Kulintang

Kulintang 

Kulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums. As part of the larger gong-chime culture of Southeast Asia, kulintang music ensembles have been playing for many centuries in regions of the EasternMalay Archipelago—the Southern Philippines, Eastern Indonesia, Eastern Malaysia, Brunei and Timor, although this article has a focus on the Philippine Kulintang tradition of the Maranao and Maguindanao peoples in particular. Kulintang evolved from a simple native signaling tradition, and developed into its present form with the incorporation of knobbed gongs from Sunday. Its importance stems from its association with the indigenous cultures that inhabited these islands prior to the influences ofHinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity or the West, making Kulintang the most developed tradition of Southeast Asian archaic gong-chimeensembles.

Technically, kulintang is the Maguindanao, Ternate and Timor term for theidiophone of metal gong kettles which are laid horizontally upon a rack to create an entire kulintang set. It is played by striking the bosses of the gongs with two wooden beaters. Due to its use across a wide variety groups and languages, the kulintang is also called kolintang by theMaranao and those in Sulawesi, kulintangan, gulintangan by those inSabah and the Sulu Archipelago and totobuang by those in centralMaluku.

By the twentieth century, the term kulintang had also come to denote an entire Maguindanao ensemble of five to six instruments. Traditionally the Maguindanao term for the entire ensemble is basalen or palabunibunyan, the latter term meaning “an ensemble of loud instruments” or “music-making” or in this case “music-making using a kulintang.”

Descrptions

The instrument called the “kulintang” (or its other derivative terms) consist of a row/set of 5 to 9 graduated pot gongs, horizontally laid upon a frame arranged in order of pitch with the lowest gong found on the players’ left. The gongs are laid in the instrument face side up atop two cords/strings running parallel to the entire length of the frame, with bamboo/wooden sticks/bars resting perpendicular across the frame, creating an entire kulintang set called a "pasangan".

The gongs weigh roughly from two pounds to three pounds each, and have dimensions of 6 to 10 inches for their diameters and 3 to 5 inches for their height. Traditionally they were made from bronze but due to the disruption and loss of trade routes between the islands of Borneo and Mindanao during World War II, resulting in loss of access to necessary metal ores, and the subsequent post-war use of scrap metal, brass gongs with shorter decaying tones are now commonplace.

The kulintang frame is known as an "antangan" by the Maguindanao (which means to “arrange”) and "langkonga" by the Maranao.

The kulintang is played by striking the bosses of the gongs with two wooden beaters. When playing the kulintang, the Maguindanao and Maranao would always sit on chairs while for the Tausug/Suluk and other groups that who play the kulintangan, they would commonly sit on the floor.^[

Performance

The main purpose for kulintang music in the community is to function as social entertainment at a nonprofessional, folk level.This music is unique in that it is considered a public music in the sense everyone is allowed to participate. Not only do the players play, but audience members are also expected to participate.These performances are important in that they bring people in the community and adjacent regions together, helping unify communities that otherwise may not have interacted with one another. Traditionally, when performers play kulintang music, their participation is voluntary. Musicians see performances as an opportunity to receive recognition, prestige and respect from the community and nothing more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulintang

Barong Tagalog

The Barong Tagalog (or simply Barong) is an embroidered formal shirt from thePhilippines. It is very lightweight and worn untucked (similar to a coat/dress shirt), over an undershirt. In lowland Christian Filipino culture it is common formal attire especially in weddings, and is mostly worn by men. The term "Barong Tagalog" literally means "aTagalog dress" in the Tagalog language; the word "Tagalog" refers to the ethnic group's traditional homeland in central and southern Luzon, and not their language.

The Barong was popularised as formal wear by President Ramón Magsaysay, who wore it to most private and state functions, including his own Inauguration.

Types of cloth used[edit]

The finest Barongs are made from a variety of indigenous fabrics. They have a sheer appearance and the best are custom embroidered in delicate folk patterns :

Piña fabric is hand-loomed from pineapple leaf fibers. Traditional piña weavers in the country, however, are dwindling, making the delicate piña cloth expensive and highly prized. They are used only for very formal events.

Jusi fabric is mechanically woven and was once made from abacá or banana silk.

Banana fabric is another sheer fabric used in formal occasions. It comes from the Visayan island of Negros. Hand-woven from banana fibre, the embroidery on this type is usually of a geometric design.

The term Barong Tagalog is almost exclusively used to refer to the formal version of the barong; however, less formal versions also exist.

• Polo barong refers to a short-sleeved version of the barong, often made with linen, ramie or cotton. This is the least formal version of the barong and is frequently used as men's office wear (akin to the Western suit and tie).
• Gusót-Mayaman (literally, "rich wrinkle") and Linen barong are any barong not made of piña, jusi, or similarly delicate fabrics. These are generally considered less formal than the barong Tagalog, and is also are reserved for everyday office wear.
• Shirt-jack barong are cut in shirt-jack style usually made of polyester-cotton, linen-cotton and the typical gusót-mayaman fabrics. Popularised by politicians wearing it during campaigns or field assignments, this style gives the wearer a look between casual and dressed-up. This type is however considered inappropriate for very formal occasions such as weddings.

Barong are commonly embroidered along the front in a u-shape, with small spots placed everywhere else. This is usually produced by any of the following methods:

• Hand embroidery
• Machine embroidery
• Computerised embroidery
• Hand painting
• Pinpricks (alforza)
• Lace-inserts/appliqué
• Calado ("pierced", a type of drawn thread embroidery.^[6])

Even before the Spanish Era, the Tagalog people already wore a garment that can be seen as the forerunner of the Barong Tagalog. This dress reached slightly below the waist, was generally colourless, and had an opening in the front.^[1]

A legend persists that the Spanish colonisers forced native Filipinos wear their barong with the shirt tails hanging out to distinguish them from the ruling class; its translucent fabric allegedly showed that wearer was not concealing a weapon underneath.^[2] Supposedly, native Filipinos were also prohibited from tucking in their shirts, which served to designate their low rank as well as to distinguish them from the people of mixed descent, the mestizaje, and the colony-born pure Castillians or insulares. This is only a legend, as Filipinos already wore untucked shirts in the pre-Hispanic times, something common in tropical climates where temperatures and humidity are high.

Moreover, sociologists have argued against this theory by pointing out that tucked-o style was very common in pre-colonial South- and Southeast Asiancountries, and that the use of thin, translucent fabric developed naturally given the heat and humidity of the Philippines. Historians have likewise noted the absence of citations to any specific law in which that bans the tucking in their shirts. They also note that natives in the Spanish Era wore their shirts tucked at times. A common example cited in support of this argument is Dr.José Rizal and his contemporaries, who were photographed in Western clothing with their shirts tucked—although the era of the barong predated Rizal's time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barong_Tagalog

Piyaya

Piaya: Bacolod's Edible Currency

Piaya, a round, flat, flaky, unleavened delicacy with brown sugar inside. The crispy almost flavorless outer crust is somewhat like hopia but flattened or puffed up, its inside is a sweet muscovado filling that completes the taste in every bite.

Through the years, piaya has evolved into many flavors and shapes like ube, mango, durian, mini sizes, and other surprising innovations. But I still go for the classic brown sugar recipe, regardless if its flat or puffy. However, due to travel constraints, the flat piayas are more advisable because they take up less space in the pasalubong box.

There are to famous competing piaya makers in Bacolod: Bongbong's and Merci. But there are other less famous but still respectable names in the piaya-making business as nobody makes piaya better than Negrenses themselves, using the country's Sugar Bowl's native produce -- sugar.

Because of the Filipinos' practice of bringing pasalubongs to their loved ones, piayas have become some sort of an edible currency. Round like the shape of money, what could be more pleasing to a friend or loved one than to offer him or her a bag or two of the scrumptious Negrense delicacy?

So never leave Bacolod without our edible currency, the piaya.

Source: http://allaboutbacolod.blogspot.com/2009/10/piaya-bacolods-edible-currency.html

Hablon: Ilo-ilo waeving

Ilo - ilo weaing, the Hablon

In Ilo-ilo, weaving patadyong is an important industry. Patadyong is wrap - around cloth worn by women. There is also Hablon, a hand woven textile made usually from cotton, abaca, or pineapple fibers. Though, nowadays, cotton is the more popular material used by Ilongos.

Time was when Iloilo was the leading center of the textile and other weaving crafts in the 
Philippines. The province's weaving industry dates back to the pre-Spanish period when the Ilonggo-Bisaya at that time wove textiles from cotton, abaca, pineapple, as well as silk bartered with the Chinese. 

"Hablon" is derived from the Hiligaynon word "habol", meaning to weave and, therefore, refers both to the process and the finished products. "Sinamay" is another word used to identify the industry and is taken from the Hiligaynon term "samay", which means to weave by hand. "Sinamay" products, naturally, are those that are hand-woven textile materialswhich are expensive because of the long and tedious process.

When the Spaniards arrived in Panay in the 1560s, they found the weaving industry in the island, particularly in Iloilo, already well established. They also observed that the province was producing a great quantity of cotton and other textiles for the local market. Such observation was later confirmed by other European travelers such as the Italian Giovani Careri and the German Feodor Jagor.

By the 19th century, the hablon production of Iloilo already reached a remarkable degree of development. The early growth of the handicraft weaving industry brought about considerable export of cloth to Manila and other foreign countries and resulted in the earliest recorded capital accumulation among Iloilo's emerging urban middle class (McCoy 1977).It also produced the region's first substantial urban concentrations in Jaro, Molo and Arevalo. Mostly capitalized and managed by a commercial elite of mestizos, mainly of mixed Filipino-Chinese parentage, a big number of women weavers crowded into small factories located in the town of Iloilo and its suburbs. Thus, by this time, Iloilo was already referred to as the "Textile Center" of the Philippines.

Iloilo's hablon industry was concentrated in Jaro, Molo, Arevalo and Mandurriao, but other towns like Miag-ao, Tigbauan, Sta. Barbara and Janiuay were also noted for weaving, especially the "patadyong", the common wear of women at that time. Indicative of the remarkable development of the hablon industry was the observation made in 1857 by Nicholas Loney, British vice-consul in Iloilo, of the festive market fairs held at the different towns where native-made clothes were sold in abundance. He also noted the great number of looms in the province at that time, about 60,000 according to him (Loney to Farren 1857).

Loney's observations were similarly noted by others,such as Tomas de Comyn, Gregorio Sanciano and John Bowring.

The most valuable of the native manufactured textiles was "sinamay" made of pure "pina" or mixed with silk imported from China. The coarser fabrics, on the other hand, were woven from cotton, abaca and maguey fibers. The greater part of the "pina" and mixed "pina", silk and cotton fabrics were used for shirts for the men and short jackets or blouses for women. the prices varied considerably according to the fineness or coarseness of the texture and the greater or lesser amount of mixture. It also depended on the amount of embroidery work found on the cloth. Some pieces for the men's shirts cost as much as $7 in 1857. Their value when elaborately embroidered increased up to $50 or even $100 when sold in Manila. The inferior ones cost $0.50 to $2 per piece of about four yards each (Ibid).

Textile goods were the chief exports of Iloilo from the second half of the 18th century up to about the 1870s. In the 1850s, woven materials constituted more than 50% of the total value of the province's exports. By the early 1860s, the value of exports from the textile industry was estimated to be nearly a million dollars (Loney to Farren 1861).

Towards the 1880s, however, as a result of Iloilo becoming a sugar entrepot in Western Visayas with the opening of its port to international trade, the weaving industry lost its primary importance. Because of the attraction of the sugar industry, many of the Ilonggo enrepreneurs shifted their interests and capital from weaving to sugar production. Also, cheaper machine-made English cotton goodesentered the Philippine market and competed heavily with the local textile materials, resulting to the decline of the hablon industry. Furthermore, areas that were formerly devoted to the cultivation of cotton, abaca and pineapple were transformed into sugarcane plantations, thereby depriving the local weaving industry of raw materials. Moreover, the number of young female weavers dwindled due totwo reasons: the rising interest in formal schooling, and the availability of jobs as sales girls and domestic helpers in the capital town of Iloilo and its suburbs. Finally, not to be ignored is the fact that the mass exodus of people from Iloilo to Negros Island, attracted by the promise of the sugar industry, included a good number of weavers and their departure depleted the number of those engaged in the craft.

Source: http://arevalohandwovenproducts.weebly.com/hablon-in-iloilo.html

Higantes Festival

Higantes Festival also known as Feast of San Clemente is celebrated every 23rd day of November in town of Angono in Rizal province.

His image is carried by male devotees during a procession accompanied by "pahadores" (devotees dressed in colorful local costumes or fishermen's clothes, wearing wooden shoes and carrying boat paddles, fish nets, traps, etc.) and "higantes" (paper-mâché giants measuring 10-12 feet in height and 4-5 feet in diameter). This street event ends in a procession to Laguna de Bay until the image is brought back to its sanctuary.

History

More than a century ago, when Angono was still a Spanish hacienda, the hacienda owners prohibited the townspeople from holding any celebrations. Aside from the costly preparation, they also wanted to restrict pagan festivities. They allowed only one annual celebration -- the town fiesta in honor of its patron saint, San Clemente.

The townspeople took advantage of this sole festivity, prepared lots of food, wore colorful costumes, and held a big procession featuring big paper-mâché caricatures of their Spanish landlords -- an art form imported from Mexico by Spanish friars. These multi-colored, humongous, comical and sometimes scary 12-footers were called "Higantes" or giants.

Before, only two or three higantes were made, representing a "mag-anak" (father, mother and son/daughter). In 1987, Mr. Perdigon Vocalan suggested that all thirteen barangay must have two or three higantes, symbolizong the barangay’s industry or personality. This idea materialized with the help of the Department of Tourism and Provincial Tourism Office. Since then, the towns folk maintained this practice and elevated it into an art form. This colorful celebration boasts of around 40 different higantes representing each barangay and attracting local and foreign tourists.

Activities

The Higantes Festival is part of a two-week long celebration of the Angono Town Fiesta. Activities include a Misa Cantada (a special sung mass), novena, song and dance contests, fried "itik" festival and cooking competition, a 5k Fun Run, on-the-spot painting contest, art exhibit, job fair, bingo and videoke challenge, and of course, the highlights of the festivities -- the Race of the Higantes and the Procession of the Pagoda.

A procession is held throughout the town, with the images brought to the banks of the Laguna de Bay where they would be enshrined in a floating pagoda for a fluvial procession until the event concludes with the image of San Clemente returned to the church.

During the procession, thousands of revelers splash water on unsuspecting participants and onlookers. They use water bottles, squirt guns, and even drinking glasses, spraying water on everyone passing by.

The making of the higantes

In olden days, the heads of the higantes were made of paper-mâché. A model of the head was carved out of clay. Once the clay mold was dry, strips of newspapers would be glued together, one strip on top of the other. Once the right thickness was achieved, the paper-mâché would be cut open to separate it from the mold and the hollow head was glued back together, ready to be painted with the details of the face.

Bamboo strips or yantok were used as the skeleton frame for the body. It would then be covered with yards of cloth resembling their characters. The head was attached to the body and a person could go inside and carry the higante around.

In modern times, clay was changed into Plaster of Paris and resin. Tougher material like fiberglass is applied to the mold instead of paper and thin strips of aluminum are used for the body frame for durability purposes.

Source:

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Higantes_Festival#History

Pahiyas Festival of Lucban, Quezon

Pahiyas Festival

Propelling 

Write if the stament is TRUE. Else, change the underlined word to make the sentence correct.

____1. Visual Arts are art forms that are primarily visual in nature.

____2. Space pertains to the use of hue in artwork and design.

____3. The texture is the quality of a surface, often corresponding to its tactile quality, sensed by touching.

____4. Contrast is created using complementary colors or extremely light and dark values.

____5.  Balance is indicating movement by repetition of elements. 

Started in the 16th century and celebrated every 15th of May, this festival is an event of this community iin honor of San Isidro Labrador for good harvest. The Pahiyas is not Pahiyas without the KIPING, the colorful leaf like wafers hung in every home along the route of the procession. It is the kiping that makes the Pahiyas so colorful making every visitor gaze in awe at the scene of the long line of houses decorated with kiping in all sorts of sizes, shapes and style.

Kiping is made of rice, thus it is edible when fried or grilled. Food coloring is mixed to produce different colors. After the festival, the kipings are processed to become chips.

Source:

Journey towards MAPEH Gr7, UNIT 4, p163

"VAKUL"

"VAKUL"

I’m in the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago after crossing the choppy seas separating the islands in a rough wooden cargo boat carrying vomiting women and passengers fiercely praying, a cow as my seatmate. Magencia is leading me from her stone house to the fields where she will harvest sweet potatoes, yams, and corn for our dinner. She’s singing songs in a language I can’t identify as Filipino. She walks slowly wearing her vakul, the headwear designed to protect Ivatans from the rain and the cold. The Ivatans live on the islands of Batanes. Time moves slow here, and in every home there are dreams of Manila. Batanes is an isolated province in the Philippines, and one of the most sparsely populated. It looks nothing like the rest of the archipelago, with its grass-covered rolling hills and stone houses in place of coconut trees and nipa huts. Today they are developing roads, getting access to cable television, and their idyllic stone homes are being replaced with tin. But the Ivatan culture still surfaces, with fishery schools requiring students to create dances about their fishing heritage, and vakuls hanging on posts for tourists to buy.

Magencia, or Nana Maggi, as we fondly call her, hangs her vakul on a tree. “The new generations don’t use vakuls anymore. They don’t want to. she tells us. “Because how are they going to use it in the office?” She chuckles. Later on I would find myself in a pageant in a university on Batanes’ mainland, and watch Ivatan students perform in rented dresses and heels to Ylvis’ “What Does the Fox Say.”

No other plant but the voyavoy, with its degree of influence to the people and exclusivity to the place, can best represent the Batanes Islands. Also known as the Philippine date palm, it grows to about four meters tall. Despite its hard and rough trunk and prickly leaves, it attracts the attention of humans and animals alike. 
The older Ivatans, the native dwellers of Batanes Islands, know the better use of the voyavoy. Under the wild, punishing summer sun or the undaunted, harsh rainfall during the typhoon months, it is the ever-reliable leaves of the voyavoy that keep the islands’ farmers and fisher folk warm and protected. 
In its full bloom, the voyavoy finds its slim leaves fluttering to the beat of the wind. But cut and dried, the leaves shed their former life as they are transformed into vakul, a headgear, and kanayi, a vest. These are the famed Ivatan all-weather gear, created by the local residents long before the Spaniards came to the place. Both thick and heavy, the vakul is worn by women, and the kanayi by men.

One of the endemic clothing of the Ivatans is the vakul. A vakul is a headgear designed to protect the wearer from sun and rain. It is made from abaca fiber of the vuyavuy palm   

>It is a headgear used to protect the Ivatans from rain, wind and sun. Vakuls are used by women while its counterpart "Talugong" are worn by Ivatan men. 

>Vakuls are made out of Philippine Date Palm or "Voyavoy" leaves. The palm leaves are being dried under the sun, shredded into thin parts and woven to make a "Vakul".

ISA weariNg a "vAkul".. 

Ifugao weaving

Weaving in Luzon

The term Ifugao means people from the hills that is why non-Cordillerans called them Igorots but they prefer the first name. Their arts and culture revolves around rice as a prestigious crop. Their legends tell that the first grains of rice is given to men by Gods.

the Ifugao weave a loincloth called IKAT which is actually an Indonesian term, meaning to bind together. Their motif is characterized by diamond stripes of white and red stripes. The dominant color is blue.

Kalinga Weaving

Kalinga Weaving

Weaving in Luzon

The Province of Kalinga (Ilokano:Probinsya ti Kalinga, Tagalog:Lalawigan ng Kalinga, Tagalog pronunciation: [kɐˈliŋɐ]) is a landlockedprovince of the Philippines in theCordillera Administrative Region ofLuzon. Its capital is Tabuk and borders Mountain Province to the south, Abra to the west, Isabela to the east, Cagayan to the northeast, and Apayao to the north. Kalinga and Apayao are the result of the 1995 partitioning of Kalinga-Apayao; this was to better service the respective needs of the various indigenous peoples in the area.




The people of Kalinga are great weavers. Their cloth and basketry are among the finest products in the region. Kalinga textiles characterized by dominant red stripes and motif of geometric patterns as well as nature symbols interlaced with white, yellow, and black fibers.

 

Ifugao weaving

Weaving in Luzon

The term Ifugao means people from the hills that is why non-Cordillerans called them Igorots but they prefer the first name. Their arts and culture revolves around rice as a prestigious crop. Their legends tell that the first grains of rice is given to men by Gods.

the Ifugao weave a loincloth called IKAT which is actually an Indonesian term, meaning to bind together. Their motif is characterized by diamond stripes of white and red stripes. The dominant color is blue.

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Weaving in Luzon

Abra Weaving

Abra is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bangued, and it borders Ilocos Norte and Apayao on the north, Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province on the south, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur on the west, and Kalinga, and Apayao on the east.

The first inhabitants of Abra were the ancestors of the Bontocs and the Ifugaos. These inhabitants eventually left to settle in the old Mountain Province. Other early inhabitants were the Tingguians, or Itnegs, as they are also known. In 1598, a Spanish garrison was established in Bangued to protect Christian Ilocanos from Tingguian raids. Originally the area was called El Abra de Vigan ("The Opening of Vigan"). During the British Occupation of the Philippines, Gabriela Silang and her army fled to Abra from Ilocos and continued the revolt begun by her slain husband, Diego Silang. She was captured and hanged by the Spanish in 1763.

The original settlers of Abra are the ancestors of Bontocs and Ifugaos. Whaen they left Abra and settled in the Ifugao and Mountain Province, the Tingguians and Imegs dominated the province until the coming of the Ilocanos for trade but later they were driven up the mountains.

The people of Abra use natural dye and still practicing loom weaving and they emblemish the woven fabric cloth of embroideries in their fabrics. 

The Kalinga, with their 31 sub-groups, have practiced the art ofbatok or tattoo design for the last thousand years. Saved for the fiercest men and women warriors, tattoos are honed with a siit

(an orange thorn) and a bamboo stick.  Today you will see elderly women and men with these ferocious tattoos on their chests and arms. Many of their tattoo artists have passed away. The last woman mambabatok (tattoo artist), Whang Od, lives in Buscalan.

Artistry is in the Kalingas’ blood. Visit their weaving villages, likeMabilong Weavers Village. You’ll also find pottery in the town of Pasil.

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