Kalinga Costume, Kalinga Women

Kalinga Costume and Kalinga dance

Naty Sugguiyao and The Tattooed Women of Kalinga

As promised in the last post "Kalinga Culture", here is a picture of Kalinga women, one in her birthday suit, with their vivid body tattoos.

Tattoos have been one of the permanent components of the costumes of the Kalinga people. These pictures are from a woman whom I have always admired since I was still in High School.

I have looked upon her as a model to emulate; a valedictorian of her class, she is "beauty and brains"and everything I have envisioned a perfect woman should be.

Back then, my young heart have often imagined her to become my future sister-in-law. lol.

But fate has other things in store for her. I am talking about Naty Sugguiyao from Lubo, Tanudan.

Naty Sugguiyao is a well traveled, highly educated Kalinga woman, and who, herself, dons her tattoo proudly to show her ancestry.

She was interviewed on National TV, been invited to present Kalinga Tattoos abroad, written about in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and is a Provincial Officer at National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP.)

If that is not enough, then you may want to buy a book on "Kalinga Tattoos" where she was one of the proponents and models simultaneously.

Naty is the lovely lady in the violet dress.

Miss Kalinga 2011 Winners

During our time, there were still no Beauty Pageants. It may be because; the Kalinga people then were unaware of the beauty that lies amidst them. And I’m not talking about physical beauty but of a loveliness and pureness of heart that spring from within the depths of the soul that radiates to the outside to make a person beautiful.

The Kalinga people have always been beautiful to me. In Tabuk, Kalinga, A beauty pageant was held and these are the dazzling Kalinga women who won in the pageant.

Thanks again to Jerry Tieng for the pictures.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER



JERRY TIENG works with Titanium Technologies. Some of his hobbies- aside from photography- are scuba diving, history, geo-politics and mountaineering. He is a multi-talented person.

He describes himself as:

Bootstrap entrepreneur, photographer, web apps developer, database designer, business analyst, frustrated architect, mountaineer wannabe, proud dad of 2 girls...

His photographs are works of art that ought to be displayed to a wider audience. You should visit his website and photo gallery or his Facebook page - facebook.com/jerrytieng.

This generous young man had readily agreed to "lend" me his photographs.

Thanks Jerry for allowing me to use these awesome pictures.