Hudhud Chants of the Ifugao

The hudhud is a body of chanted narrative, hundreds of episodes long, performed by Ifugao communities during the rice harvest, at the closing of a house and at wakes for the elderly. One woman, usually an older and respected singer, leads a line and the others answer it, with no instruments and no fixed length, so a session can run through a night. The stories follow heroes and their families through courtship, feuds and journeys in a formal language different from everyday Ifugao. UNESCO listed it in 2001 and inscribed it on the intangible heritage list, and school programmes in Ifugao now teach it because the number of chanters who know the long episodes has fallen.

What you actually see

• The call and response - one lead voice, the group answering line by line without instruments.
• The harvest setting - chanting in the terraces while the rice is cut, the original context.
• The chant language - an archaic register unlike everyday speech, with fixed formulas and names.
• The school of living tradition - young chanters taught by elders at Ifugao cultural centres.

When to go

The rice harvest around June to August is when chanting occurs in its own setting, though timing shifts with the crop and is never announced in advance. Outside that, cultural centres and guesthouses in Kiangan, Hungduan and Banaue can arrange a performance if asked ahead. Wakes are not visitor events.

Honest expectations

You are unlikely to stumble on a real one. Genuine performances happen at harvests and funerals on no schedule, and a wake is not something to attend as a tourist. What is usually offered instead is a shortened arranged performance, which is honest enough but not the same thing. Arranged sessions carry a fee. Reaching Ifugao from Manila is a nine-hour night bus.

Nearby

The Banaue and Hungduan rice terraces surround the chanting communities; Sagada is a rough half-day west.