Bontoc Museum

The Bontoc Museum was founded in the 1960s by Belgian missionary sisters who had collected material from the surrounding communities over decades, and it remains the best introduction to the cultures of the central Cordillera - Bontoc, Kalinga, Ifugao and their neighbours. The collection covers textiles, basketry, weapons, ritual objects, agricultural tools and jewellery, with an extensive photographic archive documenting village life, headhunting practices and the American colonial encounter from the early twentieth century, presented with the caption-level detail that later museums often lack. In the garden behind, examples of Bontoc and Ifugao houses have been reconstructed, including an ato, the ward council house that organised village life. The presentation is old-fashioned - dense cases, typed labels - and that is part of its character. Bontoc is the provincial capital, on the road between Banaue and Sagada, and the museum is the reason to stop.

What's there

• The textile and tool cases - Cordillera material culture in depth.
• The photographic archive - village life and the colonial encounter.
• The garden houses - reconstructed Bontoc and Ifugao dwellings.
• The ato - the ward council house in the grounds.

When to go

November to May for road travel through the Cordillera. Weekday hours; the museum closes on Sundays and holidays.

What to expect

Photography inside is prohibited or restricted. The displays are dense and dated in style. It is small - two hours at most - and Bontoc has limited other facilities.

Nearby

Maligcong's terraces are half an hour above; Sagada is an hour west and Banaue is south.