Iloko Culture ID

The Iloko, or Ilocano, culture developed along the narrow coastal plains of northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, a region hemmed between mountains and the sea that shaped a hardy and industrious people.

Making the most of limited land, the Ilocano became known for diligent farming, fishing, and a reputation for thrift and hard work, alongside a fine tradition of weaving.

Ilocano communities were bound by kinship and custom, with a religious life that, as elsewhere in the islands, centred on ancestral and nature spirits before later changes.

Resourceful and rooted in their coastal homeland, the Iloko formed a distinctive culture of the northern Philippines.