Ritual spirituality in the Philippine Cordilleras
The Cordilleran Collection of the Linden-Museum Stuttgart
The people of the Cordillera reckon their descent to territorial units composed of rice terraces, villages and forests that form an integral cultural landscape. They cannot be sold outside the lineage and are related to – even by people living in the worldwide diaspora – as their ancestral homeland. Rituals performed in the Cordilleras continue to permeate the lives of people who trace their ancestry to this region. Ritual life is observed in various forms in the villages and beyond. Diaspora communities often find ways to connect to their kin groups in the villages. Ritual performances revolved around the three different domains of the territory - rice terraces, the village, and the forests
Text: Prof. Dr. Leah Abayao