Just 41 kilometers beyond the tourist town of Banaue, Ifugao following a scenic winding road is the Municipality of Mayoyao, where the world’s majestic yet still undiscovered rice terraces await the more adventurous traveler. It is bestowed with rich cultural heritage, fascinating history and natural man-made wonders, which can entice any nature lover. The panoramic view of its environs coupled with the unique culture of the people is sufficient to provide respite from the fast-paced city life and tickle the scholarly mind.
Mayoyao has centuries-old stone walled rice terraces, its foremost attraction, dotted with pyramid shaped typical Mayoyao residential houses making it unique from other rice terraces in the country. Carved on the mountain slopes by the Mayoyao ancestors more than 2,000 years ago, the Mayoyao Rice Terraces stretch from the mountain perched barangay of Chaya to the bank of the legendary Penangah River downstream. The terraces, which straddle the entire central Mayoyao valley, look as if they had been built for a higher purpose by the animist Mayoyaos: to reach the heavens via the giant stairways.
Each terrace is carefully paved with stones, some so big that it could have been impossible for ordinary mortal without modern equipment to carry them from the river below. An irrigation system using lengthy canals extending up a kilometer away bring water to the rice terraces. This is supplemented by bamboo pipes and hollowed tree trunks linked together. Openings are also made on terrace dikes to allow water to flow from terrace to another.
Unlike other man-made wonders across the world, the rice terraces were made not because of slave drives with plash but out of the Mayoyao’s desire to tame the land for survival. But unknown to the Mayoyaos, they built with their bare hands and crude wooden tools an enduring marvel that baffles even modern day engineers.
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In 1995, the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed the centuries-old terraces of Mayoyao (together with those of Banaue, Hunduan and Kiangan) in the World Heritage List characterizing it as a “Living Cultural Landscape.”
Another major attraction is the Apfo’or, which are dome-shaped burial tombs found only in Mayoyao and used to house the bodies of the town’s ancient warriors and elite. Construction of these tombs, done with bare hands and crude implements, is a testament to the Mayoyao’s stone-working techniques. Seven of these tombs exist in various barangays of Mayoyao.
The native Mayoyao house, another marvel in the place, is a sturdy tetrahedronal or pyramidal structure perched on four wooden posts and composed of parts carefully fitted together without the use of a single nail. American anthropologist Otley Beyer declared this as the first pre-fabricated house in the world.
(information culled from the Mayoyao Tourism Office materials)
Thank you very much for coming in our place and appreciAting the beauty of our rice terraces
ReplyDeleteIf in case somebody wants to visit and looking for accommodation we have a lodge name Helen's place lodge we have limited rooms but each room has it's own shower and toilet with hot and cold water. Number to contact if you want to try our place 09125248020
God bless