Ijangs are the terraced hillfort settlements of the Ivatan people built on hill tops and ridges in the Batanes Islands of the Philippines. [1] These high rocky formations can serve as fortress or refuge against attacking enemies for the Ivatan people. [2]
In 1994, Eusebio Dizon, the deputy director of the National Museum of the Philippines, went to Batanes with his team for an archeological project. They found a triangular-shaped hill in Savidug, a town in Sabtang. These structures were called ijang. [3] [2] Ijangs are similar to the gusuku castles found in Okinawa, Japan. Aside from both of them being strategically built in high places, 12th-century Sung-type ceramics and Chinese beads and other artefactual materials recovered from an ijang were dated at almost the same time as the foundations of the Okinawan castles beginning from circa 1200 CE. [4]
The Ivatan traditionally lived in the ijang which were fortified mountain areas and drank sugar-cane wine, or palek. They also used gold as currency and produced a thriving agriculture-based industry as well as expertise in seafaring and boat-building.
Based on oral history and tradition, pre-Hispanic Ivatans were divided into small clans that lived not far from the sea. During clan wars, those attacked climbed for safety to the tops of the ijangs where they defended themselves by throwing stones at the enemy below. The tops of the ijangs today are still full of stones—the primitive ammunition of the people. Building a shelter atop the ijang became necessary when fighting continued long for some time. Ijangs were first described by the English freebooter Captain William Dampier when he visited the island of Ivuhos in 1687. Today, there are still traces of such ancient dwellings, including stone posts standing or lying where the Ivatans left them when they abandoned their pagan way of life for Christianity in the late 18th century. [2]
In 1783, the Spanish claimed Batanes as part of the Philippines under the auspices of Governor-General José Basco y Vargas.[ citation needed ] The Bashi Channel had come to be increasingly used by English East India Company ships and the Spanish authorities brought the islands under their direct administration to prevent them from falling under British control. [5] However, the Ivatan remained on their ijangs, or mountain fortresses.
In 1790, Governor Guerrero decreed that Ivatans were to leave their ijang and to live in the lowlands, thereby giving them more people to tax. Basco and Ivana were the first towns. [5]
A hillfort is a type of fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late European Bronze Age and Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill and consists of one or more lines of earthworks or stone ramparts, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. If enemies were approaching, the civilians would spot them from a distance.
Batanes, officially the Province of Batanes, is an archipelagic province in the Philippines, administratively part of the Cagayan Valley region. It is the northernmost province in the Philippines, and the smallest, both in population and land area. The capital is Basco, located on the island of Batan and also the most populous in the province.
Basco, officially the Municipality of Basco, is a municipality and capital of the province of Batanes, Philippines. In the 2020 census, it had a population of 9,517 people.
José Basco y Pérez de Vargas, 1st Count of the Conquest of Batanes Islands (Spanish: José Basco y Vargas, primer conde de la conquista de las islas Batanes was a naval officer of the Spanish Navy who served as the 53rd governor of the Spanish Philippines under the Spanish Empire, from 1778 to 1787. An "economic minded" governor-general in Spanish-ruled Philippines, his rule tried to subjugate the Ivatan natives of Batanes, which led to the murder of Ivatan indigenous hero Aman Dangat.
The Ivatan language, also known as Chirin nu Ivatan, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Batanes Islands of the Philippines.
Itbayat, officially the Municipality of Itbayat,, is a municipality in the province of Batanes, Philippines. In the 2020 census, it had a population of 3,128 people.
Sabtang, officially the Municipality of Sabtang, is a municipality in the province of Batanes, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 1,696 people.
Uyugan, officially the Municipality of Uyugan, is a municipality in the province of Batanes, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 1,380 people, making it the least populated town in the province and second least populated in the country, behind Kalayaan, Palawan.
Mavulis Island is the northernmost of the Batanes Islands and the northernmost island in the Philippines. It is part of the archipelagic province of Batanes. The island is uninhabited but it is guarded by the military. It is also frequently visited by local fishermen for fishing adventures.
Mount Iraya, is an active stratovolcano on Batan Island and the highest point in the province of Batanes, Philippines.
The Batanic languages are a dialect cluster of the Austronesian language family. They are spoken on Babuyan Island, just north of Luzon; three of the Batanes Islands, between the Philippines and Taiwan; and on Orchid Island of southern Taiwan.
The Ivatan people are an Austronesian ethnolinguistic group native to the Batanes and Babuyan Islands of the northernmost Philippines. They are genetically closely related to other ethnic groups in Northern Luzon, but also share close linguistic and cultural affinities to the Tao people of Orchid Island in Taiwan.
Basco Lighthouse is a lighthouse in the town of Basco in Batanes, the northernmost province in the Philippines. Located in Naidi Hills in Barangay San Antonio, the lush green hills and the open sea provide a beautiful backdrop for the lighthouse. The place can easily be reached by a 1.2-km hike from the Port of Basco.
The prehistory of the Philippines covers the events prior to the written history of what is now the Philippines. The current demarcation between this period and the early history of the Philippines is April 21, 900, which is the equivalent on the Proleptic Gregorian calendar for the date indicated on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription—the earliest known surviving written record to come from the Philippines. This period saw the immense change that took hold of the archipelago from Stone Age cultures in 50000 BC to the emergence of developed thalassocratic civilizations in the fourth century, continuing on with the gradual widening of trade until 900 and the first surviving written records.
Silvino Artemio Barsana Agudo, also known as S.B. or Binong, was a Filipino businessman, lawyer, World War II veteran, and public servant. He was the governor of Batanes province from 1968 to 1971.
Philippine jade culture, or jade artifacts, made from white and green nephrite and dating as far back as 2000–1500 BC, have been discovered at a number of archaeological excavations in the Philippines since the 1930s. The artifacts have been both tools like chisels and ornaments such as lingling-o earrings, bracelets, and beads.
Warfare in pre-colonial Philippines refers to the military history of the Philippines prior to Spanish colonization.
The archaeology of the Philippines is the study of past societies in the territory of the modern Republic of the Philippines, an island country in Southeast Asia, through material culture.
Lingling-o or ling-ling-o are a type of penannular or double-headed pendant or amulet that have been associated with various late Neolithic to late Iron Age Austronesian cultures. Most lingling-o were made in jade workshops in the Philippines, and to a lesser extent in the Sa Huỳnh culture of Vietnam, although the raw jade was mostly sourced from Taiwan.
Aman Dangat, also known as "Kenan", was a prominent Mangpus from the town of Malakdang on Sabtang island in Batanes, Philippines. He led a revolt against the Spaniards from 1785 to 1791.
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