Bontoc (or Ili ti Bontoc in Ilokano), officially the Municipality of Bontoc, is a 2nd class municipality and capital of the Mountain Province on the Island of Luzon in the northern Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 24,643 people.
Bontoc is the historical capital of the entire Cordillera region, since the inception of governance in the Cordillera. The municipality celebrates the annual Lang-ay Festival.
Bontoc is home to the Bontoc tribe, a feared war-like group of indigenous people who actively indulged in tribal wars with its neighbors until the 1930s. Every Bontoc male had to undergo a rites of passage into manhood, which may include head hunting, where the male has to journey (sometimes with companions) and hunt for a human head. The Bontocs also used the jaw of the hunted head as a handle for gongs, and as late as the early 1990s, evidence of this practice can be seen from one of the gongs in Pukisan, Bontoc. Information on the peoples of the Mountain Province can be gained at the terrific Bontoc Museum.
Information from:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bontoc,_Mountain_Province 