This Kalinga heritage village keeps traditions alive

"Here in Naneng, we don't greet each other 'good morning,'" Tabuk City Acting Supervising Tourism Officer Marjorie Amla-Lingbawan said in Tagalog. "When we greet someone, we say, 'Have some coffee!

- By YVETTE TAN

About 45 minutes away by car from Tabuk City proper, Naneng Heritage Village is the oldest village in Tabuk. Established in the 1920s, it was once its seat of Tabuk's municipal government.

A Naneng welcome

Visitors begin their visit at the Barangay Hall, where they are greeted by young men and women who perform traditional Kalinga dances, which culminates in an invitation for guests to join in. There might be snacks, but there will most definitely be coffee, which is drunk like water in Naneng.

On this particular visit, guests were served the local version of inandila, Kalinga's most popular rice cake served in banana leaves and topped with toasted coconut, or latik. The rice cake takes its name from "inang dila," or "mother tongue," because of its tongue-like shape. Amla-Lingbawan explained that Naneng's version is different, as the rice cake is thinner and it is topped with more latik, and that it traditionally takes hours to make, involving men and women from the community.

Naneng is so well-known for its inandila that they celebrate an Inandila Festival every April. The event draws around 10,000 people, all of whom congregate around tables of inandila laid out almost across the entire village.