About Balangaos

Balangao is a beautiful place surrounded by mountains. It is a good place to go and relax from the city's stressful life. It is quiet and peaceful, and there is no air pollution. Outsiders call Natonin as Farangaw or Balangao.  The language of the Balangaos is Finarangaw, but it is usually referred to as the Balangao language.

The source of living for most of the Balangaos is wet terracing, upland farming, and by gardening.  Rice is the primary crop of the Balangao people.  In a year, they harvest twice from their wet field and once from the upland farm.  Other crops that they cultivate are corn, vegetables, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and fruits.  They only work for their own family consumption because of the undeveloped road, which makes it hard for them to bring their produce to the wet market. 

In the year 1960, Joanne Shetler and Anne Fetcher came to Balangao to learn the culture and language of the Balangao people and to translate the Bible into the language.  After the Balangao orthography had been developed, they started translating the Word of God into the heart language of the people.  The problem is that the people cannot read what is being written, so Robyn Terrey from Australia came to help with literacy.  Through literacy classes, the Balangaos learned to read and write, and now can read the word of God into the language they can understand. 

The New Testament was dedicated in 1982.  It was only available in printed format before. But now, with the use of internet, the Balangao Scripture is accessible online via websites and apps.  As for the Old Testament, it is in the process of being translated, and hopefully, in the near future, the complete Balangao Bible will be available to all Balangaos around the globe.