LANG DULAY:
"MASTER WEAVER'S STORIES"
-STRENGHTENS T'BOLI'S TRADITION
Lang Dúlay was already a young mother at the time of the Japanese Occupation during World War II. Through those turbulent years, she wove t’nálak cloth made from a fine variety of abacá that grew in the highlands of Southern Mindanao. A long lifetime of weaving has earned her a reputation as a master in her community. In 1998 she was awarded the Philippine national prize for traditional artists (Gáwad Manlilikhá ng Báyan). Since then, she has traveled many times to Manila and also as far as Washington, D.C., where she was a participating artist at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Although she can neither read nor write, Mrs. Dúlay maintains a bank account into which her lifetime stipend is deposited every month. She has used some of this funding to found and run a school for T’bóli weaving next to her home.
Beh (esteemed grandmother) Lang, as she is fondly called, cuts a familiar figure in her community when she takes time out to visit one of her many grandchildren, perched on the back of a taxi-motorcycle with the key to her safe hanging around her neck. She is proudest of her role as grandmother to an entire village, including many youngsters she has put through school. Now in her eighties, she no longer sits at the loom, as that is a task she gives to her senior students, but she has not stopped teaching and she continues to dream—the source of many of the ikat patterns that she still ties and dyes herself.
How the T'boli Women Weave their Dreams
T'nalak (also spelled tinalak), is a weaving tradition of the T'boli people of South Cotabato, Philippines. T'nalak cloth is woven exclusively by women who have received the designs for the weave in their dreams, which they believe are a gift from Fu Dalu, the T'boli Goddess of abacá. The rest of the community, including the men, can help make T'nalak by carefully selecting, stripping, and sun-drying the abacá fibers that will be utilized. After the fibers have been prepared, they are dyed using the "ikat" dye-resist technique, which is based on the weaver's dream pattern; the lady who was given the design by Fu Dalu then weaves the cloth on a backstrap loom.
Traditional t'nalak patterns cannot be mass-produced due to the fact that the designs are based on the weavers' dreams. The weavers of t'nalak are known as dreamweavers because their patterns are based on dreams.
Throughout the creative process, the tradition's sacredness is preserved. As a result, several guidelines are followed. They are not supposed to step over the cloth. They're also told to keep a positive attitude while weaving. The fabric is flattened with a vigorous pounding with wood and polished with a cowrie shell after it has gained shape. The completed product is treated with the same reverence, which is why treading on it is forbidden. From birth to marriage to death, the T'boli utilize the t'nalak at every significant life event. This, along with their conviction that it is a gift from the gods and nature, makes the entire t'nalak ritual a significant aspect of their culture. While many outsiders seeking to profit from this holy activity have mass-produced this material, it is critical that people understand its cultural value to the T'boli, particularly the Dream Weavers who are attempting to preserve the spiritual tradition's authenticity.
Lang Dulay Designing Her T’nalak
Lang Dulay's mother, Luan Senig, reportedly influenced her to weave when she was 12 years old, according to sources. She sits in the center of the second story of a typical T'boli home at her modest workshop at the Manlilikha ng Bayan Center in Sitio Tukolefa, Lamdalag, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. She uses two bamboo contraptions to create her creations and to teach her granddaughters how to weave T'nalak.