Karao

The Karao are the settlers of Karao and Ekip of Bokod, Benguet. They have long lived in rugged terrain, combed by gulleys, creeks and treacherous ravines. In recent years some of them migrated to some parts of Nueva Vizcaya for land since farming is their main livelihood.

In spite of being surrounded by Ibaloy and Kalanguya, the Karao were able to retain their own dialect, customs, practices and life ways that are distinct from those of their neighbors.

Stories handed down through generations claim that the ancestors originated from what is today Mountain Province. Somewhere in the municipality of Natonin, in Mountain Province, is a trace of a deserted village showing mute evidence of a long abandoned settlement. To this day, the place bears the name "Karao" and the Natonin folks wonder where the inhabitants had gone. Oral historians among the Karao elders say that their ancestors moved as a tribe from one place to another, driven by epidemics and tribal wars, then finally settled in Bokod in the latter part of the nineteenth century and named the place Karao.

Like other cultures of Mountain Province, they have a public center where they perform rituals, calling this the Abonan similar to the Ato or Da-puy of other groups.

Other rituals and an ethnic dance, the taychek, are different from those of the Ibaloy.
Among a big group of Benguet women during gatherings, one can pick out the karao women who are wearing white shenget turbans since all Benguet women wear the same benguet attire. It is also said that snakes do not bite the Karao. Myth or not, the Karao claims this. (Archee Lou Garcia)