BONTOC, Mountain Province – Anonymous highlander “kabitero” artisans who, with finesse, heap scraggy rock upon another scraggly rock, depart like shadows after finishing their “kabite” (stonewall), but leave behind their kabite as a reminder to Cordillera residents and visitors alike how all lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence.
Kabitero message is written in stone: that in a world of fragmented pieces, even broken pieces can be fused for creativity of a stonewall that can weather the time.
United with art forming graceful designs, kabiteros have this skill of fusing uneven boulders, unforgiving rocks and pieces of stones to create something cohesive and beautiful, more beautiful in broken patterns, and what we simply describe as stonewall.
When one is called a “stonewall,” “stonewalling,” or “stonewaller,” said person is described as obstructionist, a filibuster, toying with time, a hesitant, a waffler, a dragging feet, user of delaying tactics, a pussyfooter or beating around the bush.
Such descriptions, however, can’t fit the “kabiteros,” or stonewalls, the indigenous and muscled Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) males who have it in their veins the natural skill of stacking ragged and cold rock upon another stone in creating an engineering marvel displaying beautifully crafted tapestry of heaped boulders that stand upright even without use of binder like mortar or cement.
Stone walls, called “tuping” by Bontoc tribal folks, and generally termed “kabite,” whether these be old or new” and criss crossing nooks and crannies in CAR are signatures of anonymous kabiteros, many of whom have already gone to the Happy kabite Grounds in the Sky, relics that rise above level of architectural ornaments to the status of engineering novelty.
Stone walls are built by scarred and callused hands and these are monuments to the skill of the indigenous kabiteros whose doors open to a historical past of tribal people who are part of a stonewall building process.
As one sees stonewalls in CAR landscape, a question comes to mind: How old are existing stone walls? A question of which there’s no short answer.
But taking a long view, it’s clear most stone walls are part of a comparatively farming landscape, which cuts across earthworks and other relict features of older landscapes or part of field boundaries that have evolved over time.
Stone walls are iconic features of CAR’s storied topography and embedded in forests, across rambling hillsides, along the sides of major rivers, within residential areas and even in bald patchwork of pathways or trails.
Remaining stone walls or kabites that still stand their ground and weathering Time’s passage lie at the intersection of CAR’s stone masonry, history and ecology that it deserves a science of its own and truly mastered only by CAR tribal folks.
Though some of them may be crumbling today due to neglect, stone walls have more sagas to reveal as they contain scientific and cultural values about how they formed and the humans who built them.
These fieldstone walls, often covered by grass, encrusted with lichen and moss, other growing plants and home to various animals, insects, or creepy, slimy slithering snakes and can be seen everywhere in all CAR provinces.
For lichens and moss, kabite are surfaces where other plants cannot compete to thrive against them. For other plants, the stone walls are surfaces that sever patches of soil into areas that are shady or sunny, leeward or windward, downhill or uphill, drier or wetter.
These kabite give haven to small wild animals through their porous cracks in which to survive their furtive lives while predators like snakes and lizards use the stonewalls as hunting blinds and corridors to hunt for their prey. These archeological kabites have in fact become geological landforms creating ecological habitats.
In the “dap-ay,” (Kankaneys or Applai), “ato” or “ator,” (Bontoc), a meeting place for council of elders, it has a platform of carefully heaped stones and central fireplace and these stones have been solemn and silent witnesses when elders deliberated serious community issues and proffered decisions.
Kabites are nearly ubiquitous, seen in patchworks within small land parcels, on national, provincial and municipal roads and are distinctive to the region. Engineers call these riprap. Locals simply call these kabite.
Yet you wonder: who were and, are, these ubiquitous persons with Herculean strength to lift these heavy boulders and transport them on foot to the places where stonewalls were built?
But these kabiteros did. With Spartan attitude, they spat on their palms, rubbed their palms together, gritted the skin of their teeth, spoke some words of prayer to their god Lumawig, cursed obscenities at evil spirits hounding them while they worked, took grip of those boulders as big as human torso, lifted them on their shoulders and strode where stonewalls have to stand.
Art of erecting stonewalls lead CAR visitors embarking on a captivating journey through time, unraveling remarkable achievements of Cordilleran ancestors. Long before written records, highlander tribal folks displayed incredible ingenuity in designing and constructing stonewall structures that served their community needs.
Back to history, an ancient agricultural engineering feat made possible more than 2,000 years ago was development of the Banaue Rice Terraces, by cutting into mountain sides and building walls for rice fields with use of clay, mud and stones. Banaue Rice Terraces is found in Ifugao province.
Embedded in Mountain Province is the Maligcong Rice Terraces in Mount Kupapey, in the quiet village of Maligcong, Bontoc, Mountain Province.
It is a classic stonewall field of rice terraces, a wonderful masterpiece built through sweat and blood of the forefathers of Maligcong. It is an unspoiled agricultural sanctuary for rice production covering over 1,160 hectares, occupying three-fourths of the side of Mount Kupapey.
Thousand pieces of rocks were used in the formation of Maligcong Rice Terraces, a heritage of a community living with, and not against, the land.
Maligcong Rice Terraces stand for what a Mountain Province official declaration statement as, “The stonewalls are exemplary examples of vernacular unreinforced slope protection systems paired with practical irrigation systems of the Cordillera people.”
Embodying the folk architecture of the Bontoc ethnolinguistic group, “the rice terraces have been a cornerstone for local families and clans, fostering a deep connection to the land,” the Mountain Province Local Government (LGU) declaration added.
Cordillera rice terraces, made wholly or partly of stonewalls, do often make visitors gape in wonder at how these ancient engineering marvels were carved from mountain sides with intricate skill while understanding the environmental balance of embedding these terraces into mountainsides.
Paying close attention to the kabite of rice terraces from a scientific perspective helps deconstruct some pervasive misconceptions. First, is the notion that highlanders of old totally cleared mountains to create their rice terraces, which is a completely wrong notion.
In reality, when mountainsides were reinforced with boulders, these slanted slopes were in fact strengthened, the rocks serving as foundations that held up sloping sides of hills where rice terraces were developed.
Beyond their function as instruments for planting, rice terraces in Cordillera embody community spirit with each terraced layer having a story to tell of how forefathers started the terrace and so forth as generations come to till the soil, later giving way to the labor of younger generations.
One visitor’s delight in visiting stonewalled rice terraces is traversing winding paths leading towards the terraces. Here, visitors find how indigenous folks constructed pathways or trails by following natural contours of a mountain or hill without destroying such a mountain or hill.
Water from nearby forests are channeled through complex irrigation systems ensuring ample supply throughout farming seasons. Rice terraces spread out in Cordillera are agricultural wonders across a breathtaking landscape, fostering a balance between nature and human innovation and maintaining their crucible cultural and historical identity.
During those permanent employment years with the Department of Health- Cordillera Administrative (DOH-CAR), the late Jerome Foman-eg of Bontoc, often related to the Daily Laborer of rice terraces in the Mountain Province visited by tourists who dared walked trails less travelled by.
Foman-eg ticked off these rice terraces, made in part or fully of tuping, and still iconic as: Ambasing rice terraces, Bangaan rice terraces, Bulungan rice terraces, Fidelisan rice terraces, Kiltepan rice terraces, Suyo rice terraces and Tanulong rice terraces all in Sagada municipality.
Kadchog rice terraces, Bayyo rice terraces, Poblacion rice terraces, Dalican rice terraces and Maligcong rice terraces all in Bontoc municipality;
Bangnen rice terraces and Kapayawan rice terraces in Bauko municipality; Barlig rice terraces in Barlig municipality; Besao rice terraces and Bucas rice terraces in Besao municipality; Focong rice terraces and Sadanga rice terraces in Sadanga municipality and; Natonin rice terraces in Natonin municipality.
Baguio business entrepreneurs, banking on tourism, have evolved ways of elevating stonewall construction that blend seamlessly with the natural surroundings and luring tourists.
One example is the Igorot Stone Kingdom at Long Long Road, Pinsao Proper Village, Baguio City. Almost all the structures of the stone kingdom have been constructed of stone. Another imposing stonewall structure is the newly constructed Dragon Treasure Castle located at Irisville Subdivision, Irisan, Baguio City.
These two structures which are part of itineraries of visitors, are expected to become prominent tourist landforms.
Stonewalls are characteristic features of CAR’s topography, structures worth protecting, these being perceived as related to history of settlement development, land use and economy of mountain habitants.
Knowledge on how to create stonewalls are being passed by those possessed of the knowhow to others. Yet many grizzled kabiteros wag their heads ruefully, meaning the art is being lost upon many, swearing that it might become a fading knowledge.
In fact, knowledge and practice of making kabite have never been recorded in detail with no academic study done on it, reason why kabiteros shrug at the prospect of the skill fading when their generation will have gone.
