Brief Description
For 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have followed the contours of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they have helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment.
Statement of Significance
The Ifugao Rice Terraces epitomize the absolute blending of the physical, socio-cultural, economic, religious, and political environment. Indeed, it is a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty.
The Ifugao Rice Terraces are the priceless contribution of Philippine ancestors to humanity. Built 2000 years ago and passed on from generation to generation, the Ifugao Rice Terraces represent an enduring illustration of an ancient civilization that surpassed various challenges and setbacks posed by modernization.
Reaching a higher altitude and being built on steeper slopes than many other terraces, the Ifugao complex of stone or mud walls and the careful carving of the natural contours of hills and mountains to make terraced pond fields, coupled with the development of intricate irrigation systems, harvesting water from the forests of the mountain tops, and an elaborate farming system, reflect a mastery of engineering that is appreciated to the present.
The terraces illustrate a persistence of cultural traditions and remarkable continuity and endurance, since archaeological evidence reveals that this technique has been in use in the region for 2000 years virtually unchanged. They offer many lessons for application in similar environments elsewhere.
Maintenance of the living rice terraces reflects a primarily cooperative approach of the whole community which is based on detailed knowledge of the rich diversity of biological resources existing in the Ifugao agro-ecosystem, a finely tuned annual system respecting lunar cycles, zoning and planning, extensive soil conservation, mastery of a most complex pest control regime based on the processing of a variety of herbs, accompanied by religious rituals.
Criterion (iii): The rice terraces are a dramatic testimony to a community’s sustainable and primarily communal system of rice production, based on harvesting water from the forest clad mountain tops and creating stone terraces and ponds, a system that has survived for two millennia.
Criterion (iv): The rice terraces are a memorial to the history and labour of more than a thousand generations of small-scale farmers who, working together as a community, have created a landscape based on a delicate and sustainable use of natural resources.
Criterion (v): The rice terraces are an outstanding example of land-use resulting from a harmonious interaction between people and their environment which has produced a steep terraced landscape of great aesthetic beauty, now vulnerable to social and economic changes.
Long Description
The rice terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras are living cultural landscapes devoted to the production of one of the world’s most important staple crops, rice. They preserve traditional techniques and forms dating back many centuries, still viable today. At the same time they illustrate a remarkable degree of harmony between humankind and the natural environment of great aesthetic appeal, as well as demonstrating sustainable farming systems in mountainous terrain, based on a careful use of natural resources.
They are the only monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted foreign domination and preserved their authentic tribal culture. The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people, their culture, and their traditional practices.
The terraces are the only form of stone construction from the pre-colonial period. The Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a wholly wood-based one: unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, in the Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines were built from wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace hamlets. Terracing began in the Cordilleras some 2,000 years ago, although scholars disagree about its original purpose. It is evidence of a high level of knowledge of structural and hydraulic engineering on the part of those who built the terraces. The knowledges and practices, supported by rituals, involved in maintaining the terraces are transferred orally from generation to generation, without written records. Taro was the first crop when they began to be used for agriculture, later to be replaced by rice, which is the predominant crop today.
The terraces are situated at altitudes between 700 m and 1,500 m above sea level. There are four clusters of the best preserved terraces in the region, with its basic elements of a buffer ring of private forests (muyong ), terraces, village and sacred grove. Terraced rice fields are not uncommon in Asia. To contain the water needed for rice cultivation within the paddies, even gently rolling terrain must be terraced with stone or mud walls. High-altitude paddies must be kept wet and have to rely upon a man-made water-collecting system. The principal differences between the Philippines terraces and those elsewhere are their higher altitude and the steeper slopes. The high-altitude cultivation is based on the use of a special strain of rice, which germinates under freezing conditions and grows chest-high, with non-shattering panicles, to facilitate harvesting on slopes that are too steep to permit the use of animals or machinery of any kind.
Construction of the terraces is carried out with great care and precision. An underground conduit is placed within the fill for drainage purposes. The groups of terraces blanket the mountainsides, following their contours. Above them, rising to the mountain-tops, is the ring of private woods (muyong ), intensively managed in conformity with traditional practices, which recognize a total ecosystem which assures an adequate water supply to keep the terraces flooded. Water is equitably shared, and no single terrace obstructs the flow on its way down to the next terrace below. There is a complex system, of dams, sluices, channels and bamboo pipes, communally maintained, which drain into a stream at the bottom of the valley.
The villages or hamlets are associated with groups of terraces, and consist of groups of single-family tribal dwellings which architecturally reproduce the people’s spatial interpretation of their mountain environment. A steeply pitched thatched pyramidal roof covers a wooden one-room dwelling, raised above the ground on four posts and reached by a ladder which is pulled up at night. Clusters of dwellings form small hamlets of interrelated families, with a centrally located ritual rice-field as their focus. This is the first parcel to be planted or harvested; its owners makes all the agricultural decisions for the community, manages its primary ritual property, which includes a granary housing carved wooden gods, and the basket reliquary in which portions of consecrated sacrifices from all agricultural ceremonial rites are kept. A short distance from the cluster of dwellings is the ritual hill, usually marked by a grove of sacred betel trees round a hut or open shed where the holy men live and carry out traditional rites.
Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
Historical Description
The rice terraces of the Cordilleras are the only monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted any foreign domination and have preserved their authentic tribal culture. The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people, their culture, and their traditional practices.
The terraces, which spread over five present-day provinces, are the only form of stone construction from the pre-colonial period. The Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a wholly wood-based one: unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, for example, in the Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines were all built in wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace hamlets.
It is believed that terracing began in the Cordilleras some two thousand years ago, though scholars are not in agreement about the original purpose for which it was employed. It is evidence of a high level of knowledge of structural and hydraulic engineering on the part of those who built the terraces. The knowledge and practices, supported by rituals, involved in maintaining the terraces are transferred orally from generation to generation, without written records. Taro was the first crop when they began to be used for agriculture, later to be replaced by rice, which is the predominant crop today.

The resorts and hotels in Clark Philippines are, to many, a fine example to leisure lifestyle of suburban city in America. In the top resorts of Clark Pampanga, lake, beach, 13 hectares of picnic grounds covered with trees and green all put together to deliver a memorable getaway experience for foreign tourists visiting Angeles City Clark Philippines and residents of Manila driving up to Clark for a day trip or a weekend family outing. The beach resorts, leisure parks and vacation hotels in Clark Pampanga offer a unique ambience that supports a laidback relaxing lifestyle. Many visitors travel north to Clark Pampanga from Manila to unwind and relax in these resorts.

Family with children can enjoy the picnic grounds and several large and small spots for swimming and water sports inside this resort in Pampanga. Parents can enjoy a day in leisure and relaxation in the shade provided by large Acacia trees throughout this resort. The ambience and beautiful view of the outdoor facilities of this beach resort in Clark Pampanga attracts visitors to go out of town from Manila for a getaway in the north.

Where to go in Clark? Hotel Clark Philippines is a De Luxe Hotel in Clark and Subic, a risk free place to stay, cozy and nice ambience, a nice function place for special occassion

You might want to check also the Yats Restaurant is the best restaurant for special dinner, best restaurant for dinner with friends near Manila, also the best place to celebrate special events.

Are you looking for an attractive restaurant or a nice place to eat with friends in Clark, Angeles City Pampanga? Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar is a restaurant with good food and good wines for dinner located at Clark Angeles City Pampanga. Perfect for exclusive dinner venues for groups, recommended for private dinner in Philippines. A Restaurant in Clark for business dinner meeting. Private dinner place or dinner restaurant in Clark Subic Near Manila Angeles City Pampanga. Yats Restaurant is one of the Good Restaurant in Pampanga Angeles City Clark near Manila.

Famous Restaurant in Pampanga, a place to dine with friends in Clark, cozy restaurant with a nice ambience, a nice function place for special occassions

Does anyone know how difficult it is to find a decent beach wedding venue in the Philippines? Sure, there are a lot of beautiful beaches but to find a beach where we can have a wedding ceremony in Philippines is next to impossible.

Beach wedding venue is very popular in Manila, Subic, Pampanga Angeles City and
Clark Philippines. Young wedding couples prefer outdoor beach wedding followed up by garden styled outdoor wedding receptions in Philippines. Best beach wedding venue in Philippines is Clearwater Resort wedding venues near Manila, Angeles City, Clark Philippines.

Traffic along the North Expressway NLEX from Manila to Clark is always light and the new Subic Tarlac Clark Expressway ScTex takes visitors straight into Clark Freeport without going through any towns and cities along the way.

For information as well as assistance with reservations in hotels and resorts in Pampanga, Clark Philippines, click here to contact HotelClarkPhilippines now

Or call us at

Hotel Clark Philippines
Creekside Road corner of Centennial Road,
Central Business District, Clark Freeport Zone,
Pampanga, Philippines 2023

Tel: (045)599-5949 0917-520-4403 0922-870-5177

Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 Rea or Chay

http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

Email: Info@ClarkPhilippines.com

Getting to this hotel in Clark Philippines
After entering Clark Freeport from Subic, Manila, Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along Clark’s main highway MA Roxas, passing Clark’s largest wine shop called Clark Wine Center on your right, continue to bear right making no turns at all, go past Mimosa Leisure Estate on the opposite side of the road, you will hit a major intersection. Go straight and the road becomes Creekside Road. YATS Clearwater Resort and Country Club is on your right just 200m down. Traffic in Clark Philippines is light so it should be quite easy for get to this hotel in Clark Philippines.

YATS Leisure Philippines is a HK-based developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine outlets http://www.YatsLeisure.com

To inquire with the beach resort hotel in Clark Pampanga visit http://www.ClearwaterPhililippines.com

Looking for a party venue in town?
Clearwater Resort and Country Club is one of the ideal venues for birthday party because it is a risk free venue. Not only Birthday Parties but also a good place to enjoy family reunion. A good place to celebrate special occasions. Clearwater Resort and Country Club is one of the resorts in Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga or near Manila with activity amenities, place that are nice for celebration.