Lake Sebu is home of the dreamweavers and National Living Treasures

MANILA, Philippines – Peacefully tucked in the lush highlands of South Cotabato, about a thousand feet above sea level, Lake Sebu, with its calm waters and towering waterfalls, provides guests with more than jaw-dropping natural attractions.

Every day, mist-laden mornings and blooming lotus flowers signal a new day for the T’boli people, the original indigenous settlers of Lake Sebu, to preserve their sacred T’nalak cloth—which is known for being designed with patterns revealed in visions, thus earning them the nickname “the Dream Weavers.”.

In a place where a lasting heritage persists through each woven creation, Lake Sebu also becomes a land where National Living Treasures, or GAMABA awardees, now numbering four esteemed individuals, have preserved and celebrated age-old artistry. It goes without saying that the history, perseverance, and character of Lake Sebu are told through its many ripples and interlaced threads.

What is the GAMABA?

The Philippine government honors an individual or group of artists with the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA), or the National Living Treasures Award, for their contributions to preserving the nation’s intangible cultural heritage.

As published on the website of the Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, the official journal of the Philippines, Executive Order #236 states that pursuant to the Republic Act no.7355, or the Manlilikha ng Bayan Act, “the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan is conferred upon a Filipino citizen or group of Filipino citizens engaged in any traditional art uniquely Filipino, whose distinctive skills have reached such a high level of technical and artistic excellence and have been passed on to and widely practiced by the present generations in his/her community with the same degree of technical and artistic competence.”

Since the first GAMABA award was given in 1993 to its first batch of recipients — Ginaw Bilog, a member of the Hanuno Mangyan community in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, who was honored for his dedication to preserving the Mangyan script; Masino Intaray, hailing from Brooke’s Point, Palawan, for championing the preservation of the traditional music and literature of Palawan; and Samaon Sulaiman of Mamasapano, Maguindanao, who was credited for his mastery in playing the indigenous kutyapi instrument — there are now a total of twenty-five GAMABA awardees, with four coming from Lake Sebu.

Lake Sebu’s proud GAMABAs

In 1998, the late Lang Dulay (1928-2015) earned the National Living Treasures distinction along with Salinta Monon, an Inabal weaver from the Tagabawa-Bagobo community in Bansalan, Davao del Sur. Dulay then became the first person from Lake Sebu to receive a GAMABA award.

Considered as a cultural bearer of the T’boli’s traditional T’nalak weaving, a dyed fabric made from refined abaca fiber, Lang Dulay first started weaving at a young age of 12 years old. 

Having created over a hundred designs, many of which drew inspiration from her dreams, Dulay remained true to her heritage by exclusively utilizing traditional patterns. In the true spirit of a GAMABA honoree, Lang Dulay established a Manlilikha ng Bayan Center at Lake Sebu—now called the Lang Dulay Weaving Center—to pass her craft and expertise on to future generations, including her grandkids. 

After Lang Dulay passed away in 2015, her daughter-in-law, Sebulan Dulay, who is now in her 70s succeeded in becoming the new T’nalak master weaver. Sebulan Dulay, who has been a weaver for over 60 years, is also a skilled musician, performing traditional T’boli music by playing instruments like the ‘hegelung’ and ‘kulintang’ for visitors at the Lang Dulay Weaving Center alongside her son Charlie on the small drums (Tnonggong), as her grandchildren accompany the music with a T’boli dance performance. 

The last of the late Lang Dulay’s finished T’nalak cloth remains in the possession of her family while many of her surviving works are either on display at the National Museum or in the hands of collectors.

Nine cultural bearers received the National Living Treasures Award in 2023, tripling the previous high of three in the years 1993, 2000, 2004, and 2016. Three of the newly- minted GAMABAs were from Lake Sebu; Barbara Ofong, Rosie Sula, and Bundos Fara.

In a magical turn of events, this writer, in a span of a month, was able to meet all three GAMABA awardees from Lake Sebu. During the World Ikat Textiles Symposium in Baguio from December 3-6, I had the opportunity to be up close and personal with both Barbara Ofong and Rosie Sula that I was able to have a selfie taken with them.

Known as the WITS, the World Ikat Textiles Symposium has been held yearly since its inaugural event in 2016, held in London. It serves as a platform to promote the heritage craft of ikat, an age-old dyeing technique widely applied in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world to design textiles and other woven cloth.

Given that the T’boli weavers not only painstakingly follow the ikat process but also treat it as a spiritual act; in designing patterns they usually relate to their surroundings and family stories, it was a touching gesture that the organizers invited their master weavers and GAMABA recipients to join their fellow weavers from the Philippines and the rest of the world. 

Aunty Rosie Sula, as she is affectionately called in her community, is a tireless cultural bearer and worker who received the GAMABA award for her cultural skills, which include being a T’boli chanter, musician, poet, dancer, and composer. Among cultural scholars and enthusiasts around the world, she is perhaps well known for her mastery of reciting the “Tudbulul,” an epic T’boli chant. 

Although unlike Lang Dulay, Sula was not a master weaver, she remains steadfast in advocating for the preservation and promotion of T’boli culture by founding the Libun Hulug Matul, or the Tribal and Women Empowerment, which comprise of women weavers and cultural practitioners from her community in Lake Sebu.  She is also an active educator, having helped establish the School of Indigenous Knowledge and Traditions, also in Lake Sebu. 

Barbara Ofong, a master T’nalak weaver for more than 50 years, is credited with creating more than 90 designs, each with its own story and significance. As she told us on our second meeting in her home in Lake Sebu a couple of weeks after the ikat symposium in Baguio, she channels inspiration from Fu Dalu, the T’boli’s goddess of abaca, which guides her in her dreams to conjure designs for her woven creations.

“I started weaving during the time of the Santa Cruz Mission,” Ofong told us in her native Tboli language and translated to us by cultural worker Michael Yambok, who is also a tourism officer of Lake Sebu. 

Yambok clarified to us that the Santa Cruz Mission, a Catholic mission, arrived in Lake Sebu during the 1960s—or almost 60 years ago. According to author Alvin Hower in his memoir No Greater Service, which narrates his experience as a social worker volunteer for the Peace Corps in the Philippines, there were only around five remaining weavers of the T’nalak cloth in Lake Sebu when the Santa Cruz Mission arrived. Not long after, the mission collaborated with local women of Lake Sebu to resurrect the then dying art of T’nalak weaving. 

“I didn’t expect to be honored with a GAMABA award by being a weaver”, she happily tells us. Yambok also told us that Ofong is also a volunteer at the School of Living Tradition in Lake Sebu that was founded by T’boli cultural ambassador and indigenous artist Maria “Oyog” Todi in the 1990s. “At the same time, she (Ofong) also volunteers at School of Indigenous Knowledge And Traditions”.

In the middle part of December, I joined a few members of the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) of the Philippines when they conducted an assessment of the status of their Community-Based Tourism program workshop that was held in Lake Sebu last year, on a return trip to Lake Sebu.

This time, I got the chance to meet another of the town’s Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan recipients, Bundos Fara. Fara is a master brass caster and one of the few remaining makers of the T’boli metalcraft called Temwel.

The T’boli people widely believe that Ginton, the T’boli God of metalwork, bestowed the privilege of mastering the art of brass casting to a select few, among them Fara. Through many years of experience, his unmatched artistry in fusing traditional designs with contemporary styles has transformed his metal pieces into collector’s items.

We chanced upon Fara in his small shop in Lake Sebu while on a break from working in his blazing pot forging fire into melting pieces of steel, brass, and bronze materials he typically uses to create his masterpieces.

With a smile on his face, he gamely interacted and posed for photographs with our small group while showing some of his art pieces such as a sword, rings, medallions, and other brass items.

Another South Cotabato native who was honored by GAMABA was the late Yabing Masalon Dulo (1914–2021). She was affectionately known as Fu Yabing since Fu is a T’boli word of endearment similar to lola in Tagalog. Although she wasn’t originally from Lake Sebu, her hometown of Polomonok was just 1.5 hours away.

Fu Yabing was also a great weaver, known for preserving the Blaan indigenous community’s traditional mabal tabih ikat weaving. Almost a decade ago, when I started traveling around the Philippines, my knowledge about our traditional arts and crafts was limited to woodcarving and some weaving creations from the Cordillera region.

I find it amazing to be able to not only learn more about the heritage arts and crafts of the Philippines; I also get to know about such distinctions as the GAMABA, or the National Living Treasures, and on top of that, like icing on a cake, I get to meet some of them. In Lamitan, Basilan, a few years ago, I got the chance to meet another GAMABA recipient, the late Yakan master Apuh Ambalang (1943-2022), and in 2023, before she celebrated her 100th birthday last year, I met with Magdalena Gamayo, the master inabel weaver from Pinili, Ilocos Norte.

With an enduring legacy championing the region’s cultural, historical and heritage lineage dating back to many centuries ago, Lake Sebu is emerging as one of the most interesting destination for one to uncover a wealth of new learnings, about the T’boli people, their customs and traditions. It is also a great way to help the T’boli people keep their traditions alive by visiting them and supporting their creations — and in the land of the Dream Weavers and National Living Treasures, theirs are unlike any other creations. – Rappler.com

Marky Ramone Go is a travel writer who began documenting his travels in his website Nomadic Experiences in 2007.