“My back hurts when I sit all day, and when the sun goes down it is getting harder and harder to see. So it is very important to me that they continue my work and they continue to make Buscalan successful even when I am gone”—Whang-Od

those requests to Elayang and her sister, Grace, 21, who sit quietly behind her from sunrise until sunset, imitating her technique and illustrating those their great-aunt doesn’t have time to see.

“I don’t have any children of my own, so I invest my earnings and my time on my great nieces,” Whang- Od explains, adding that she refers to both of them as her granddaughters, just as they call her their grandma. “I know I won’t be able to do this for much longer. My back hurts when I sit all day, and when the sun goes down it is getting harder and harder to see. So it is very important to me that they continue my work and they continue to make Buscalan successful even when I am gone.” In the meantime, she has busied herself with community development—spending her savings on building weatherproof concrete houses in place of traditional corrugated tin huts, speaking up in village meetings to ensure the women are represented, and even bringing the first washing machine up the mountain to take pride of place next to her bed. “We needed four men to carry it,” she says proudly. “It was very heavy.”

“We don’t know how long we have left with Apo,” says Elayang, slowly. “I don’t want to think about that unless I have to. But in the meantime I just want to spend every second with her, asking questions and listening to everything she has to say. She has changed everything for our village. I hope she knows how grateful we are for that.” EDITOR’S NOTE: On 27 February 2018, the Philippine Senate adopted the resolution filed by Senators Sonny Angara and Nancy Binay to award the title Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan or National Living Treasure to the renowned tribal tattoo artist Whang-Od of Kalinga. She is 99 years old—possibly older—and is said to have inked over 20,000 people from across the world. Whang-Od with all the village girls who are being taught the tradition of the Kalinga tattoo