By Anna Valmero
DURING my last visit at Baguio, I veered away from visiting the typical tourist park attractions and instead took a road less traveled.
Situated across the hilly top of Baguio, just 15 minutes away from the town proper is a haven for artists and culture enthusiasts I long to visit this place called Tam-Awan village after I read about it.
The place was named after “tanaw” or vantage point because the South China Sea can be viewed from the deck on a clear day. The village features Cordillera village architecture including clusters of Igorot and Kalinga huts of different types, namely Annaba, Bangaan, Battad, Bocos, Kinakin and Dukligan (fertility hut).
According to Wrachelle Calderon, administrative mananger of Chanum Foundation Inc., the place started as “tambayan” or rendezvous place for Filipino artists Ben Cabrera (Bencab), Chit Asignacion, Jordan Man-osan and their foreign friends Anne Candas Michael and Jackson Brian III.
Brian III was later approached by someone to buy two abandoned huts from Cordillera in the early 1990s when the natives began leaving their huts to shift to “GI”-made houses.
Asignacion also followed suit, acquiring an abandoned hut and from then on, the tambayan huts emerged.
All three Filipino founders then converted the place to preserve and showcase local tribal culture.
With most artifacts such as wooden anitos, beadwork and sculpture gone, the huts are the remaining physical evidence of Igorot culture, they said.
Igorot men, both young and old, helped install the huts and develop the landscape of the Tam-Awan village.
Being an artists’ haven, the Tam-Awan village has a lot of installation art, such as the wooden hanging bridge called “Dugtungan.”
Several huts house artworks from Baguio and Igorot native artists, while other huts are built for visitor lodging.
Cultural shows during Saturdays are also held in the open area courtesy of the Tam-awan Village Dance Troupe. If you’re lucky, you can catch the bonfire where village men gather around to chat.
The village is managed and maintained by the Chanum Foundation, which was named after the spring inside the village. The foundation hires natives to help prevent the huts from acquiring termite damage though smoking. At present, renovations are undergoing in the area after the spring was destroyed by a strong typhoon months ago.
An afternoon at the Tam-awan Village allowed me to respect more the cultural heritage of the native tribes.
The “Dugtungan” bridge, the rice granary and all huts at Tam-awan village feature the ingenuity of Filipino tribe architecture – all of which are built without nails or metals, just lashed and pegged.
Aside from the native Igorot household decor, the huts inside the village also took on a modern twist since they now provide beddings for lodging and concessions like comfort rooms.
Of all the huts in the village, the fertility hut is the best-seller, with about10 couples occupying the hut for a month. Proof of this is an “occupied” sign in front of the Dukligan hut when I visited the place.
The landscape is also admirable. The small patch of land where the village is located is able to accommodate over 10 huts, a coffee house and an administration office as well as other amenities in the area.
Despite the hilly landscape, you can easily navigate the terrain, thanks to the ingenious land terraces crafted by the Igorots who developed the area.
At a time when everything seems to change and move very fast, the visit in Tam-awan village allowed me to reflect on the idea that it is possible to adapt to modern life while preserving cultural heritage.
In Tam-awan Village, Igorot and Kalinga natives work together to help preserve and communicate their culture and also earn a living from doing so.
Tam-awan Village shows that there are more ways to preserve our culture.
