toppaya (kalinga group)

Location: Baguio, Luzon, Philippines
Date: November 29, 2017
Ethnic Group: Mountain Province Group
Ensemble Group: Body of Easter Students Advocates of Traditions (BESAT)
Type: Flat Gong
Note:
Baguio, located in Northern Luzon Island, Philippines, there is a number of ethnic groups ,such as Kalinga, Kankanaey, Ifugao, Ibaloi, Tingguian, and Isneg, inhabiting and coexisting in this province. Although they are different ethnic groups, people in Philippines, they call these groups as mountain province people. For mountain province, they are specialized in flat gong music ensembles called Gangsa. This Ganga has almost same inter-locking system as mainland Southeast Asia. However, for Kalinga and Ifugao ethnic groups, they have particular style of holding gong. Because they were used be warriors and famous for headhunting tribes before, their gong holders are based on the shape of human jaws.
For mountain province people, they often play for festive occasions such as wedding, thanksgiving, harvesting and courtship dance. While mainland southeast asia and some islands of maritime Southeast Asia have gong music for the ritual like funerals, for mountain province people in Luzon, they don’t play gong for this occasions.
Information: Kalinga Ethnic Group(Mountain Province)
Language group: Austronesian - Malayo Polynesian
Kalinga people live in the Kalinga, Cordillera Administrative Region of Luzon, Philippines. In Kalinga, there are 8 manicipalities such as Tanudan, Lubuagan, Pasil, Rizal, Balbalan, Pinukpuk, Tinglayan, and Tabuk. Kalinga has mountainous terrain, through which flows the principal rivers of Chico, Pasil, Saltan, Cal-cuan, and Tanudan.
The Kalingas are an ethnolinguistic group geographically distributed in the province of Kalinga although their culture area may extend up to certain areas outside of the province like Natonin and Mountain Province. the name Kalinga is believed to have come from the meaning of headhunters.
The music of Kalinga is usually used gongs (gangsa). The gongs are basic instruments used in Kalinga dances and festivities. These are heirlooms originally acquired from trade with Chinese during the pre-Spanish times. Usually, only the men play the gongs by beating them with sticks or with the palm of the hand producing sounds of various pitch and tone. The handles of these gongs are sometimes made of human jawbones acquires from headhunting period.