Bikol

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bikol

 

a people in the Philippines inhabiting the southern extremity of Luzon and the islands nearby. The Bikol number over 2 million (according to a 1967 estimate). The Bikolan language belongs to the northern group of Indonesian languages. The religion is Catholicism. Culturally and ethnically the Bikol are close to the Tagalog. Their chief occupation is farming (rice and plantation cultivation of Manila hemp). There is a large proletariat, consisting chiefly of plantation workers and miners.

REFERENCE

Narody Iugo-Vostochnoi Azii. Moscow, 1966.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.