NM Kabayan Burial Caves Site Museum

The National Museum Kabayan was constructed in 1982, on a 580-square-meter lot donated to the government by Mrs. Cerila Bejar-Taynan.

It was the result of the community’s efforts to protect its cultural treasures following reports of theft and looting at the rock shelters of Kabayan in 1977. Negotiations and documentation of the rock shelters ensued and the mummies were retrieved through the collaborative efforts of the National Museum of the Philippines and the local governments of Benguet province and Kabayan town.

The mummies were first kept at the Kabayan town hall while officials persistently looked for areas where a museum could be built, and where the mummies could be securely kept.

At present, one mummy is at the Kabayan Burial Caves Site Museum. Also on exhibit are ethnographic objects, mostly of the Ibaloy ethnolinguistics group and some of the Kalanguya group.