened to inundate traditional villages, the second gave outsiders control over vast forest lands. Resistance resulted in increased regional consciousness rather than local ethnic consciousness. This period is known for its arbitrary arrests, disappearances and torture. With the killing of Benigno Aquino in 1983, the human rights situation further deteriorated. In 1986, because of financial fraud, Marcos had to step back from office and was succeeded by Corazon Aquino. Under her leadership the human rights situation started to improve; political prisoners were released, repressive laws were repealed and all relevant UN Conventions were ratified. However, the Aquino administration failed to tackle substantial issues such as land reform and the restructuring of the economy. After the collapse of the negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), Aquino declared the Total War Policy, aimed at recovering New Peoples Army (NPA) controlled areas and to destroy the NPAs organizational and infrastructure base. The NPA had moved into the Cordillera to assist in the resistance against the projects.Current events: In September 2000, the municipal council of Itogon, Benguet withdrew its endorsement of the San Roque Dam project. The project had met a lot of resistance, because of the reported failure of its proponents to update its Environmental Certificate of Compliance (ECC) and to submit a watershed management plan required for a project of that magnitude. The San Roque Dam was to become one of the biggest dams in the world and would threaten the living environment of the Igorot. The CPA, in co-operation with other organizations, had highly resisted this project and thus booked a little victory. However, in May 2001, president Arroyo declared that the San Roque Dam project would continue anyway because it had already started and therefore was difficult to stop. At the same time she promised to not sacrifice the environment, to resettle the people who will lose their houses, to compensate other people, and to initiate no other large scale irrigation projects in the future. Time will prove whether she will keep that promise. In December 2000, the Supreme Court of the Philippines dismissed a petition that questioned the constitutional legality of the IPRA. The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act came into existence in 1997 and gave the peoples of the Cordillera decisive influence over the establishment of foreign mining companies. In this act, ownership over the lands was regarded as communal, rather than individual and thus coincided more with the view on ownership of the Igorot. The IPRA was totally different in tone than the 1995 Mining Code. Without consulting the Cordillera people, this code gave companies the freedom to devastate tribal lands, allowed 100% foreign ownership, and gave companies the right to displace and resettle people within their concessionary areas. Some influential people filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court against the IPRA, because it contradicted with the Mining Code and would therefore be unlawful. The fact that the Supreme Court had to dismiss the petition, because the vote had been 7-7, could be understood as another victory of the CPA. In February 2001, president Arroyo spoke with officials from the Cordillera Administrative Region, and promised to start rebuilding the infrastructure and offered the Cordillera people financial assistance for development projects. Some people were surprised when they found out that Arroyo spoke fluently Ilocano (the common language of the Igorot). Lets hope that this fact can prove to be an essential tool in improving mutual understanding and strengthening the dialogue between the parties.Regional Profile - Cordillera Administrative RegionThe Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) covers the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mt. Province and the chartered City of Baguio. These areas are located on the central portion of Northern Luzon bounded on the north by Ilocos Norte and Cagayan, on the south by Pangasinan and Nueva Vizcaya, on the east by the Cagayan Valley and on the west by the Ilocos Region. Before its separation as an administrative region, Benguet, Baguio City and Abra were part of Region I. Kalinga, Apayao and Ifugao were included in Region II.The Cordillera is landlocked but it has its share of rivers, creeks and mountain springs. It boasts of wonderful scenic rock formations, caves and terraced rice fields. The region has a total of 1,829,368 hectares which accounts for approximately sixteen percent (16%) of the country's land area. The CAR is generally characterized by steep mountainous and high elevation terrain, with an elevation of a minimum of 1, 000 meters above sea level in Abra and a maximum of 2,922 meters above sea level in Mt. Pulag, Benguet. Almost three-fourths (3/4) of the region's land area have steep to very steep slopes. More than half of the region has a slope of fifty percent (50%) and above which allows for a very limited area for intensive agriculture and settlement.Most of the region's area is under a cool-highland pedo-ecological zone with the highest temperature recorded at 22 degrees centigrade especially in Benguet and Mt. Province. Warm climate predominates in the low-lying area where the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Ifugao and Kalinga are located. LOCATION North Central portion LAND AREA (hectares) 1,829,368 (16% of the Certified Alienable & Disposable Land 340,656 Forest Land 1,488,712 (81% of the region and 9% of the country's land area ) TOPOGRAPHY CAR is generally characterized by steep mountainous and high elevation terrain, almost 3/4 of the region's land area have steep to very steep slopes. 33% of the region's tableland lie 1000 meters or more above sea level, generally gives the cool temperate climate mostly in Benguet and REGIONAL CAPITAL Baguio City PROVINCES/CITY Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mt. Province, Baguio City NO. OF MUNICIPALITIES / CITY 76 / 1 NO. OF BARANGAYS 1,172 POPULATION (1995) 1,254,838 (the lowest POP. GROWTH RATE 1.71% CLIMATE Most of the region's area is under a cool-highland pedo-ecological zone with the highest temperature recorded at 22&degC. especially in Benguet and Mt. Province. Warm climate predominates in the low-lying areas where the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Ifugao and Kalinga are locatedTattooing has been a practice of almost every known people. The Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, wore unique facial tattoos. Tattooing was widespread among Polynesian peoples, and in the Philippines, Borneo, Samoa, Africa, Mesoamerica, Japan, and China. According to Robert Graves in his book The Greek Myths, tattooing was common amongst certain religious groups in the ancient Mediterranean world, which probably contributed to the prohibition of tattooing in Leviticus 19:28 in the Old Testament. The actual method of tattooing was the same among all tribal communities; only the ingredients and meanings differed. The one who performed the work, usually a man, first rubbed the skin with a mixture of soot and sugarcane juice. Where no sugarcane was available, lard, gall, or hen's excrement were substituted. He then pricked the skin with a needle or pointed instrument in the design of his tribe. A Tattoo is a design in ink or some other pigment, usually decorative or symbolic, placed permanently under the skin. In technical terms, tattooing is micro-pigment implantation. Tattoos are a type of body modification. The origin of the word tattoo is usually traced to the Tahitian tatu or tatau, meaning to mark or strike (the latter referring to traditional methods of applying the designs). In Philippine the word used for traditional designs or those that are applied using traditional methods is silup, ("insertion of ink"), while "tattoo" is used for non pilipino The art of tattooing as a form of permanent body adornment has been around for quite a while. The best evidence of such an early tradition would be the tattoos seen on the mummies of Kabayan, believed to be some 200 to 400 years old. The leathery skin of the adult mummies still bear traces of the traditional geometric designs drawn on their extremities. Tattooing was very prevalent among the people in the so-called "interior" or heartland of the mountains of Northern Luzon, Central Visayas, and South¬ern Mindanao. Caroline Kennedy-Cabrera, in her work among the tribal communities in northern Luzon, believed that women underwent tattooing on their legs, arms, and breasts to enhance their beauty. The men, on the other hand, did so to mark age, bravery, and tribal seniority. In some tribal communities, it was claimed that tattoos had magical qualities; thus, designs of scorpions, centipedes, snakes, and bats were often repeated. In a few instances, tattoos were considered a cure for physical defects. By covering up an unsightly deformity, birthmark, or growth with tattoos, the tribesmen believed that the scars would vanish. The Kalinga men, in general, used only armlets and necklaces as ornaments, but their chests, backs, arms, and faces were covered with elaborate and beautiful tattoos. This was true mostly of the men of south Kalinga, as they wore no upper garments. The tattooing imitated the upper garment worn by the men of north Kalinga called silup, reproducing the silup's designs on the arms and shoulders. The women of south Kalinga painted their faces a bright red and wore necklaces dangling down over their breasts to their navels. Sometimes these necklaces were worn diagonally across the body, over the left shoulder and under the right armpit, like a sash. Their arms were tattooed more ornately than the arms of the Kankanay, lbaloi, Ifugao, and Igorot women. The Ifugao women sported a leaf design on their shoulder blades below a series of wavy lines and a single line of stars. The grass designs covered the rest of their arms, broken only by the bracelet motif at the elbow, wrist, and back of the hand. Apart from tattoos, Ifugao women would often adorn their arms with several copper bracelets. Their chests and abdomens were rarely tattooed. They would instead wear necklaces which reached down below their navels, and which would sometimes branch out and encircle their bodies at the hips in two or three rows of beads. Clearly, the ancestors of today's Filipinos attended to their physical appearance. Even during prehistoric times, they had been con¬scious of their looks and their grooming. When the price of imported jewelry was prohibitive and beyond their reach, they found ways and means to replicate the items, using indigenous materials. Even if prehistoric decorative procedures entailed excruciating pain, they ventured to have their teeth pegged with gold, their skin tattooed, and their foreheads flattened - all for reasons of vanity, a continuing tradition. The pintados (painted ones), inhabitants of the Visayan islands as described by the first Spaniards to set eyes upon them, would use sharp metal instruments previously heated over fire. The Kankanay from Benguet used a small piece of wood called gisi, to which three iron points were attached. The Ifugao had an instrument made entirely of iron, with two or three points. The Kalinga would use five needles at the same time. The Isneg from Apayao had a very different and far more elaborate instrument, which they called igihisi, fashioned from a carved piece of rattan. At one end, four or five pins were attached. A string then connected the cen¬tral part of the instrument to both ends. During the actual procedure, the designer would continuously beat the igihisi in order to push the pins deeper into the skin. The process of tattooing was an extremely painful ordeal. After the procedure, the area tattooed remained swollen for several days. A patient could only endure tattooing in small installments, and it would normally take several months before the entire tattoo was completed. Among the pintados, the tattoos were extremely elaborate, taking the form of paintings and even tableaux. A wide array of designs and forms were used. Only the wrists and feet were left bare. After the procedure, soot or black powder was pressed onto the scar which, when dried, could never be erased. The pintado women tattooed only their hands. Among the men of the Ibaloi tribal community, tattooing was usually rare. In the few male Ibaloi cases, the tattoos differed according to individual whims and caprices. There was no common identifiable pattern. The lbaloi women, on the other hand, would adorn their arms from above the elbow down to their knuckles with elaborate and exten¬sive tattoos made of crisscrossing, horizontal, vertical, and curved lines. So extensive was this form of tattooing that it was extremely difficult to see the skin beneath it. The Kankanay tribal group used the same methods of tattooing as the lbaloi. Among the men, tattoos were scarce. But among the women, they were frequently seen on their forearms. Lockhart passes through classic rice terrace landscapes that adorn every travel poster from The Philippines. Its an area struggling to modernize, struggling to remain the same. Here, hes told, hell find the worlds oldest man. He also comes across some ancient beliefs -- if a small bird twice flies across your path, youll meet with misfortune at your destination. Tom keeps his eyes open as he zeros in on the northern Kalinga tribesmen, the most ornamented people of the region. Hes heard that traditional warfare, head hunting, and tattooing as a rite of passage, are all but extinct. In their place, institutionalized peace pacts reinforce rites of kinship and cement social ties. But its only a matter of time before Tom encounters heavily tattooed village elders who might dramatize the tattoo tradition for the camera -- and resurrect their body art one more time. According to Kalinga tradition, a boy had to taste the blood of his first victim before the community recognized him as a warrior. The blood not only gave him strength, it ensured he would not die young. Tom finds a family steeped in the old ways and is shown how the jaw bone of a past trophy was rendered into the handle of a brass gong. He is told that a pig or water buffalo used to be sacrificially slaughtered to honour the event, then one more animal presented as payment to the tattooist. Lockhart watches the old tattooist ready a needle for dipping in pine and sugarcane juice. Que sera, seraTabuk, Kalinga €” To the Kalinga, tattoos are more than just skin drawings. They carry with them vibrant stories of life in the old days, now lost in a fast changing world. In Kalinga, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, a government agency tasked to attend to indigenous people€™s concerns, has listed tattoos as cultural and heritage treasures, and recently, it documented the last carriers of this lost tradition in photographs and narratives. The aging bodies of the men and women of Kalinga are the canvasses of the vanishing art of body tattooing in the Cordillera. Around 50 of them still alive today carry the mobile art of a bygone era, and only one tattoo artist remains in the villages of Tinglayan and Tanudan in Kalinga. Among the illustrated Kalingas are 46 women who say that if they had a choice some 50 years ago, they would not have consented to undergo the pain of tattooing. At the urging of their parents and their elders, they agreed back then to have their bodies tattooed because of the belief that a person with no tattoos was no good. €œMadi ti awan batek na. Nu matay ka isu ti tawid mi nga matay. Issu la ti maitugut mi (It was taboo then to be without tattoos. The tattoo is the only thing that you can bring with you into the next life),€? says Josephine Apayao, 60 years old. The rich, the beautiful and the brave Batek is the ethnic word for tattoo in some parts of the Cordillera, and the mambatek is the old man who is the artist and executioner of his own designs. Batek is also the word for the antique beads such as the colorful chevrons, agates, corals, and sometimes bones, worn as adornment by the ethnic tribes. According to scholars, these beads were brought to the Philippines from Africa centuries ago by the Chinese and the Spaniards for bartering. The Itnegs or Tingguians of Abra also used to practice tattooing, but the tradition died earlier probably because among all the provinces in the Cordillera, Abra was the most colonized due to its proximity to the Ilocos region. Baket Calumaya was the last tattooed woman that this writer saw in Pennarubia, Abra. She was in her 90s when she died in 1989. Abra has similar cultural traditions as its neighboring province of Kalinga. Here, only the landed rich known as baknangs, who owned precious beads to give their children as inheritance, could have the tattoos that went with wearing the beads. Sometimes the tattoos mimicked the designs of the beads. Because they had the means, the baknangs could afford the time to go through the process of tattooing, which meant having fewer field hands for weeks until they regained the strength from the agony of being tattooed. The tattoo artist and the women Most of the Kalinga women had their tattoos at age 16. Parents made their daughters undergo tattooing as early as 12 years old. Maria Bagwan, now 67, said she was 14 when she was urged by her parents to have her body tattooed. Rosa Oddoc, from Tanudan, now also in her 70€™s, was 12 when she was tattooed. She describes the process as painful and bloody. But tattoos were important in finding a mate because in their day, a woman without tattoos was unattractive in the eyes of the men. The youngest tattooed woman documented by the NCIP is Or-is Guinnayao, 53. While most of the women are in their 60€™s, some are in their 70€™s and 80€™s. Oddoc remembers that some six needles were used to tattoo her arms in two separate sessions each lasting a day. She recalls that it took a whole day to tattoo the full length of her arm. It would take about four days for the swelling and the pain to subside before the mambatek worked on her other arm. Oddoc was tattooed by Diego Agdongad, known as Lakay Datoy, now 81 years old. The last of his breed, he is now almost blind. €œThe resinous branch of a pine tree was burned and pounded into a fine powdery consistency in a clay pot, then transferred into a bowl where the juice of sugarcane was poured. The mixture was made into small balls and dried under the sun,€? Oddoc says to describe the preparation made by Lakay Datoy for her tattoo sessions. A lost tradition Iking Salvador, a young anthropologist and a faculty member of the University of the Philippines College Baguio did a thesis on the tattoo tradition of Kalinga, particularly in Lubo which concluded that the art of tattooing is now a lost tradition in Kalinga. There has been no transfer of this knowledge to the younger generation and, except for Datoy, the old mambateks have died. In fact, the young Kalingans are not even interested in this old tradition, as shown by their refusal to have tattoos. The NCIP found six men from Lubo with tattoos on their bodies. They are Francisco Domatog, 85, Alex Codiam, 84, Pu-ing Doc-yong, 83, and Paga Abaggoy, 78, Teodoro Bulang, 73 years old, and George Casing (Lakay Casing), 79. Bulang explains that the tribals wore batek in the past because of the scarcity of clothing. But now, with the abundance of clothing, tattooing has lost its necessity for the younger generation. Naty Sugguiyao, chief of the NCIP-Kalinga explained that there were more women than men with tattoos because while tattoos were worn by the women for adornment, the men had to earn their bateks. Thus, they got their tattoos at a later age. Bulang said he was 30 when he got his tattoos. €œBatek for the men was like a star or a medal of bravery in battle. It signified a kill or the head of an enemy taken in the fierce tradition of kayaw (headhunting). It was taboo or mabarros (a curse) for a man to have a tattoo for no reason,€? Sugguiyao explains.€œThat is why it is a lost tradition, because headhunting is no longer practiced,€? says Sugguiyao. In her mid-50€™s, Sugguiyao is without a tattoo, but she says that her father earned his tattoos during the Tulgaw-Lubao war. The last generation Sugguiyao gathered the last generation of tattooed people for documentation during the Ullalim Cultural Festival on February 14 in the capital town of Tabuk. Their pictures were taken for free by skilled photographers, both foreign and Filipinos. €œNapinget ti kina-Kalinga da (Their Kalinga identity is very strong),€? Sugguiyao describes her people. But behind the tattoos and faces of Kalinga€™s villagers is the underlying face of poverty and lack of education, according to Sugguiyao. €œAll of them are farmers. Some of them are vendors in the market of Tabuk and some are housewives. Their educational level is very low because they could not afford higher education. Most of the men though reached high school,€? she says, like 79-year old George Casing from Lubo, who was able to finish second-year high school. Tattoos: once worn in shame, now with pride Casing said that the Kalingas wear long-sleeved shirts to hide their tattoos whenever they go to the lowlands like Manila because of the look on the faces of people who stare at their tattoos. The mambatek who did his tattoo in 1964 was an old man named Lumiyak, of Lubo. On his arms were what he called the €˜binatbattoko€™ design, and his chest was covered with the €˜inadi-adik€™ or a rounded design. Other tattoo designs documented were the ginaygayaman (centipede), linalfalafat (from a flower called €˜lafat€™), uleg (snake), inulufug, inaki-akit (a design copied from the rattan fruit skin).With the attention that they are now getting, the last of the tattooed women and men of Kalinga displayed their tattoos proudly during the Ullalim Festival. In fact, they requested for copies of their photographs, as souvenirs for their children. Their tattoos are now chronicles of a unique era in their culture.THESTORY There is a strong resurgence of people getting tattoos from a Philippine design in the Filipino American community. It has been taking part of our lives as a new moral, a new code, a new love, a new respect and a new vision. The tattoo process is not like getting a happy meal at the drive in. It requires patience, and understanding of what you're about to do to your body and spirit, not to mention good artistic ability. People seeking to identify with Philippine tattoo art have sought and traveled to work with pioneer artist/ writer/ cultural worker, Aleks Figueroa, who has many frequent flyer miles in both research and tattoo experience. majority of people in the Philippines still view tattoos as a symbol reserved for those in jail, a dirty expression, and a dying one with the tribal peoples of the mountain provinces. Once revered as a symbol for headhunters and their relations, the tribal peoples have since abandoned this ..as well as headhunting) and lean towards more western ways. The symbols of their tattoos are minimal in documentation and may be seen in Aleks Figueroa's forthcoing book on tattoos from the Philippines.* Today, those who have been tattooed are predominately of Filipino American descent. They have had keen interests in various styles- American, Japanese, or Polynesian tattooing or any of it's influence
Toward the jungles The Philippines then off to Borneo Lockhart passes through classic rice terrace landscapes that adorn every travel poster from The Philippines. It€™s an area struggling to modernize, struggling to remain the same. Here, he€™s told, he€™ll find the world€™s oldest man. He also comes across some ancient beliefs -- if a small bird twice flies across your path, you€™ll meet with misfortune at your destination. Tom keeps his eyes open as he zeros in on the northern Kalinga tribesmen, the most ornamented people of the region. He€™s heard that traditional warfare, head hunting, and tattooing as a rite of passage, are all but extinct. In their place, institutionalized peace pacts reinforce rites of kinship and cement social ties. But it€™s only a matter of time before Tom encounters heavily tattooed village elders who might dramatize the tattoo tradition for the camera -- and resurrect their body art one more time. According to Kalinga tradition, a boy had to taste the blood of his first victim before the community recognized him as a warrior. The blood not only gave him strength, it ensured he would not die young. Tom finds a family steeped in the old ways and is shown how the jaw bone of a past trophy was rendered into the handle of a brass gong. He is told that a pig or water buffalo used to be sacrificially slaughtered to honour the event, then one more animal presented as payment to the tattooist. Lockhart watches the old tattooist ready a needle for dipping in pine and sugarcane juice. Que sera, sera. Filipino Tattoos" were paved by Filipino Americans emphasizing identity to one's roots. The Alibata/Baybayin tattoo was one of the first identifications and was documented by individuals in the mid 1990s. The first documented person to wear an Alibata tattoo was Rahul Lagura. Specifically, the unifying "Ka" syllable/symbol which was tattooed on his sternum about 4-5" wide in the early 1990s. Larger back tattoo patterns from collages of Filipino life, ornate insturments to large family names in Alibata/Baybayin have been some themes people have chosen for their tattooo expressions. Tribal homages have been made with unique pattern combinations from various Filipino tribes. One of the first full sleeves on a Filipina- American is worn by Sabrina Margarita Alcantara-Tan who lives in New York. She was fully sleeved around the mid-1990s. Ed Habacon was one of the first to havehis forearms heavily tattooed with traditional Kalinga headhunter patterns which were tattooed in the late 1990s by the great Leo Zulueta. More recently, within the last year or two, adding to the urban indigeneo (Indigenous Urban/ Modern Primitive) landscape are a new generation of Filipino descendants that have full sleeves and chest tattoos reminiscent of the traditional tattoos that the headhunters of the highlands wear. They are contemporary in design and despite the Filipino inspired patterns, it is clear that the influence is from Polynesian style tattoooing, Filipino ceramic, and textile art. They share a vision to spread the wealth and beauty of our culture though tattoos and by those that wish to be in touch with them. With artistic ingenuity, experience and reference, neo-tribal (new tribal) Filipino tattoos can be designed and tattooed to tell a story of what a person desires in a tattoo adding to the tribal experience. If you choose to get a tattoo inspired by Filipino tattoo art, we hope you consider contacting us for your interests.Signs on Skin,. Beauty and Being: Traditional Tattoos Signs on Skin,. Beauty and Being: Traditional Tattoos ad Tooth Blackening among the Philippine Cordillera Tattoos were symbols of male valor They were applied only after a man had performed in battle with fitting courage, like modern military decorations they accumulated with additional feats. Headhunting was the only reason or purpose for tattooing. From years of research, the process of tattooing are known, the deeper role and function of tattoos are revealed together with their symbols and meanings in their proper context and historical symbolisim. Although it became a lost visage in the following century, the tattoos are for complex rites of passage, tribal identity, prestige, power, healing, protection, beauty and reason.: ack.us"Masferre: People of the Philippine Cordillera - Photographs 1934-1956. Jill G De Villa, Maria T Farr, Gladys M Jones, Devcon IP inc. 1998. An album of black and white photographs taken by the photographer Eduardo Masferre, of the indigenous peoples of northern Luzon and their environment. The tribes of this region include the Bontok, Gaddang, Ifugao, Kankana'ey and Kalinga, and their old way of dressing, ceremonies and villages together with a selection of fine portraits are presented here. An atmospheric account of life as it was among these people in the mid twentieth century and before.