🇵🇭 TINGLAYAN • Kin-ay: the First Kalinga Tattooed Woman I Met

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Edmar del Castillo Guquib at Monday, April 14, 2014 14

Stories of town explorations.

"A person came close. He gently grabbed Kin-ay's arm and showed me her name. Wow! That was a lovely way of telling her name!"

That was the day when I encountered a living cultural museum. April 7, 2013: a date marked in my memory, tattooed on my heart, adopted by my DNA. She's a beautiful old woman. Her name is Kin-ay, a Kalinga tattooed woman whom I met for the very first time in this space of opportunity.

The reptilian-look arm is tantamount to beauty in her culture.

I've met a lot of tattooed women, some are gangsters, some are achievers, but Kin-ay's tattoo has this design that can beat all the hippest tattoos in town.

She's one of those Kalinga women breathing the last air of a tattooing culture. She lives in a . The latter village is a living cultural museum with living objects.

After alighting from a mini-bus that had the balls to traverse a killer road, I saw Kin-ay. If owns the , Kin-ay's territory is Bugnay Village.

Unlike Fang-od, she does not have the skill of tattooing but she has this charisma to make every Kalinga tattoo hunter's heart to jump with joy.

Her tattoo is a sign of bravery.

I've met some tattooed women in BONTOC but this group of tattooed women in Kalinga is yet another desire my culture-lustful body is fantasizing.

So upon I stepped on a Kalinga soil for the very first time, I saw Kin-ay. I saw her tattoos marked on that skin with love. Also, she's the first tattooed woman from Kalinga I've ever met.

Seeing her was like I was transported to a different space and dimension. She is a festival herself, a grandiose event, a living masterpiece. My eyes were witnessing a grand cultural show in the person of her. That's how I reacted for the first time. You know, my first time experiences are the most memorable.

A closer look of that lovely tattoo

Her name is marked on the posterior aspect of her forearm

Her name was tattooed on her skin. I asked her name but she didn't answer me. I knew, she can't understand my Ilocano tongue. A person came close. He gently grabbed Kin-ay's arm and showed me her name. Wow! That was a lovely way of telling her name! K I N - A Y.

My very first exposure in Kalinga was priceless, to think that this is just the start of the journey of meeting the last tribal tattoo artist in Kalinga.

Kin-ay belongs to an endangered culture. Soon it will be extinct. The culture of tattooing is waving goodbye. The younger generation of Kalinga women has learned to let go of the culture.

My photo with her. I paid her 20 pesos for this photo.

I met Kin-ay for the second time

She puts on a traditional headwear and porcelain necklace

She looks like a Westerner here, isn't it?

Our first meet-up with Kin-ay never became the last. The second chance was so generous. She still wears that turban and her necklace.

Usually, a necklace like that is made of porcelain they used to barter with the early Chinese traders in the lowlands.

She's a cultural queen in Bugnay

It's been a year since the last time we met. How is she now? Is she still healthy and fit? Is she still living? I don't know. All I want to do is to go back there because I have a surprise for her.

I hope she'll still be alive for our 3rd meet-up. Otherwise, the surprise will be of no value anymore. /end

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BUGNAY VILLAGE SUB-SERIES | | 2

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[TINGLAYAN] Father and son: a tandem fight of faith

Buscalan, aside from being a , it is also a kingdom of immense cultural display. This cultural realm takes pride of its who puts intricate marks of fairy tale permanent on the skin of friendly ambassadors of peace from other kingdoms of the planet.

These marks are old-age symbols of the kingdom's glorious past now being defeated gradually by an influential weapon that easily spreads and attacks from the air. They ride on an ultra-modern spaceship of the modern world.

They easily penetrate the heart of every family in the kingdom through hippie sounds and both still and moving images of glitz and glamour under the guise of subliminal queens coming from the kingdom of pop culture. Unknown to the people of the kingdom of Buscalan, some of their enemies are already living with them, at home. If the people of the kingdom has survived from physical defeat of the imperialist platoon of the kingdoms from the West, the latest weapon seems to be tricky disguising in the form of entertainment. That said, the unique features of their kingdom is now being replaced by the culture of the pop kingdom. The pop queen has killed the ink princesses. The Great Queen of the Ink is actually the last reigning cultural ruler. Physical death is waiting to dethrone her.

A KINGDOM OF BLACKSMITHS

Part of the fight of faith in this little kingdom located atop the mountains of an Archipelago in the East is to turn stones into fire, then stones again. This is a physical weapon they craft for their survival. The people of this kingdom don't use this in physical fights but they rather use it to fight a much tricky enemy of the war - that is poverty.

Local Industry in Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga

[TINGLAYAN] Crafting a kingdom weapon for the war

Poverty is a concept introduced by the kingdoms from the West. The financial system of the world is based on central banks controlled by money rulers of the money kingdom. The money kingdom is so huge that its imperial force is widespread. It has changed the concept of living in the little kingdoms including Buscalan.

The money kingdom has turned governments into a form of business. Alter-egos of the financial kings and queens have deprived the little people of their life, culture, property and even liberty. The simple life, where there is no need to spend the notes (of no real value) of the money kingdom has changed.

[TINGLAYAN] Trained to face the war in the kingdom

The imperialists tricked the people of the smaller kingdoms. The mode of trade has changed, now in the form of paper with the value printed therein. The trees of the mountain kingdoms have been cut down to make these paper notes of no real value. The real people who are able to dig and mine gold and silvers from beneath the earth have become slaves in exchange of papers they use to sustain the needs of their families back in their little abode.

Those who dig out the gold with physical effort become poorer while those who have the paper notes become richer. The industrious people of the smaller kingdoms has become defeated. The weapon is too strong that all they have to do is to be a slave of their enemy poverty to survive the challenges of their kingdom abode.

THE CONCEPT OF POVERTY

In little kingdoms where life is simple, the concept of poverty does not really exist. Living a simple, happy and peaceful life is all what it takes to be a kingdom citizen. Happiness is a wealth. Simplicity is a virtue. Peace is a norm.

[TINGLAYAN] This man fights the war with stones shaped by fire

Come the Western concept of poverty - that is the absence or scarcity of notes in possession. The simple kingdom life has replaced by material desires and greed. Those who plant rice and mine the earth are the real wealthy people for being able to possess sacks of rice and gold. But the concept of West kingdoms changed the perspective.

The West kingdom has invented television and the internet to market different stuff you can only acquire when you have the notes of the invasive money kingdom. They make it appear that a simple life in the mountains is a bad idea. The money kingdom shows delicious food with toxic preservatives, alcoholic beverages that seem to be a necessity in social gatherings, golden jewelries that actually came from the kingdom citizens who are able to extract them from the earth, and images of beautiful girls to make it appear that the standard of beauty is at least having a white skin so that you will buy their skin-whitening products -- all for the collection of notes: a virtual wealth that has long been made to appear real.

The kingdom citizens of the mountains are now embracing the concept of wealth based on paper. The tricky weapons the imperialist kingdoms have devised have defeated the people of the little mountain kingdom. Their graceful tattoos are gone. The sense of pride diminished while the mindset of other kingdom citizens of the lowlands has also changed -- that tribal tattoos are dirty and shameful.

[TINGLAYAN] The war faced by him is a daily battle

The battle against poverty stemmed from the time the people of this mountain kingdom embraced such concept. If there is no concept of poverty, there shall be no poverty. But poverty has been introduced by greedy kingdoms while the little kingdom dwellers of the mountains recognized its presence. Now they're living under such concept; while a generation of materialism is on the rise. From that point, there are more battles to be faced to earn that paper wealth.

TURNING STONES INTO FIRE

Before the introduction of the concept of poverty, the blacksmiths of Kalinga make weapons to physically drive the invaders away. Now, they make weapons only to be converted into money (made of paper) of virtual value.

[TINGLAYAN] Where the king fire defeated the stone warriors

On how the kingdom citizens of Buscalan mountains learned this is something that is hard to explain. The warriors of the war against poverty have defeated the cold stones and turned them malleable; let the same to surrender. The fire of their determination to survive has made them defeat the enemy with stone heart. The video below shows how this blacksmith of Buscalan shape a stone/metal through flame.

YOUTUBE ZONE

Blacksmithing in Buscalan Village of Kalinga is a local industry that involves a virtual war. The enemy is something that cannot be seen, nor be heard, nor be touched, but can be felt. The unseen enemy affects the warriors physically, mentally and emotionally. But the kingdom warriors against poverty are not ready to surrender yet. They can withstand the test. Although the enemy is something that can not be seen but can be felt, they know how to counterattack, like this blacksmithing. The process is tough but they have to do this in the name of survival. They are not giving up. They are not...

...giving up - as tough as a blacksmith, as powerful as fire. And if the people ignore the concept of poverty, they will eventually win the war. Otherwise, they have to learn the strategy of the enemy, for them to survive a war. /end