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Philippines Arts and Crafts
The different indigenous peoples of the Philippines are excellent craftspeople. Everyday items are raised to an art form, with their traditional colors and patterns reflecting their exact tribal background. All these crafts are stll very much alive and well, with north Luzon and Mindanao being particulary important regions.
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Weaving and textiles are the work of women. Part of a family's wealth was counted in textiles and these were given as dowry gifts at weddings and as offerings to the gods.
Hand-spun and dyed with colors produced from the land around them, the ikat cloth is produced on a back-strap loom, which allows a finished length of up to 3.5m (4 yards), with a maximum width of around 75cm (30in). For wider items such as blankets, separate lengths of fabric are simply sewn together.
Patterns are based on a line created in the wrap, and there are innumerable regional variations, including those between the Kalinga, Ibaloi and Ifuagao tribes who live in adjoining regions of the north. Cotton was not introduced into the highland regions until the late 19th century, so before then natural fibers abd barks were woven; this is still the case with abaca (hemp) or banana leaf fabric.
Ikat fabrics were reserved for funerary rituals amongst the Ifugao (were the body is wrapped in many meters of material) and Isinai tribes. In a different ritual, the Tinguan hang hand-woven fabric above the body.
The T'boli make a cloth called t'nalak through a complicated tie-dye process - traditional motifs are frogs (fertility) and dancing men (rain). Vivid colors and intricate patterns are a feature of Sul weaving, while the Bagabo use glass beads as decoration on their woven fabrics.
Pineapple cloth was a prized fabric in late 19th and 20th-century Spanish towns. This was finished with exquisite embroidery by the Chinese. Items like these are now rare and expensive.
Basket-making is the other main craft of the Philippines. In tribal regions, basket-making is a man's task and natural fibers like rattan are fashioned into mats for sleeping on or for dying rice, or the pasiking, a form of woven backpack. All the tribal peoples wear woven hats to protect against the strong sun - the salakot hats (traditional straw hats worn by farmers) of the Bontoc region are particularly fine. The texture of the weaving ranges from hard or protective items so soft and supple.