The Banaue Rice Terraces (Filipino: Hagdan-hagdang Palayan ng Banawe) are 2,000-year-old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the Indigenous people. They are frequently called the "Eight Wonder of the World". It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 1500 metres (5000 ft) above sea level. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rain forests above the terraces. It is said that if the steps were put end to end, it would encircle half the globe.Locals to this day still plant rice and vegetables on the terraces, although more and more younger Ifugao's do not find farming appealing, often opting for the more lucrative hospitality industry generated by the terraces. The result is the gradual erosion of the characteristic "steps", which need constant reconstruction and care. In 2010, a further problem was drought, with the terraces drying up completely in March of that year.
HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION OF BANAUE RICE TERRACES
The rice terraces of the Cordilleras are one of the few monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted any foreign domination and have preserved their authentic tribal culture. The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people, their culture, and their traditional practices.Apart from the idjang stone-fortresses of the Ivatan of the Batanes, the terraces, which spread over five present-day provinces, are the only other only form of surviving stone construction from the pre-colonial period. The Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a largely wood-based one: unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, for example, in the Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines were all built in wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace hamlets.It is believed that terracing began in the Cordilleras less than one thousand years ago as taro cultivation. It is evidence of a high level of knowledge of structural and hydraulic engineering on the part of the Ifugao builders. The knowledge and practices, supported by rituals, involved in maintaining the terraces are transferred orally from generation to generation, without written records. Taro was later replaced by rice around 1600 A.D. which is the predominant crop today.
Banaue rice terraces, system of irrigated rice terraces in the mountains of north-central Luzon, Philippines, that were created more than 2,000 years ago by the Ifugao people. Although located in several villages, they are collectively known as the Banaue rice terraces. In 1995 various sections of the terraces were designated a UNESCO World heritage site, described as “a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty.”
The rice terraces are situated in the Cordilleras of Luzon island. The remote area—some 220 miles (350 km) from Manila—has long been home to the Ifugao, wet-rice agriculturalists who began building the terraces about the 1st century ce. Despite possessing only basic tools, the Ifugao created an engineering marvel: a vast network of rice terraces sustained by an elaborate irrigation system. According to reports, the terraces—which resemble steps carved into the mountainside—cover some 4,000 square miles (10,360 square km), and their total length is estimated at approximately 12,500 miles (20,100 km), roughly half the Earth’s circumference. While the rice terraces were important to the Ifugao economy, they also served a cultural function, requiring intensive cooperation among the people.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Banaue-rice-terraces
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