UNIT VI.

DREAMS, SOUL, AND SPACE

Overview
This chapter discusses the concept and importance of space and soul. It emphasizes the
Philippines' folk architecture and different woven art.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the unit, I am able to:

1. Identify the different folk architecture of the Philippines.

2. Determine the different Philippine textile art
3. Know the effect of space in daily living
4. Create an ideal house through drawing

Setting Up

Direction: on the box below, draw your ideal house and explain the details and answer how it
becomes suitable for you?

Explanation
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Lesson Proper

PHILIPPINE TEXTILE ART

Some years back, Philippine traditional weaving practices and colorful indigenous textiles were put
into the spotlight when it was put on permanent exposition at the National Museum through the
exertion of Sen. Loren Legarda. Entitle, "Hibla ng Lahing Pilipino: The Artistry of Philippine Textiles,"
the discussion highlighted the distinct creativity and DNA of the people among other cultures through
the fabric. (Soralla, 2017). Eventually, the exposition was graced by Queen Sofia of Spain, Paolo Zegna
of Ermenegildo Zegna, and Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, among many others, and continued to
gain popularity. However, it not only rested on the museum but was patronizing further on malls
when Rustan's chairman and CEO Nedy Tantoco companioned with the senator. Filipino artistry and
creativity are apparent in various art forms. What makes the weaving culture novel is its power to
unite people as strong, resilient communities bound by living tradition and colorful textile patterns
and motifs.

PINILIAN

 Community: Ilocano
 Origin: Ilocos Region
 The Ilocano of northwestern Philippines is famous for their handweaving, a tradition with
ancient roots
 Capas or cotton as the primary material.
 They supply the pedal loom, locally called pangablan; employ different weaving techniques,
and have numerous designs/patterns.
 There are two kinds of pinilian: sparse and continuous supplementary weft techniques. The
weavers of Pinili, Ilocos Norte, are mentioned to be adept in the concurrent warp, and weft-
float type of civilian called the impalagto, a technique unique in the town.

BONTOC WEAVE

 Community: Bontoc
 Origin: Mountain Province
 The Bontoc textile turns around centeredness, which symbolizes permanence, order, and
balance, key factors in the life of the Bontoc people. Weavers teach this idea through the
direction of their weave, from the edge to the middle, to the cloth construction's symmetry
and the repeated warp-striped design.
 Because of the complex method of adding the kan-ay, the center panel would be woven last.
When all the components are ready, they would be sewn jointly in the reverse order of their
creation, and it ends with the langkit.

KALINGA TEXTILES

 Community: Kalinga
 Origin: Province of Kalinga
 The Kalinga textiles exhibit motifs carry out as though they are embedded in the geometry
of weaving itself. It has a strange dialogue between red and blue, expressing itself in broad
red and blue bands of simple or twill weave, and it creates a densely-composed circle of
tight stripes.
  The Kalinga weavers, specifically in the upper Kalinga area, put textures on the striped
bands using the twill-weave technique.
 Tiny motifs, patterns, and embellishments have characterized Kalinga textile, including
miniature lattice, unceasing lozenge design locally called inata-ata,pawekan, or mother-of-
pearl platelets, and among others.

PIÑA

 Community: Aklanon
 Origin: Aklan
 Considered the refined of Philippine textiles, the piña fabric is made from the fibers of the
leaves of the red Bisaya pineapple through an arduous process. The extraction of the tissues
is the most delicate and tedious process.
 The leaves provide two kinds of fibers: the Bastos, the coarse thread, the liniwan, or the fine
cotton. a shard of Chinese porcelain usage, the stripper eliminates the leaf's epidermis,
exposing the lustrous bastos fiber. After taking down the rough textures' sheets, the
stripper then runs a coconut shell on the inner layer of the leaf to expose the liniwan.
 The Aklanons of western Panay Island are famous for the piña with inlaid supplementary
weft designs or more often embroidered with floral or vegetal designs on the lattice ground.
Lumban in Laguna and Taal in Batangas have known embroidery centers. The piña is the
commonly material for the barong Tagalog.

HABLON

 Communities: Kiniray-a and Hiligaynon

 Origin: Panay Islands
 Hablon is Hiligaynon word for "something woven," comes from the root word habol, "to
weave." It specifies to the hand-woven fabric by Kiniray-a and Hiligaynon weavers.
 In a Panayanon myth, ten datus from Borneo landed on Panay Island, firm settlements, and
ushered in an era of development. One of the legendary statuses was Datu Lubay, who is
said to introduce the art of weaving textiles.
 The hablon is usually a plain cloth and has plaid and striped patterns. It is normally used for
the patadyong, the Visayan wraparound skirt, and panuelo.

SAPUTANGAN TAPESTRY WEAVE

 Community: Yakan
 Origin: Basilan
 famous for being highly-skilled, with impressive weaving repertoires, Yakan weavers
produce textiles with five variants of weaving, often differentiated by technique, pattern,
and function.
 The Bunga-same is also weft weave, made using pattern sticks or heddles in the loom to
produce the pattern. A warp-floating design characterizes the colorful striped siniluan.
 Saputangan is a square thread best known for its intricate and rich design, involving optical
illusion to create depth in the patterns.
 The saputangan is example of a tapestry thread. It is known the oldest and most traditional
technique in producing ornamented woven textiles, aside from the plain weave technique
wherein stripes and plaids are formed.
MABAL TABIH

 Community: Blaan
 Origin: Sarangani and South Cotabato
 Tabih, in Blaan, known to the native tubular skirt and the textile, while mabal means
"woven" or "to weave." The Blaan thread the tabih using abaca fibers and the backstrap
loom. The thread are dyed using the warp tie-dye resist ikat method and natural dyes from
endemic plants. Designs usually illustrates crocodiles and tiny curls.
 The Blaan are famous to be accomplished embroiderers, and the tabih is commonly
meticulously embellished with embroidery. A skill traditionally reserved to women of high
status, threading has a huge spiritual context in Blaan society, think to be the gift from
Furalo, the goddess of weaving. Aside from the tubular skirts, the abaca fabrics is used for
making a clothing for men, as well as covering for essential materials such as knives.

BAGOBO INABAL

 Community: Bagobo Manobo

 Origin: Davao del Sur
 The Bagobo, a little group of the Manobo, are experts in extracting the abaca's fibers from
the leaf sheaths and selecting the very fine ones for weaving their textiles.
 They use the backstrap loom for weaving inabal abaca fiber textiles with ikat-or tie-dyed
resist designs forming mother-and-baby crocodile figures in geometricized abstracted
forms.
 Beeswax, which is used to the beater during the weaving process, adds to the sheen during
the finishing procedure. The Bagobo textile is commonly used for creating the native
tubular skirt, of which there are two types, sinukla, and the bandira.

DAGMAY
 Community: Mandaya
 Origin: Eastern Mindanao
 The Mandaya, which can be form in the provinces of Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte,
Compostella Valley, Surigao del Sur, and Agusan del Sur, have a strong weaving tradition as
seen in their coarsely textured dagmay, hand-woven using a special kind of backstrap loom,
produced from abaca fibers, and following ellaborate designs revolving around man and
nature, especially the crocodile.
 Dagmay patterns usually tell the story about the weaver and her community and the spirits
that live on Earth. The dagmay is traditionally used for women's skirts, but it is also used as
blankets or wraps for the dead.

MARANAW TEXTILE

 Community: Maranaw
 Origin: Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur
 The Maranaw of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur knew a wide range of weaving
techniques including the weft and warp ikat tie-dye resist and continuous and
discontinuous supplementary weft design.
  They are known for the malong, a tubular lower clothing. Among its several types, the
malong a andon is the most highly valued. This is followed by the malong a landap known
for its tapestry bands called langkit, often used to join the large panels of silk together.
Another kind is the malong a bagadat, made from similar wide groups in contrasting colors
and separated by narrow bands of warp ikat.

PIS SYABIT WEAVE

 Community: Tausug
 Origin: Sulu Archipelago
 The Tausug women are proficient in tapestry weaving and embroidery, while men do the
large hangings in appliqué. They specialize in the production of pis syabit (headscarf) and
kambot/kandit.
 Men and warriors traditionally wear the pis syabit. A most complicated design skill, the pis
syabit tapestry weaving of Tausug, has no preset pattern sticks or pre-designed warp yarns
into which the weaver inserts the desert yarn.
 The weaver has to imagine the pattern in her mind as she inserts one colored weft yarn one
at a time to fill up space in the warp, in a sequence her mind only knows. The weaver
produces a perfectly symmetrical composition of squares and Xs with hooks and seven to
eight colors.

T’NALAK

 Community: Tboli
 Origin: South Cotabato
 The Tboli women weaved the traditional textile, t'nalak symbolizes birth, life, union in
marriage and death, and shows the indigenous group's uniqueness and identity. It is often
utilized as blankets and clothing and worn in royal wedding ceremonies on rare occasions.
 The Tboli weavers are known "dream weavers," but this applies only to a few dedicated
weavers. It is known that the designs and patterns are bestowed on them by Fu Dalu, the
abaca's spirit, through their dreams.
 The tedious design of the t'nalak starts with extracting the abaca fibers, which are then
combed to remove the sap. They are associated from end to end and knotted and prepared
for a design before resist-dyeing, known as the ikat method.
 A t'nalak traditionally has three colors: black, red, and white. The thread is then woven
using the backstrap loom. The fiber is then washed in the river, beaten with a wooden stick
to flatten the knots, and burnishing the surface with a cowrie shell.
 Filipino fabrics are experiencing something of a resurgence. As of late, entrepreneurs and
designers have been incorporating them in everything from bags and laptop cases to shirts,
skirts, and even gowns. It isn't hard to see the appeal of ethnic fabrics (Guttierez, 2017)

Ukkil of the Sulu Archipelago

The traditional decorative arts of Sulu Archipelago uses a design motifs and symbols
widespread in Southeast Asia. These motifs may be used to many wealth items for personal
purposes like garments, jewelry, and weaponry (exchanged during wedding ceremonies). Most
meanings of the Ukkil are deeply rooted in Hindu – Islamic traditions and ancient beliefs. Ukkil are
most important to the Tausug, Samal, badyaw and Jama Mapun, of the Sulu Archipelago. The design
representations are flora and fauna from the environment.

There are 3 types of Ukkil motifs;

1. Sumping (floral) – these are conventional motifs embroidered on garments, wall

coverings, and canopies, which usually includes, sampaka (grangipani) and the sumping
kayapu’ (lotus flower).

2. Birdo (tree palnt) – these are curvilinear foliate design associated with fertility or
prosperity and symbolic of life and paradise in Sufism. Artists employ at random variety of
stylized dahun (leaf) and bagun (vine) to compose a birdo pattern.

3. Hashas (serpent) it is universally includes snakes, dragons, and aquatic animals like fish,
eel, dolphin, lizard and crocodile. Portrayal of these exotic creatures in the arts and oral
tradiations of Muslim Filipinos shows fascination with the serpent, especially its saringa
(dragon) form. Serpent motifs symbolizes water, virility, fertility and royal power. These are
typical embellishments on prow, sidings, crossbeams, eaves, and even the pulleys of old
watercrafts.

PHILIPPINE FOLK ARCHITECTURE

Folk Architecture –these are simple structures built of local materials and available tools to
provide shelter for its inhabitants.

BAHAY KUBO (NIPA HUT)

 It is also known as kamalig

 It serves as an icon for Filipino lowland and rural culture.
 It is made up of bamboo rods and bamboo mats or sawali, and a thatched roof made up of
anahaw or nipa.

BALE OR IFUGAO HOUSE

 It is a one-room house with an attic for storage

 The exterior of the home looks like a pyramid resting on four posts
 The interior is enclosed by slanting walls and ceiling that appears to be spherically formed
by the loft

IVATAN HOUSE IN BATANES

 Most of the house is built with limestone walls and cogon roofs
 It has narrow doors and windows with wooden shutters and often secured by wooden bars.

TOROGANS OR MARANAO’S HOUSE

 It means "a place to sleep."

 It is a stately house for the elite members of the Maranao tribe in Mindanao.
 It is a symbol of status in leadership.
  It also serves as a courthouse, hall for community meetings, and its courtyard as rituals
areas for weddings.

BADJAO’S STILT HOUSES AND HOUSEBOATS

 The strong platform is made on both ends of the boats.

 The kitchen is usually found at the back.
 Its foundation is carefully placed in between coastal rocks and corals.

THE LEAN-TO

 A portable house built by the Aetas

 It is a tripod base house where the Aetas could carry away their home when they were
hunting animals.

References
Soralla, F. (2017), Weaving the Threads of Filipino Heritage retrieved from
https://ph.asiatatler.com/life/weaving-the-threads-of-filipino-heritage
Guttierez, A. (2017) Indigenous Filipino Fabrics are making a Comeback retrieved from
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/design/philippine-indigenous-fabrics-are-making-a-
comeback-a00225-20171017-lfrm
Noche, M. History of Philippine Architecture recovered from https://ncca.gov.ph/about-ncca-
3/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/architecture-and-allied-arts-2/history-of-
philippine-architecture/
Manosca, M. Filipino Architecture improved from https://www.united-
architects.org/members/filipino-architecture/