Photos

Igorot Tribal Women, Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines

These women, for a fee, pose against the dramatic backdrop of the Rice Terraces, a 3,000 year old technology that is still being implemented as you read this. There is nothing new about rice terraces - you can see them in many countries including China, Indonesia and Iran to name a few. But the rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are different because they are high - as much as 1500 meters above sea levels and they are very extensive - covering several provinces in the Cordilleras of Northern Philippines. There are miles and miles of them, and are continuously being made but they are also endangered because young people woulld rather work in construction in the Middle East or elsewhere out of the country than tend to some of the older decaying terrraces. The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are a designated UNESCO Heritage Site.