Mrs. Apo Whang-Od often eats organic food, breathes fresh air, works hard, and maintains a calm and positive spirit.
Apo Whang-Od is a living legend in the Philippines who has contributed to preserving batok, the traditional tattoo art of the Kalinga tribe, with a centuries-old history. At the age of 106, Whang-Od was invited to pose for the cover of Vogue fashion magazine. In the photo, she still maintains her healthy and clear appearance. She is also the oldest model to appear on the cover of this famous magazine.
Although considered the last person to help preserve batok tattoo culture, Mrs. Whang-Od is not the oldest person in the Kalinga tribe. The woman’s granddaughter, Estella Palangdao, said it is very common for Kalinga people to live to be over 100 years old. When someone in the tribe surpasses this age mark, their name is given to the children in the village as a way to honor them.
At her advanced age, Mrs. Whang-Od can still farm, take care of her children and grandchildren, do housework, feed poultry, and occasionally stroll in and out of the village. She continued to work as a tattoo artist, receiving up to 60 clients a day. In an interview with the media, she shared the secret to living a long life and good health.
Eat organic and vegetarian
Whang-Od shared that her family never uses chemicals on food, only cutting wild sunflowers to use as fertilizer.
Besides homegrown vegetables, Kalinga people sometimes eat wild vegetables that grow like grass. They even use exotic plants like Amorseco weed, stir-fry with a little water, salt, and add chopped onions.
“But recently, we started feeding the poultry some bran, so people’s lifespan may be lower than before,” Estella said.
Whang-Od and the elderly at Kalinga are mainly vegetarian. She rarely eats fish and seafood. However, on some special occasions or when she is sick, she often asks her children and grandchildren to cook a simple pork dish with salt and water.
Fresh air and clean water
Mrs. Whang-Od grew up in a mountainous environment with fresh streams and river water. Kalinga is a rich village, rich with plants, including naturally growing mushrooms. Villagers use them as medicinal herbs. Apo Whang-Od himself does not have bad habits such as smoking or drinking alcohol.
According to research on the Quality of Life Index (AQLI) from the University of Chicago, USA, living in an area with clean air can add 5 years to people’s life compared to the most polluted areas in the world and more than 2 years. year for other parts of the world.
Research by the University of Chicago also emphasized that just by bringing the level of air pollution in some large Southeast Asian cities such as Bangkok to the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), people in the This area can extend life by 2-5 years.
Exercise by doing manual labor
Since childhood, Kalinga people have been trained to become hard workers. Their common occupation when they grow up is to be porters or tour guides. The remainder often work in agriculture, with women responsible for sowing seeds, while men harvest.
Estella said Mrs. Whang-Od spent most of her life as a farmer. She only stopped growing rice when she turned 80, began to become famous and continuously welcomed foreign visitors to get tattooed. The 100-year-old woman prefers tattoo art to doing hard farm work. However, Whang-Od remains agile and humble, despite his fame and status.
In her free time, she likes to walk about 30 minutes up and down the village, crossing streams and narrow rice fields. This helps Whang-Od have good cardiovascular health.
Keep a calm mind and positive spirit
Despite experiencing many events in life, Whang-Od is always positive and calm. At her advanced age, she openly discussed death, even allowing visitors to tour her own prepared grave plot and her ancestors’ graves right behind her house.
Despite having a large amount of wealth compared to others in his tribe, Whang-Od still finds joy in the small things. Her favorite item is a tube of red lipstick. She also has a hobby of giving lipstick to other women.
At the age of 106, Whang-Od has never stopped dreaming and turning his dreams into reality. Recently, she built new houses for herself, her niece Estella and several other relatives, bought a car and built a swimming pool for the children.
To date, Whang-Od has trained about 90 people in the tribe, mainly women, to continue the legacy she left behind. Each student is allowed to choose their favorite tattoo style.
