The Torogan

The Torogan is the ancestral house of the upper-class Maranao in the Lanao Region of Mindanao. It is the dwelling place of the datu along with his wives and children. There could not be any house larger than torogan of the datu within the sultanate, for this signifies rank, prestige, and wealth.




 The Torogan is the traditional residence of the reigning Sultan of the Maranaw people and his family. It is where the community 

Torogan Architecture

The Maranaos have three types of house: lawig the small houses, mala-a-walai the large houses and the torogan. The existing torogans were built by the community and the slaves for the datu in 1800s. This house of the datu has no partitions and it is a multifamily dwelling where all the wives and the children of the datu lived. The windows of torogan are slits and richly framed in wood panels with okir designs located in front of the house. The communal kitchen is half a meter lower than the main house is both used for cooking and eating. The distinct high gable roof of the torogan, thin at the apex and gracefully flaring out to the eaves, sits on a huge structures enclosed by slabs of timber and lifted more than two meters above the ground by a huge trunk of a tree that was set on a rock. The end floor beams lengthen as panolongs the seemed to lift up the whole house. The torogan is suffused with decorations. There were diongal at the apex of the roof, also an intricately carved tinai a walai, okir designs in the floor, on windows and on panolongs. There were also brightly colored weaves ormalongs hanging from the rafters, it was hung up using ropes around a particular territory for privacy. The house was built to sway during earthquakes. Twenty-five post of huge tree trunks were not buried but are freestanding. Sometimes, if needed, wooden pegs were used to secure the wood members. These were all used to prevent the house from collapsing.

Function

Aside from being used as a dwelling place of the datu, The torogan is also used for a variety of socio-religious gatherings such as weddings, funeral wakes, conferences and even for court proceedings. It is also used as a guest house.

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Torogan