UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MINDANAO

THE BUGKALOT
Ilongot
 What is bugkalot?
•  The Bugkalot are a tribe
inhabiting the southern Sierra
Madre and Caraballo Mountains,
on the east side of Luzon in the
Philippines, primarily in the
provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and
Nueva Ecija and along the
mountain border between the
provinces of Quirino and Aurora.
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• They are also commonly referred to as
"Ilongot", especially in older studies.
Presently, there are about 87,000
Bugkalots. The Bugkalots tend to inhabit
areas close to rivers, as they provide a food
source and a means for transportation.
Their native language is the Bugkalot
language, currently spoken by about
50,000 people. They also speak the Ilocano
language.
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 Festivals, Event, Culture, and
Traditions
• The Ilongot are a forest people
that live in Nueva Vizcaya Province
in Luzon. Also known as the Ibilao,
Ibilaw, Ilungut, Ilyongt, Lingotes,
they are former headhunters and
live in an enclave and have resisted
attempts to assimilate them.
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• The Ilongot also collect forest
products such as rattan for their own
use and to trade, forge their own
knives, picks and hoes. Item they
obtain through trade include bullets,
cloth, knives, liquor and salt. Much of
the trading is done to obtain goods for
bride payments. 
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 Attires and accessories used
• The clothing of the Bugkalot is simple, but they are
fond of accessories. Children go around without
clothes until they reach puberty. For cloth, the
Bugkalots make use mainly of the soft inner bark
found in some trees. The men wear a loincloth which is
fastened around the waist by a belt made of either
brass wires or rattan. Pieces of bark cloth are wrapped
around the legs and tied in place. For accessories, men
wear metal armbands on the left side and rings on
their fingers. They also carry a bag with items like
arrowheads, flint, betel nut, and crocodile teeth inside.
Boys wear a band around one of their leg calves.
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• The women wear bark cloth sarongs
that end above the knee. They wear
matching blouses which expose their
midriffs. They like wearing accessories
such as beaded necklaces (panglao),
earrings (kalipan), brass armbands,
and little bells. The women are good
at embroidery and they also make
accessories like cotton tassels.
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 Dances
• The dances of the Bugkalot tend to be
vigorous, especially the tagem, or post-
head-hunting dance. The women play
bamboo zithers known as colesing to the
rhythm of sticks and the accompaniment of
litlit, a guitar with human hairs for strings.
The men carry their weapons and dance to
the music, moving in a forceful, trancelike
way, later to be joined by the women.
Another of their well-known dances is the
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• Courtship dance (tagem) of the
Ilongot Indigenous Peoples of
Bayanihan, Aurora. It is composed of
spontaneous bodily movements in the
beat of the "kulising" and "sipal"
musical instruments. During the old
times, Ilongot marriage unions known
as "lango" were traditionally decided
by "beganget" or community elders
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