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Blaan's Way of Living: Houses and Community Settlements
The rugged of terrain of Blaan country requires that houses be built far
apart, often stilts and with a single notched log for a ladder. The Blaan house is
found near swidden fields and is built with stilts as high as seven meters.
Small hardwood poles are used as the main structural support, while the roof
is made of flattened bamboo and supported by a framework of small timbers.
The floor is constructed with crossed timber and broad strips of bark, and the
cooking place contains baskets and utensils, gourds filled with grains, salt, or
ground pepper. On the walls of the interior are spears and shields, and side
rooms are provided for weaving.
An outer platform is sometimes placed halfway up the high stilts, where
things are kept to dry under the sun. this is also where one finds dancalan, and
cages or pens for animals such as horses, pigs, and dogs. Around the house,
bamboo poles are dug into the ground to protect against interlopers and catch
stray wild pigs.
Blaan Arts, Crafts and Traditional Costume

*Blaan men and women shave their eyebrows, file or cut their incisors,
and blacken these together with their tongues.
*The men tattoo their arms, legs, chest, and back. Their tattoos are
called tugeng.
*The blaan use traditional abaca cloth, tabi or tabih for their garments.
*Tinadyon for their cothing, which is worn during special social
gatherings, usually woven with black stripes and dyed red.
The five kinds of tabih are the following:

tabih fulo, the dominant color of which is red;
tabih logob, which has larger designs than fulo;
tabih ftarag, which is used exclusively by women for their lower garments;
tabih ugnandong, which is a longer version of ftarag; and
tabih hmlato, which is even longer than the ugnandong and is the first-class
tabih worn only by people of status in the community.
Women’s hemp jacket

- Also known as albon
- Typically has a red bodice and blacksleeves.
*Ansif (embroidery) decorates the sleeves, shoulders, wrists, side seams, and
waist area.
*Women's blouses may be heavily ornamented with embroidery, beads, and
buttons. They may also wear necklaces, anklets, and strings of tiny bells. An
aromatic root or fragrant flower may decorate their waist piece.
Men’s hemp jacket

- Also known as salo
- are sometimes more ornately decorated than the women’s, albeit with
minimal beads or sequins.
*The saol is a tubular bodice with sleeves and upper part connected to the
base cloth.
*Embroidery is concentrated on the vertical and horizontal seams, and
openings in the armpits facilitate airflow and mobility.
*It is worn with salwal (tight-fitting, knee-length trousers) and bantati
embroidery at the bottom. A long red sash is wound around the waist.
Mabal or weaving is a valued art form among the Blaan.

Women who are good at weaving are called libun fanday (weaving
prodigies). It is believed that they weave images from their dreams and
imagination.
The mabal process involves stripping the abaca trunk, brushing and testing it,
and softening it with abo, a chemical compound derived from natural
elements.
The cloths are bundled and dipped in native dyes derived from kunalum (to
make black), lagu (to make red), and konel (to make yellow) (Kinoc 2002, 20).
The weaving begins with an invocation to the spirits of the lutay (abaca) and a
prayer for blessings and guidance in the creation of a tabih.
Blaan designs fuse geometric patterns with anthropomorphic and zoological

designs using ansif, ikat (tie-dye), or tritik (a dye resist process). Waxed
threads are used to create intricate designs in the cloth, which is then
submerged in dye and removed to create white patterns.
The geometric, diamond-shaped designs of the Blaan are called kumang. They
are interrelated and cannot be split through cutting; cutting tabih is
considered maftu (a curse).
These designs are based on the Blaan’s affinity with their environment such as
batak knumang (tentacles of a sea creature), batak ubkong (lizard), batak
bwaya (crocodile), batak sawu (python), and batak snail (numbered designs).
The python is praised for its medicinal benefits, the crocodile for its ferocity,
and the lizard for its capacity for camouflage.
*The nihok art form involves weaving a tabih cloth with three layers of
design and color, with the central part decorated with colored bands and ikat
patterns, and the sides woven with a red-and-black stripe.
*The Blaan and Bagobo use soft thin strips of bamboo for weaving two-tone
(black and natural) baskets in varying sizes. The wild chicken trap used by
men is a series of small loops made of long, thin, flexible, and braided rattan
strips set on the ground by means of three stakes. A woven, looped, rattan
chain secures the prey to the stake once it takes to the bait. This trap usually
goes with a small backpack that carries bait, such as seeds, ground corn, or
grain. Elaborately carved wooden supports, feathers, horsehair, and small
bells sometimes decorate this backpack.
*Palm leaves are used to create temporary altars for food and betel nut
offerings. Maligay is a bamboo pole draped with palm leaves and elaborate
bamboo shavings, while sapak is an embellished bamboo pole with its top
split to cradle, like a funnel, and a piece of blue antique chinaware.
*The Blaan are known for their metalcraft, making bells, trinkets, and
weapons through the lost-wax, waste-mold process. Patterns are created with
beeswax wrapped in soft clay, and the earthen mold is punched with holes for
molten metal to enter and exit. The Blaan's blacksmithing includes weaponry
such as the fais or faes (long sword), spears agot ayum and agas budjak, and
arrowheads nba tukob.

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Blaan's Way of Living: Houses and Community Settlements

Blaan Arts, Crafts and Traditional Costume

The five kinds of tabih are the following:

Women’s hemp jacket

Men’s hemp jacket

Mabal or weaving is a valued art form among the Blaan.

Blaan designs fuse geometric patterns with anthropomorphic and zoological

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