Folk Arts and Crafts of Car Region

Cordillera Weaves
Wood Carving & Bamboo Crafts
Silvercraft & Metalcrafts
Traditional Tattoo
Visual Arts
Literary Arts
Cultural & Performing Arts

Cordillera Weaves

Weaving—the production of cloth—is a creative power of women.

In the Cordillera, the use of cloth is involved in life from birth to death, in sickness and health. A baby is cocooned in cloth. The sick are wrapped and healed in it. Couples are clasped in it and in death, one is buried in it. Identity is defined when the members of a group make and wear clothing that distinguishes them from others. Dressing styles indicate different ethnic origins. As an art form, textiles are embedded in all aspects of life from day-to-day situations to the performance of rituals.

At the age of ten or earlier, daughters learn the craft from their mothers, and when they pass on their skills, they transfer technology that involves expertise about materials and ways of learning. The legacy of weaving is not just cloth or a product. Weaving, as it passes from mother to daughter, is a social practice that assures continuity. Acknowledged as having specialized skills, expert weavers obtain prestige and economic benefits from weaving.

The beaten bark cloth is most likely the earliest cloth application in the Philippines. Chinese traders introduced cotton during the late Sung dynasty. When the Spanish colonizers first encountered the coastal Ilocanos, white cotton textiles were in everyday use. In the Cordilleras, many believe that the Itneg and Gaddang were among the first to take up weaving although the exact date has not been established. The Ifugao, Bontoc, Kalinga, and Kankana-ey, according to some research, may have started weaving only in the 18th century.

The handwoven textiles of the Cordillera tell stories of identity, economics, and social change. When a weaver creates a textile that is a work of art, she becomes an agent of change setting off trains of social phenomena. Her work is an expression of creative genius, and her art is fully invested with the intention to change the world all the while that it remains the same.

Wood Carving & Bamboo Crafts

Written by Cristina Villanueva- Librarian, UP Baguio

In the 70s, Baguio City was known for its wood carved images sold in the city market stalls. Woodcarving, however, did not have its roots in the City. Folktale had it that woodcarving was linked to Ifugao religion and not for ornamentation. Wigan the god of the Skyworld showed Wigan the Ifugao of Hapao how to carve a bulul to guard their rice granary (Lambrecht 1981).

God statues along with animal images slowly found their way to Baguio City where interest in these figures showed an increased demand after the 2nd World War. Woodcarvings along with buybuy (soft broom) and strawberries were on top of the shopping lists of local tourists who visited Baguio in the 50s. To sustain the demand, local traders had to brave the long 22 hours travel and perilous journey to Hapao, Ifugao. The woodcarving industry further gained international prominence when Philippine woodcarvings were displayed at the 1963 New York's World Fair (Castro 1976). In this year, the woodcarving industry became a top dollar earner. The growing market for Ifugao wood carved images in Baguio City became the impetus for Hapao woodcarvers and their families to migrate and settle in Asin, a barangay located in the southwestern outskirts of the City (Novicio 1999).

References:

Castro, Alex R. "That "knack" on wood." The Baguio Tourist, September 1976, p. 38-39.
Lambrecht, Francis. "The origin of Ifugao wood carving." Saint Louis University Research Journal. 12, no. 1 (March 1981): 15-17.
Novicio, Homer. "The Ifugao woodcarvers: sculpting lives." Asiageo Magazine, December 1999, p. 10-17.

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Wood Carving Piece Title

Silvercraft & Metalcrafts

The birth of the pioneer mining firms in the region beckoned the start of the thriving gold and silver craft starting in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

In 1910, the Belgian Congregation of Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ran a school with 10 little boys. Six years later, Fr. Florimund Carlu (CICM) and Sister Calorine (ICM) launched a vocational workshop for the same batch of boys. The workshop was incorporated in the school program, a training program which offered courses in carpentry, tailoring, leather craft, and silversmithing which turned to be the most popular among the boys. Their work in the silver shops paid for their high school education. As they became more adept in the craft, the sister taught them more intricate designs.

The St. Louis silver shop first became popular when American servicemen visiting Baguio City for rest and recreation who frequented the stalls to buy silver items as souvenirs to take home. Soon enough, visiting dignitaries also made it a regular part of their itinerary to visit the shop whose fame grew by word of mouth. After leaving his store management duties to the nuns, Fr. Carlu continued to train apprentices in the shop that survived World War II and the strong earthquake that struck Baguio in 1990.

Each step in making the intricate filigree is done by one person. The silver used for the filigree is 95% pure.

(Source: Baguio Centennial Commission, Builders of Baguio, 2010, p.274)

Traditional Tattoo

The ancient art of tattooing is inspired by tradition throughout the Cordilleras.

One of the most famous of all tattoo artisans is the great Maria Oggay, more popularly known to the world by her native name Apo "Whang-od." She lives in Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga, and accommodates visitors daily—tapping on skin and marking her patrons with her amazing art.

Apo Whang-od is also known as "the last and oldest mambabatok" in Kalinga and is a part of the Butbut tribe.

Apo Whang-od's ink is composed of the mixture of charcoal and water that is tapped into the skin through a thorn end of a lemon or pomelo tree. Apo Whang-od's hand-tapped tattoo technique—called batok—dates back to thousand years and is said to be more painful that the machine tattooing system.

For the traditional Cordilleran, a tattoo is earned through bravery and courage while the women see it as an expression of beauty.

Visual Arts

This mountain resort also serves as a thriving home for nomadic artists for years.

It is said that the cool weather plays a harmonic tune for the arts to which many have fallen in love. Using the city as their studio, these artists converge with nature, explore its vastness, and makes the City of Pines the backdrop of many art pieces, stories, and music.

Thriving in the nooks and crannies of the city are areas catering to various artistic expressions—be it for visual, literary and performing arts. A certain charm attracts artists here, where the atmosphere of the city cultivates artistic expression, mediation and camaraderie of sorts.

Local art historians trace the blossoming of art in the city in the 70's, making the city play host to local and international art festivals which have until now put Baguio City and the Cordilleras in the art map of the country and the world.