3.2 Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras—Stairway to Heaven菲律宾科迪勒拉山的水稻梯田——天国的阶梯

菲律宾科迪勒拉山的水稻梯田指的是位于菲律宾吕宋岛科迪勒拉山脉东面的梯田，位于巴纳威镇附近。科迪勒拉山脉的梯田，也被比喻作“天国的阶梯”。位于吕宋岛中央的科迪勒拉山脉，有许多标高超过1000米的山峰。“科迪勒拉”(Cordilleras)即是西班牙语的“山脉”。碧瑶这个热门的避暑圣地即位于此山脉上。在碧瑶东北方的巴纳威镇及邦图克、巴达特等地区为梯田主要分布的区域。

这些令人叹为观止的梯田是由当地部落，包括伊落族，用原始的工具和精巧的灌溉系统于200年前在坚硬的岩石上开垦出来的。据说科迪勒拉山水稻梯田的起源与菲律宾的山地民族伊富高人有关。伊富高人是居住在菲律宾吕宋岛北部多山地区，以水稻种植为主要经济活动的一个群体。他们可能在西元前约1000—100年时开始耕作这一片梯田。梯田的总长度大约是2万公里，如果把这些梯田首尾相接，可以环绕半个地球。故以世界最大规模梯田的名义，在1995年被列入世界文化遗产。以层层梯田为背景，你能在这里看到菲律宾最美的落日。这里海拔1500—2000米，要注意保暖。

The rice terraces of the Philippines Cordilleras are living cultural landscapes devoted to the production of one of the world's most important staple crops, rice. They preserve traditional techniques and forms dating back many centuries, still viable today.At the same time they illustrate a remarkable degree of harmony between humankind and the natural environment of great aesthetic appeal, as well as demonstrating sustainable（可持续的）farming systems in mountainous terrain, based on a careful use of natural resources.

They are the only monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted（反抗，抵抗）foreign domination and preserved their authentic tribal culture. The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people, their culture, and their traditional practices.

The terraces are the only form of stone construction from the pre-colonial period. The Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a wholly wood-based one:unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, in the Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines were built from wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace hamlets（小村）. Terracing began in the Cordilleras some 2,000 years ago, although scholars disagree about its original purpose. It is evidence of a high level of knowledge of structural and hydraulic（水力的）engineering on the part of those who built the terraces. The knowledges and practices, supported by rituals, involved in maintaining the terraces are transferred orally from generation to generation, without written records. Taro was the first crop when they began to be used for agriculture, later to be replaced by rice, which is the predominant（主要的）crop today.

The terraces are situated at altitudes between 700m and 1,500m above sea level. There are four clusters of the best preserved terraces in the region, with its basic elements of a buffer ring of private forests, terraces, village and sacred grove. Terraced rice fields are not uncommon in Asia. To contain the water needed for rice cultivation within the paddies（稻田）, even gently rolling terrain must be terraced with stone or mud walls. High-altitude paddies must be kept wet and have to rely upon a man-made water-collecting system. The principal differences between the Philippines terraces and those elsewhere are their higher altitude and the steeper slopes. The high-altitude cultivation is based on the use of a special strain of rice, which germinates（发芽，生长）under freezing conditions and grows chest-high, with non-shattering panicles, to facilitate harvesting on slopes that are too steep to permit the use of animals or machinery of any kind.

Construction of the terraces is carried out with great care and precision（精确）. An underground conduit（沟渠，导水管）is placed within the fill for drainage purposes. The groups of terraces blanket the mountainsides, following their contours. Above them, rising to the mountain-tops, is the ring of private woods, intensively managed in conformity with traditional practices, which recognize a total ecosystem which assures an adequate water supply to keep the terraces flooded. Water is equitably shared, and no single terrace obstructs the flow on its way down to the next terrace below. There is a complex system, of dams, sluices（水闸）, channels and bamboo pipes, communally maintained, which drain into a stream at the bottom of the valley.

The villages or hamlets are associated with groups of terraces, and consist of groups of single-family tribal dwellings which architecturally reproduce the people's spatial interpretation of their mountain environment. A steeply pitched thatched（茅草盖的）pyramidal roof covers a wooden one-room dwelling, raised above the ground on four posts and reached by a ladder which is pulled up at night. Clusters of dwellings form small hamlets of interrelated families, with a centrally located ritual rice-field as their focus. This is the first parcel to be planted or harvested; its owners makes all the agricultural decisions for the community, manages its primary ritual property, which includes a granary housing carved wooden gods, and the basket reliquary（圣物箱）in which portions of consecrated sacrifices from all agricultural ceremonial rites are kept. A short distance from the cluster of dwellings is the ritual hill, usually marked by a grove of sacred betel trees（槟榔树）round a hut or open shed where the holy men live and carry out traditional rites.

用英语畅谈Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras黄金句

☺ They are the only monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures.它们是菲律宾唯一看不出殖民文化影响痕迹的遗迹。

☺ The Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a wholly wood-based one:unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, in the Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines were built from wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace hamlets.菲律宾是东南亚文化中唯一一个全木建筑国，这一点与柬埔寨、印度尼西亚或者泰国不同。在菲律宾，不管是自家房子还是像寺庙和神殿这样的仪式建筑，都是用木头建的，这个传统在梯田小村流传了下来。

☺ The terraces are situated at altitudes between 700m and 1,500m above sea level.梯田位于海平面以上700米到1500米之间的海拔高度上。

☺ An underground conduit is placed within the fill for drainage purposes.设置了一条地下导水管道来满足排水的需求。

☺ A short distance from the cluster of dwellings is the ritual hill, usually marked by a grove of sacred betel trees round a hut or open shed where the holy men live and carry out traditional rites.离房屋群不远的地方是举行仪式的小山，这种地方通常会有一处神圣的槟榔树林，树林内有一个小屋或者开放的棚屋，那是神职人员居住和进行传统仪式的地方。

用英语畅谈Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras

Ifugao People—Creators of the Rice Terraces of the Phillippine Cordilleras伊富高人——菲律宾科迪勒拉山水稻梯田的创造者