Over five thousand years ago, Austronesians travelled from Southern China, Taiwan, the Northern part of the

Philippines specifically the Batanes group of Islands, going to Madagascar and Easter Island. It is said that these Austronesians travelled by boat and developed methods of crossing the sea. Austronesians are expert sea ferrers and boat builders. They also developed technologies to navigate the open seas and colonized Southeast Asia and the Pacific. There are over 1,200 languages that are considered part of the Austronesian family spoken by 350,000,000 people all over the world. The Austronesian culture is evident in places in Southeast Asia specifically the Philippines. The common heritage that we share with the Austronesians were reflected in the occurrence of some specific cultural characteristics such as tattooing, use of outriggers on canoes, features of ethnographic and prehistoric art styles, and social characteristics such as concern with birth order of siblings and a reverence for ancestral kin group founders. They have also discovered the so called Jade workshop in Batanes 3,000 years ago and found jade bracelets, necklaces and earrings. These earrings which they refer to as lingling-o are used by our native Igorots in the northern part of the Philippines. Aside from the Igorots, these were also used by the native tribes in different parts of the Philippines and even the Southeast Asia. It is said that the use of lingling-o symbolizes courage and bravery. It is also believed that the hole in its center can be compared to the appearance of an embryo with umbilical cord, which symbolizes fertility.