Panagbenga Festival

Kalinga Dance - Taddok

Kalinga Male Native Costume, Igorot Male Costume

The male Kalinga native costume is very simple. It consists of a woven, long rectangular cloth which could be used to cover the male private organ. There are no upper clothing.

Feathers could be worn as a head dress and beads or “bongol” can add “glamor” to the Kalinga male native costume.

In the olden days, tattoos were worn by proud warriors. The more tattoo a male had, the more prized heads, he had cut off. It is a proud symbol of bravery and courage, in the olden times.

Image credit: Bryan Elevado

Kalinga Costume and Igorot Costume

Kalinga Costume
Image Credit: Bryan Elevado

Igorot Costume
Image Credit: Bryan Elevado

Kalinga Costume, Kalinga Women

Kalinga Costume and Kalinga dance

The Beauty of Kalinga - Clear, Flowing Stream

Brook in Boundary of Tabuk and Tanudan
Image Credit: Nats Dalanao

Common Taloctoc, Kalinga Greetings and Their English Translations

Common Taloctoc, Kalinga Greetings/Sentences

Umma Ayam? -Where are you going?
Umma ngadon no - What's your name?
Umma idon no -Where do you live?
Laydok sika - I love you.
Mangantako - Let's eat.
Umalikat na - Come here!
An-amos tako - Let's take a bath.
Intakkon - Let's go!
Umma igaw no - Where are you?

Remembering the Kaingin in Taloctoc

Kaingin at Dupag Naneng,the kaingin in Taloctoc looks the same
Image Credit: Nats Dalanao

I have worked as a young girl in the kaingins of Taloctoc. When young girls my age were used to the climb every morning and the descent every afternoon, I was not. So I stayed behind with my grandparents at the kaingin in a small hut just enough for us to sleep and eat.

I have loved the early mornings when I woke up while the sun was still shyly peeping from the rim of the world. I would pick up my bamboo container and fetch water from the spring located further down the slope. I felt like a boy, carrying the bamboo container on my young shoulders.

After this chore, I went mushroom hunting, savoring the rejuvenating, and morning breeze playing on my face. I would stand up at near the highest peak of the denuded forest and look down upon our village Taloctoc. It gave me “power” to be able to observe the village from above like some Norse Goddess looking down upon her people.

It was so peaceful and tranquil; I had wanted to capture that moment forever in my heart. But time ticked and life went on.

By then the gentle sun would be happily beaming from behind the clouds. Give it a few hours, and it would be fiercely beating down upon us, relentlessly, so I had to hurry. I would scurry back to the hut and get my gears and get ready for another day of labor at the kaingin. Those were the days…