The National Living Treasures Awardee

The GAMABA Awardees

GAWAD SA MANLILIKHA NG BAYAN or NATIONAL LIVING TREASURES AWARD is conferred on Filipinos who are at the forefront of the practice preservation and promotion of the National & traditional folk arts. Objectives is to honor and support traditional folk artists and to see to it that their skills and crafts are preserve.

The Filipino GAMABA Awardee:<br>

1. LANG DULAY (+2015)

Textile Weaver T'boli

Lake Sebu,South Cotabato

(1998)

Using abaca fibers as fine as hair,

Lang Dulay speak more eloquently than the words can. The t'boli are recreated by her nimble hands - the crocodiles,butterflies and flowers,along with mountains and streams,of lake Sebu,South Cotabato where she and her ancestor where born - fill the fabric with their longing to be remembered.

Lang Dulay does what she can to keep her peoples tradition alive.There are a few of them left, the traditional weaver of t'nalak or t'boli cloth. It is not hard to see why: weaving t'nalak is a tedious process that begins with stripping the stem of abaca plant to get the fibers,to coaxing even finer fiber for the textile,then drying the threads and tying each strand by hands. Afterwards,there is the delicate task of setting the strands on the bed tying frame made of bamboo,with an eye towards deciding the strands should be tied to resist the dye. It is the bud or tying of the abaca fibers that defines the design.

Lang Dulay knows hundred design including:

*bulinglangit(clouds)

*bankiring(hair bangs)

*kabangi(butterfly)

each one special for the stories it tells. Using red and black dyes,she spins her stories with grace. Her textile reflect the wisdom and the vision of her people.

2. UWANG AHADAS

MUSICIAN

YAKAN

LAMITAN,BASILAN

(2000)

Uwang Ahadas is a Yakan, a people to whom instrumental music is of much significance,connected as it is with both the agricultural cyle and the social realm. One old agricultural tradition involves the kwintangan kayu,an instrument consisting of five wooden logs hung horizontally,from shortest to longest,with the shortest being nearest the ground. After the planting of the rice,an unrooted platform is built high in the branches of a tree. Then the kwintangan kayu is played to serenade the palay,as a lover woos his beloved. Its resonance is believed to gently cares the plant,rousing them from their deep sleep,encouraging them to grow and yield more fruit.

3. GINAW BILOG

Ginaw Bilog,Hanunoo Mangyan from Mansalay,Mindoro grew up in such a cultural environment. Already steeped in the wisdom than the ambalan is a key to the understanding of Mangyan Soul. Ginaw took it upon himself to continually keep score of ambahan poetry recorded,not only on bamboo tubes but on old,dog-eared notebooks passed on to him by ftiends.Most treasured of her mother, to be taught how to weave herself. Her ardent desire to excel in the art of her ancestor enabled her to learn quickly. She developed a keen eye for the traditional design,and now, at the age of 65,she can identify the design as well as the author of a woven piece just by a glance. All her life she has woven continously,through her marriage and six pregnancies,and even after her husband death 20 years ago. She and her sister are the only remaining Bagobo weavers in her community.

4. Salinta Moon

Salinta has built a solid reputation for the quality of her work and the intrecacies of her design. There is a continuing demand for her fabrics. She has reached the stage where she is able to set her own price,but she admits to a nugging sense of being underpaid nevertheless,considering the time she puts in her work. It takes her 3 to 4 months to finish a fabric 3.5m x 42cm in length or one abaca tube skirt per month.

She used to wear the traditional hand-woven tube skirt of the Bagobo,of which the sinukla and the bandira were two of the most common types until the market began to be flooded with cheap machine-made fabrics. Now she wear her traditional clothes only on special occassions. Of the many design she weaves,her favorite is the binuwaya(crocodile) which is one of the hardest to make.

5. FEDERICO CABALLERO

*Known as an Epic Chanter in Calinog,Iloilo.

*He was best know for his expertise in the Sugidanon,a Central Panay epic traditionally chanted while lying on a hammock,and his work in the preservation of oral literature,documenting 10 Panay-Bukidnon epics in an extinct language with close ties to Kinaraya.

*His love of folklore began when he was young, hearing tales of grand adventures as bedtime stories.

*His mother taught him to recite epics in doing of household chores.

*He also works with the department of education's Bureau of non-formal education,teaching elders to read and write.

*He was awarded in 2000.

6. MASINO INTARAY

*Born on April 10,1943 near the head in Makagwa Valley and live Brooke's point Palawan.

*He was Filipino poet, hard artist and musician

He is known for his outstanding performance of the local tradition of basal,kulilal, and Bagit.

*He was awarded in 1993.

*November 30, 2013 Intara was died due to complication from diabetes which included multiple bouts of stroke.

7. TEOFILO GARCIA

*In San Quintin,Abra Teofilo Garcia would often walk around the town wearing his gourd casques.

*Through word of mouth and his participation in the annual local harvest festival, Garcia was able to introduce the Tabungaw plant as a good and sturdy material for functional,elegant,and protective hats.

8. ALONZO SACLAG