The NM Cordillera Regional Museum (National Museum Cordillera) is an ethnographic museum located within the historic Kiangan (World War II) Memorial Shrine compound in the town center of Kiangan, Ifugao. It also serves as a site museum for the UNESCO World Heritage-inscribed Cordillera Rice Terraces.
The National Museum Cordillera was formerly the Ifugao Museum. The structure that houses the museum was initially built in 1984 as the Ifugao Museum. The then Presidential Assistant on National Minorities and the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) funded its construction, following calls from the community for support from the national government.
The Ifugao Museum was inaugurated on March 19, 1984 and its operations were turned over to the NMP on May 30, 1984. It later became the National Museum Cordillera Regional Museum and Satellite Office.
Currently, the museum showcases the “Binodbodan and Pinilian: Shared Textile Traditions Among the Cordillera People,” an exhibition otherwise known as the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Regional Gallery featuring Cordillera textiles. This exhibition, which is in partnership with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, presents both the traditional and contemporary textiles from the different ethnolinguistic groups of the Cordillera region. It recognizes, too, the contributions of weavers, dyers, and embroiderers in the preservation and transmission of textile weaving in the Philippines. The featured textiles and ornaments from the National Ethnographic Collection were collected from the early 20th century to the turn of the 21st century. The handwoven textiles included those that were made from bast, cotton, poly-cotton and polyester while the ornaments are made of glass and plastic beads, mother-of-pearl, plant materials and shells. The selected objects reflect the various designs and patterns inspired by their environment, beliefs and practices, and interactions among and between the groups in the region and neighboring groups in the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley.
On storage are items from the National Ethnographic Collection and other heritage objects entrusted to the NMP that are representative of the material culture of the Ifugao, a group of indigenous peoples in the Cordillera region. Stored collections include parts of an Ifugao native house; rice granary idols “bulul”; early hunting, farming and fishing tools; traditionally crafted household wooden wares; and other objects that functioned for personal and household use. The museum also serves as a repository for artifacts excavated from the Old Kiyyangan Village, which is thus far considered as the earliest settlement of the early inhabitants of Ifugao.
The National Museum Cordillera offers guided tours, lectures, technical assistance to researchers, and on-the-job training programs for students. The NMP is also oriented towards developing new exhibitions that would feature the Ifugao Rice Culture and the integrated system that makes and sustains the rice terraces of the Cordillera.
CONTACT US
National Museum of the Philippines – Cordillera
Address: Poblacion, Kiangan, Ifugao
Contact No.: +63-967 304 9331
Email: nm_kianganbranch@yahoo.com
FB: National Museum of the Philippines – Cordillera
