BATERYA.COM

The Ifugao house ‘bale‘ is a small enclosed structure, a one-room affair that serves as living and sleeping room, kitchen and dining room. It is elevated above the ground at about two meters by four posts made of sturdy tree-trunks with roots intact. Four wooden disks equipped at the top of the main posts as a rat preventor. It has solid wood panels for walls and tightly-tatched roofing.

The main beam – the horizontal support just on top of the posts – is held to these posts by dowels. No nails are used. People carve each part of the house as interlocking pieces, the beam fitting into the supporting posts. On top of the main beam is another beam supporting the flooring, and on the four corners are small posts that support the rest of the structure. Inside, there is a platform called balog just under the roof for storing grains. There are also shelves protruding from the top of the walls which are used for storing plates, pots and other household items.

The house has only one entrance door, where the ladder is placed but there is a smaller backdoor for throwing things or for emergency. At night, the ladder is pulled up inside and these family is safe from human and animal intruders.

The Ifugaos believe that spirits dwell in all natural things and they try to keep the evil spirits by engraving on the door or on any conspicuous part of the house the figure of a lizard or a serpent which are believed to provide protection.

With few exceptions, the people of this tribe live in very small, compact villages strategically placed among steep-walled rice terraces so as to be easily fended. Their windowless, neatly built houses are placed well above the ground on strong posts, which are often rudely carved. Each house has two rooms, one above the other, the higher of which extends into the peak of the roof and is used as a storeroom. Each house has a rude fireplace, over which may be placed the skulls of wild pigs and deers and those of carabaos eaten at feasts, as well as skulls of enemies killed in war.

Famous head hunters often have tastefully arranged exhibits of skulls on shelves beside the doors of their houses, hanging in baskets under the caves, or extending around their houses in ornamented friezes at the floor level.

Advantage has been taken of the natural ability of the Ifugaos to handle stone, and mere boys have readily been taught to split boulders, cut the stone thus obtained to the required dimensions, face it, and utilize it in the construction of dignified and imposing public buildings.

There are two kinds of Ifugao habitations; the hut or abong and the house or bale. Under the classification of hut is put the agamang or hut serving as dormitory for unmarried boys or girls. Under that of house is put the alang or the granary-house.

The fundamental distinctions between the huts and the houses lie in the fact that the huts, unlike the houses, are not erected on four tall posts, and have no pyramidal roof, as have the houses.

Huts are, essentially, temporary dwellings, which are erected with greater or less care, depending upon the nature of the need which prompted their erection. Huts, however, also serve as the homes of old people who have transferred their own houses to their married children. They are the dwellings also of poor people who have inherited no house from their parents.

Even the best huts are very simple in construction. Four or six posts are planted in the ground. About a half meter above the ground, the floor is attached to those posts with rattan lashings. This floor like the walls is either in wood or in woven bamboo. Above the floor rise the four walls, attached to the wooden beams that join together the upper parts of the posts, or when the walls are in wood, fitted into these beams in the same way as are the walls of the houses. In plan the hut is rectangular, rarely square. The roof is constructed above the walls. It is supported by two upright pieces of timber fitted into the above-mentioned horizontal beams. These two vertical pieces are joined together by another long piece of wood. From this piece of wood descend the rafters attached below to the upper part of the side walls. These rafters serve as the support of the roof covering. In other respects the roof is similar to that of the houses. Such huts are high enough inside to permit a person to stand upright. They have some accessories, as the fireplace or huguhug. They are to be seen mostly in Kiangan and in the neighborhood thereof.

Other huts have not even a floor. For sleeping in this case, a dulong is put on the bare ground. The walls are usually in runo. The roof is so low as to permit only a sitting position. The pieces of wood constituting the frame of the hut are merely big sticks or branches of trees. This type is to be seen mostly in Banawe and vicinity. Sometimes the huts are very mong and are owned by a group of families related to one another. They serve as sleeping places or storehouses, and also as homes for the poor. Instead of runo walls, stone walls are sometimes erected, made of river stones held together with clay. When a shelter is desired for only a very short time, the walls are made merely of leaves of trees, or even of grass or green runos. When people go to the forest to secure timber for a house under construction, they will erect a hut like this. This will give them shelter in the forest for the few days are there. The forest is often quite distant from the village.

The simplest huts are those put in the rice field at the time the rice birds are eating the maturing rice. These are just shelters against the sun’s rays for those whose duty is to drive off the birds during the day. They are made of upright posts with roofs of grass or leaves.

Huts have no special terminology of their own, the terms of the house being used is in reference to the huts. There is only one special term: taliktik, that is, the upper part of the roof, which is not pyramidal.

The houses of Ifugao are truly remarkable. Tot he civilized world they may appear as miserable huts, unhygienic, narrow, dark, and utterly uncomfortable. One must, however, consider all the circumstances which surround the life of the Ifugao. The houses are unsanitary: the smoke remains inside, preventing the circulation of pure air. But the Ifugao lives outdoors and goes indoors chiefly to sleep. If illness keeps him inside, he will not look upon his house as unsanitary, but will offer sacrifices tot he spirits who are injuring his health. His house is small, but he lives in the open. And if his children cannot sleep with their parents, the latter do not worry, as they are little concerned about the morals of their offspring. The parents’ main concern is to have children, somebody to take their place after their death (nipallog ke haon).

The houses may be uncomfortable, but an Ifugao has little to store away: just a few baskets, some firewood, and some rice. A shelter against the rain, a sleeping place at night, a place to cook his food and to store his few belongings.

The houses are strongly made, and if the materials used are good, they can last for generations. Many houses are constructed five to six or more generations ago which are still in good condition. The parts are wonderfully fitted together, although no nails are used. They can be taken apart, carried away, and put up again in another place, all in the course of one day.

If you want to see an Ifugao house, you could go to Bagiuo, Banawe or simply in Nayong Filipino in Clark Expo.

Check other images of the Ifugao House here.