 descendent of Tagen. Everyday w/
his goons, he went to Palatang and other nearby places to steal and
take all that he wanted from the natives w/o their permission. With
these, the once close-knit settlers broke apart, some went back to
the original settlement of their forebears, some went to Ifugao, to
Mt. Province, to La Union, to Nueva Viscaya and to other nearby
As the years passed by, people from far places arrived for various
reasons ranging from trade and commerce, greener pasture and simply
fate. They had joined the growing community and later intermarriages
between them and the settlers brought forth varied languages and
customs. The fusion of different cultures as well as the isolations
of various villages created several ethnic tribes, viz: the
Kankanaeys, Ibalois, Kalanguyas, etc. all of which are called
Igorots. Buguias populace largely belong to the Kankanaey tribe
while a little percentage belongs to the Kalanguya tribe.
People in the municipality lies in the interstice of three
linguistic or cultural groups; two if these, the ibaloi and the
southern kankana-ey, are now recognized ethnologically, but the
third, the Kalanguya (or Kalahan), remains virtually ethnologically
Residents today are most related genealogically to the Kalanguya,
the village (called Mandek-ey or ibugiyas) while containing elements
of all three neighboring tongues, is also most close affiliated with
kalanguya. Over the past 60 years, however, Kankana-ey has
penetrated Southward into the village and today, the Mandek-ey
survives only in the Southern most hamlets of Buguias. As a result,
outsiders generally classify Buguias as a Southern Kankana-ey
community as distinguished from the Lepanto Igorot (Northern
The people of Buguias belong to the indigenous inhabitants of the
Cordillera collectively referred to as Igorots, a word which comes
from a combination of the Tagalog rootword “Golot” (Mountain Chain)
and a prefix “I”(dweller in or people of).
The Buguias people has a unique culture which is distinct from other
fellow igorots in as much as Buguias has its own system i.e.,
aesthetics, child rearing, economics and everything people must in
order to survive.
Buguias is accessible by land transport routes. If one travels from
Baguio via the Baguio-Bontoc-Banawe Road, the town center at Abatan
can be reached by three to four (3-4) hours. This route is the main
access for the transport of farm products as well as for human
transport. Alternate routes are via the Buguias-Kabayan-Bokod Road;
the Mankayan-Cervantes-Tagudin National Road and the Bontoc-Vizcaya
Road. These alternate routes are usually resorted to in cases the
Halsema National Highway is intermittently closed due to natural
calamities when massive landslides occur during rainy seasons.