The Manobo tribal dress has changed over time. Originally, males wore bark g-strings and females wore bark wraps from the waist to just above the knees, exposing their breasts. Later, when they learned to weave cotton, their clothes incorporated colored stripes, sleeves and pants that went from the waist to knees for both sexes. Women's blouses had beads and sequences while men wore kerchiefs, and women styled their hair with decorated knots atop their heads.
The Manobo tribal dress has changed over time. Originally, males wore bark g-strings and females wore bark wraps from the waist to just above the knees, exposing their breasts. Later, when they learned to weave cotton, their clothes incorporated colored stripes, sleeves and pants that went from the waist to knees for both sexes. Women's blouses had beads and sequences while men wore kerchiefs, and women styled their hair with decorated knots atop their heads.
The Manobo tribal dress has changed over time. Originally, males wore bark g-strings and females wore bark wraps from the waist to just above the knees, exposing their breasts. Later, when they learned to weave cotton, their clothes incorporated colored stripes, sleeves and pants that went from the waist to knees for both sexes. Women's blouses had beads and sequences while men wore kerchiefs, and women styled their hair with decorated knots atop their heads.
The Manobo tribal dress has changed over time. Originally, males wore bark g-strings and females wore bark wraps from the waist to just above the knees, exposing their breasts. Later, when they learned to weave cotton, their clothes incorporated colored stripes, sleeves and pants that went from the waist to knees for both sexes. Women's blouses had beads and sequences while men wore kerchiefs, and women styled their hair with decorated knots atop their heads.
The present Manobo dresses like any other rustic Cantilangnon. In the olden times, the males only covered the lower portions of their bodies with bahag (g-strings) which was made of pounded treebark while the females wore the tapis wrapped tightly from the waistline down to about a palm’s length above the knees. The tapis that extended to the ground was called the saja.
Their scanty attires were usually made from barks of the trees which were pounded or beaten to softness to make these pliable for wrapping the womenfolk’s body contours. It was told and recalled that these upland women did not cover their breasts, thereby exposing their nipples. Covering the lower portions of their bodies was in accord with their traditional practices of morality. It was then instinctive.
The old Manobos were colorfully dressed during the years when they learned to weave cotton fabrics or when they bought these from the traders. They prepared the fabrics with stripes of red or black or anything having a maze of colors. Women blouses with short sleeves and striped patadiongs were wrapped from their waistlines down to the knees. The men wore long sleeves with pants that were tight from the waistlines down the knees.
In most cases, the womenfolk wore tight close-neck blouses without collars but decorated with colored crystal beads with glittering sequences. The men folk wore kerchiefs called prong. The womenfolk did not have any head gear. Their hair were neatly combed with the inggos (knotted hair) set on the tops of the heads. The inggos was usually decorated with combs and some colored beads called libidos. The Manobos did not have any footwear.
