Reflection

In early years, Philippines is rich in culture and tradition. Their hand-made crafts used for daily lives which gathering foods, hunting animals, planting root crops and many more. Philippines is also rich in art which evident on caves, sculptures, weavings, and carvings. One of the traditional methods is “Pambabatok” native in Cordillera Region. Batok is believed have been practiced for thousand years. I’m amazed by how they do the pambabatok. In our modern time, tattoo artist used different equipments to make their art. In the case of indigenous people, they used sait which thorn served as needle for batok. I believed that Apo Whang-Od is the last mambabatok in Kalinga. It so sad because she was the last one, but I know that she started to mentor her niece to continue the tattoo artistry in Kalinga. Their tradition and knowledge are important to us. To be able to produce future generation and encourage them to continue because it is part of our culture.

Blacksmithing or “Pagpapanday” is also part of our rich culture. In different places in the Philippines, I saw different kinds of knife which are unique from other country. In the video, I saw the knife that looks like kukri or khukuri. Our blacksmith has potential but unfortunately the future generation neglected how the blacksmithing is important. Their works made their life easy when hunting animals or gathering root crops. I hope these tradition will bloom once more because it is our pride and we can be recognize by other people doing our very own tradition.