Far above Longwa, along a lonely
stretch of dirt road, lies a cluster of
villages inhabited by the Chen Naga,
who also celebrate the coming of
spring. Originally a Myanmar tribe, men
who have killed two or more enemies
wear elaborate, geometric tattoos that
completely cover their necks and upper
chests. Apart from these village heroes
are a handful of other marked men
whose back tattoos are related to their
LEfT Tattooed Kalinga
warrior Miguel Fang-id
of Tinglayan Village
Top RighT Chen tiger
man Wengkang (left)
and the tattoos of
the Chen warrior Shri
Wangpoh (right)
boTTom RighT The last
Kalinga tattoo master
Whang-Od Oggay (left)
and a human skull
shrine in a remote
Naga village (right)spirit companions and guides – the
tiger and the leopard.
Several Chen elders, usually old
chiefs (anghs) or great warriors, bear
these incredibly powerful designs.
When these men sleep, it is believed
that their soul travels out of their bodies
and into that of their animal familiar.
They can see through the eyes of their
tiger or leopard counterpart, hear and
smell what their animal companionsencounter on the trail, and in the
headhunting era, warriors could employ
the help of their protector to track the
movements of their enemies. Men who
possessed these spiritual assistants
would become tiger- or leopard-like in
their actions, and were rarely defeated
in battle.
But there were risks associated with
having these feline doppelgangers. If
your soul-animal was wounded or killed,
then the human body connected to it
would experience a similar fate. Also,
if your companion had a very powerful
spirit and you failed to control it, it was
likely that you would become insane,
and die.Inspired by myth
Just as great Naga warriors were
tattooed to mark their achievements
in headhunting, so, too, where those
of the Kalinga tribe in the northern
Philippines. Here, amidst the rain
soaked-mountains of the Central
Cordillera range, lives the last
generation of headhunters.
Before his passing, 90-plus year-old
Lakay Miguel Fang-id explained that
he earned his elaborate chest and
back tattoos for inter-village combat
before WWII, and owing to the Japanese
heads he took during the early 1940s.
Small tally marks behind his right
ear represent his number of enemy
engagements and the shield and spear
pattern at the centre of his chest
“blocked the path of my enemies”,
he said.
The last Kalinga tattoo master,
98-year-old Whang-Od of Buscalan
village, explained that her tattoos
transform girls into women. These
beautiful and intricate patterns are
produced with batons made of bamboo
or water buffalo horn tipped with66 CULTURE