Stairway to the Sky

As one beholds this sight one can not help but agree. Nevertheless, many people have never heard of this amazing sight in the Philippines. What is it? The stairway to the sky, the rice terraces of the Cordillera Central. Tucked away in the heights of Luzon, the terraces are an amazing display of beauty and ingenuity.

Why were they built? The precipitous mountains of the Cordilleras are so steep that they could normally not be used for farming. The incline of some slopes exceeds 50 percent. But ancient farmers were not deterred by this. At an elevation of 4,000 feet [1,200 m] or more, they carved thousands of terraces into the sides of the verdant mountains. Sometimes 25, 30, or more are stacked like a stairway reaching skyward. And each terrace is a cultivated pond field, lined with earthen dikes and retained with stone walls. Most are planted with rice and follow the contour of the mountains; some slopes are concave, others convex. Of course, agricultural terraces are hardly unique to the Philippines. Terraced fields are found in other countries too, particularly in Southeast Asia, South America, and some parts of Africa. But in many ways the rice terraces of the Philippines are unique. Mario Movillon, of the International Rice Research Institute said “The Philippine rice terraces are on a much larger scale than terraces in other countries. They cover a big part of the mountains of the Cordillera.”

A large proportion are in Ifugao Province. One cannot help but be impressed by the sheer number of terraces. They add a sculptured beauty to the natural flow of the mountains.