Bird, dance, and Ibaloy life: A look at Kabayan, Benguet’s Kiling Festival

BENGUET, Philippines – Long before roads carved through the mountains in Kabayan, before tourism brochures called it mystical, the town in Benguet measured its seasons not by dates on a calendar but by the cry of a tiny red-throated bird. 

As the town marked its 125th founding anniversary and the 4th Kiling Festival on Thursday, November 27, the small migratory bird kiling (Siberian rubythroat) returned to center stage, carrying with it memory, myth and the heartbeat of Ibaloy identity.

Kabayan – a town of more than 15,000 people, largely of Ibaloy descent – calls itself the cradle of Ibaloy culture, and the festival is a reminder of what that culture holds dear.

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Local folklore tells of a clever kiling, whose ruby-colored throat once fooled a rat into slashing its own neck in envy. It is a tale that Ibaloy children once learned like a lullaby, a story that tucked values of wit and survival into a single bright-feathered creature.

But the kiling plays a role beyond myth. For generations of Ibaloy families, its high, crisp calls signaled the end of storms and the arrival of tegin, the cold season brought by the amihan (northeast monsoon) winds, which meant the start of rice planting. In the old days, the bird meant safety, renewal and the promise of food.

“Kiling reminds us that rains have passed, and the new planting season begins,” Mayor Rex Alwin Aquisan said. “Its cry was once our guide.”

Preserving identity

This year’s celebration, held at the municipal grounds in Poblacion, gathered elders, youth, cultural performers and visitors to honor the Siberian rubythroat, the bird that travels from northern Russia to these Cordillera mountains every winter. 

DANCE BLENDING. Students perform the vibrant “Kiling-Tinikling,” blending the bird’s quick, playful movements with the classic bamboo dance. Mia Magdalena Fokno/Rappler

Students in devit (girls) and g-string (boys) performed the Kiling-Tinikling, a fusion dance conceptualized by the late former mayor Faustino Aquisan, blending the bird’s movements with the familiar rhythm of tinikling, the folk dance in which a woman traditionally steps in and out of two long poles held close to the floor. 

Schools mounted performances, from Abucot Integrated School’s theatrical retelling of the kiling legend to modern ethno-cultural showcases by Ballay and Tawangan-Lusod students.

A tradition at risk

Yet behind the celebration lies a quiet grief. The old rhythm of rice farming has faded. Kabayan once grew the heirloom kintoman (red rice), the grain used to make tapuy (rice wine), which took seven to eight months to harvest. Today, only a handful of farmers still plant it.

Economics drove the change. Vegetable crops meant faster turnover and higher income. The slopes of Kabayan, even near Mount Pulag, slowly transformed into gardens of cabbage, cauliflower and potatoes, making the municipality a major vegetable producer in Benguet.

Despite government encouragement to revive the heirloom rice, reality continues to weigh heavier than nostalgia. Families must survive.

VIBRANT. Dancers in vibrant Benguet weave perform a modern ethno-cultural number inspired by the kiling’s rhythms, blending contemporary movement with traditional Ibaloy motifs during Kabayan’s 4th Kiling Festival. Mia Magdalena Fokno/Rappler

The festival’s theme, “Bridging Generations Through Culture and Progress,” captures the delicate balance Kabayan tries to achieve: honoring the past while navigating the demands of the present.

For Aquisan, the message carries a deeper resonance especially after Super Typhoon Uwan (Fung-wong) impacted the town just weeks earlier, leaving damage and fear in its wake.

Uwan, the 21st tropical cyclone to hit the country this year, struck Luzon with relentless rain and fierce winds. It hit Aurora as a super typhoon on November 9, then weakened to a typhoon the following day as it barreled over Northern Luzon’s rugged mountains.

It tore through the country, forcing 1.4 million people to flee their homes and upending the lives of 3.6 million across 16 regions and 66 provinces. Officials reported 27 dead, roads and bridges damaged, and schools and workplaces shuttered as communities struggled to cope with the storm’s aftermath.

“The Kiling Festival, inspired by the bird whose call once meant safety after storms, holds greater meaning for us now,” he told residents during his festival message. “We were tested again. But like the kiling, Kabayan rose.”

“After every storm, there is renewal. After every hardship, a call toward progress. And after every challenge, Kabayan stands as one…. May our children inherit not only the memory of this festival but the love for our heritage,” he added. – Rappler.com