FILIPINO ARCHITECTURE ery likely, man’s earliest shelter was not built by him. He simply found it – or found himself in it. It was nature herself who fashioned hollows on cliffs and mountain sides that offered protection from heat, rain and wind. In Angono, Rizal evidence of ancient cave dwellers exists in carved figures on cave walls, the earliest known Philippine mural. The Tabon Cave in Palawan is considered to have sheltered the earliest men of the Philippines. Meanwhile, the food gatherer, the fisherman, or the hunter, who moved from one place to another in his search for food and game, needed a shelter that was portable. Thus, he fashioned the lean-to from a frame made of tree branches and twigs, using leaves and fronds for sidings. A screen resting on the ground and help up at an angle by one or several poles, the lean-to is both roof and wall, protecting dwellers from rain the heat of the sun. The floor can be the ground itself, or a bed of leaves, or a platform slightly above the ground. The lean-to is light enough to be carried to another site. However, the dweller can simply abandon it and build another. A pair of lean-tos can be joined together to form a tent-like shelter, or a double-slope roof, which, in effect, is the beginning of a house. Swidden-farming or kaingin led to a relatively settled life. After making a clearing in the forest, the swidden farmer could cultivate it for two years, let it lie fallow, the return to it a few years later. Although dwellings became larger and were better built, they were neither permanent nor durable because sometimes, the kaingin farmer had to move on. With the development of wet-rice culture, farmers became rooted to the land. Though hints of the kaingin lifestyle persisted in the makeshift character of various dwellings, houses were built to last. The Mangyan of Mindoro, who are swidden-farmers, have two types of houses – the single-family dwelling and the communal house. Although the communal house is occupied by several families, its interior is not divided by partitions. The area for each family is defined by a mat on the floor. When a Mangyan house is built on a slope, the entrance faces the rise. The steep roof is of cogongrass, the sidings, of tree bark, and the floor, of logs and saplings. The house appears to have no windows. However, it has a narrow strip of opening between roof and wall.