Mount Bongao (famously known as Bud Bongao) is a mountain located on

Bongao Bongao, officially the Municipality of Bongao (), is a municipality and capital of the province of Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 116,118 people. History Evidence of human presence in Bongao w ...

Island in the province of

Tawi-Tawi Tawi-Tawi, officially the Province of Tawi-Tawi ( Tausug: ''Wilaya' sin Tawi-Tawi''; Sinama: ''Jawi Jawi/Jauih Jauih''; ), is an island province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The capit ...

. It is a mountain formed with six limestone pillars that serves as its six peaks. It is the Philippines' southernmost peak. Bud Bongao is inside the ''Bongao Peak Eco-Tourism Park'' that was inaugurated on July 3, 2017. It is a 250-hectare forest that is one of the last remaining moist forests in the

Sulu Archipelago The Sulu Archipelago ( Tausug: Kapū'-pūan sin Sūg Sulat Sūg: , ) is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in the southwestern Philippines. The archipelago forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea and southern limit of the Sulu Se ...

. The mountain is of spiritual and traditional importance to the indigenous

Sama Dilaut The Sama-Bajau include several Austronesian people, Austronesian ethnic groups of Maritime Southeast Asia. The name collectively refers to related people who usually call themselves the Sama or Samah (formally A'a Sama, "Sama people"); or are ...

people. The mountain is also considered sacred where it is believed that two Islamic preachers who were direct followers of Karim ul-Makhdum, are buried under what is called ''Tampat Rocks,'' although the site was already sacred even before Islam arrived. Karim ul-Makhdum brought

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in the year 1380.

Physical characteristics

Bud Bongao is composed of six limestone pillars that form six of its peaks, which serves as view points for the islands and locations they are named after. These peaks are ''Bongao'', ''Pajar'', ''Sibutu'' (summit), ''Simunul'', ''Tambisan'', and ''Tinondakan''.

Biodiversity

Mount Bongao hosts one of the last remaining moist forests in the Sulu Archipelago.

Monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Bud Bongao include ''

Macaca fascicularis The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque or cynomolgus macaque, is a Cercopithecinae, cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. As a Synanthrope, synanthropic species, the crab-eating macaqu ...

''. The red dragonfly, orange albatross,

mangrove blue flycatcher The mangrove blue flycatcher (''Cyornis rufigastra'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is native to Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropica ...

Philippine pitta The Philippine pitta (''Erythropitta erythrogaster'') or blue-breasted pitta, is a species of bird in the family Pittidae. It is a striking and colorful with a red belly, black throat, a brown head, a blue chest, rump and tail. It is found in I ...

are found on the mountain. Bongao and its surrounding islands—

Sanga-Sanga Sanga-Sanga is an island of the Celebes Sea in the southwestern Philippines, bordered to nordwest by the Sulu Sea. The island is part of the Sulu Archipelago. It is sandwiched between Tawitawi Island to the east and Bangao Island to the south. ...

Simunul Simunul, officially the Municipality of Simunul (), is a municipality in the province of Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 34,245 people. The majority of the people living here are Muslims. Geography T ...

—are also home to the vulnerable Tawi-Tawi forest rat and the

Philippine slow loris The Philippine slow loris (''Nycticebus menagensis'') is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris that is native to the north and east coastal areas of the island of Borneo, as well as the Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines. The spe ...

. The jungle flycatcher was once observed in 1973.

Hiking activity

Aside from being a sacred mountain, Bud Bongao is also famous for hikers. A 3,608-step cobblestone trail has been constructed from the jump-off at Barangay Pasiagan that ends at a view deck constructed on Tambisan Peak. The view deck offers a vantage point overlooking

Celebes Sea The Celebes Sea ( ; ) or Sulawesi Sea (; ) of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawes ...

and

Tambisan Island Tambisan Island () is a Malaysian island located in the Sulu Sea on the state of Sabah. References See also * List of islands of Malaysia This is a list of islands of Malaysia. According to the Department of Survey and Mapping, Malaysi ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

at above sea level.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bongao Mountains of the Philippines Sacred mountains of the Philippines Landforms of Tawi-Tawi