Ifugao

An indigenous people of northern Luzon in the Philippines, numbering approximately 70,000. In addition to practising shifting cultivation on highland slopes, they build elaborate terraced rice fields. Their language belongs to the Austronesian family.

The Ifugao live in scattered hamlets and traditionally recognize a class of nobles, kadangya, who are obliged to provide expensive feasts on particular social occasions. Although indigenous beliefs remain, many Ifugao have adopted Christianity. Some Ifugao work as wage labourers outside their highland region.

Ifugao

Mountainous, interior province of northern Luzon Island in the Philippines; area 2,518 sq km/972 sq mi; population (1995) 150,000. The capital is Lagawe. There are extensive irrigated rice terraces covering an area of 260 sq km/100 sq mi cut into the mountain slopes, begun more than 2,000 years ago by the Ifugao people, which attract many tourists.