The lifestyle of Mountain Tribe in the Philippines

Ifuga, a province in the Philippines, is mostly dwelled by a mountain tribe, also called Ifuga. Once arriving here, you will be charmed by the beautiful landscape and rich aboriginal woodcrafts. In 1995, the UNESCO has declared the Ifuga rice terraces as one of those listed in the The rice terraces need a supply system to sustain it, and the forest behind them play an important role. Above the rice terraces, you will see forests above the rice terraces, and we call this muyong. And muyong is a managed forest, and the muyong is the source of water for the rice terraces. Muyong also provides wood for Ifuga people's daily life. For example, their traditional wooden houses. So you used to live here? Yes, this is a house for one family. We eat here. This is our dining, and we sleep here. After eating, we can sleep on the floor. To enter the house, people have to climb the ladder over one meter high. Why is it very high? It is very high so that the rat may not go up. If the rat will go in, they will eat the rice or anything that they place on the house. Ifuga houses are made of various wood, but mostly local oak. The roof is usually made of material from the surrounding area. They changed the roofing like my house. I changed this roofing. This is kaogong grass, and the kaogong grass will last 30 years. That will be changed again. Ifuga people try their best to adapt to the mountain life. Apart from the wood constructions, they also made wood crafts, like Charlie. He has made wooden bikes for 55 years. I am the one who made it first, but we do not have this kind of... We only have like this, but we have no... Until we learn how to carve, we can make designs. So this is wood? Yeah, this is wood. So you invented this? Yeah. In Muyong, if you are lucky, you can see Ifuga people ride the bikes passing through. From rice terraces, wooden houses to bicycles, Ifuga people have heavily relied on Muyong for almost every dimension of their lives, and remained their tribal culture.