Home Philippine Travel Muslims of the Philippines Exhibit at SM Aura Premier

Muslims of the Philippines Exhibit at SM Aura Premier

By Blair Villanueva 12:00:00 AM

Hello gorgeous!

Recently, I’ve been attending various mall exhibits within my city because…

First they are accessible to my workplace and,

Second, it is always free admission!

LOL

Nothing makes me happy really, and I always make sure I’ll pay the visit because it is always worth it.

And also a good source of content for this blog, as I don’t want it to be a boring one.

So today am sharing you the Muslims of the Philippines: History and Culture Exhibition held at SM Aura Premier. The exhibition was held last June 26 to 30, 2017.

Philippines is an island composed of more than 7,000 islands having hundreds of different cultures and religions. Yes – majority are Christians however, before Christianity arrived in this island the Islamic religions is already from southern part about 800 years ago.

The world religion preceded the arrival of the other monotheistic religion, Christianity, by two and a half centuries, as both were absorbed into an animist, maritime, archipelagic culture living amidst extreme biodiversity.

The shared cultural underlay of all Philippine people is least 4,000 years old. Islam (and then Christianity shortly after, in its own way) modified this shared, barangay cultures by introducing religious concepts that made locals feel a sense of belonging to concepts institutionalized over a large part of the world; and concept of hierarchy that stratified what were traditionally egalitarian societies.
This exhibition, “Muslims of the Philippines: History and Culture” designed to travel to schools, malls, corporate headquarters, government offices, and other public spaces – offers a view of history and culture that has made Muslim Filipinos a distinct population within the Philippine nation.
It is an exhibition that challenges stereotypes by close views of exquisite material culture in images and artefacts.

If you are not yet familiar with Muslim Filipino in the Philippines, these people are just like the Malaysian and Indonesian Muslims that you typical saw wearing beautifully colourful clothes. Actually you might mistake them as Filipinos too at the first glance, because we shared similar tradition and culture brought by our Muslims ancestors many years ago.

These artefact symbolizes the rich Muslim Filipino cultures which are honestly not given more emphasis in the modern culture.

“Muslims of the Philippines: History and Culture,” more importantly, includes information that have not been part of mainstream discussion in the Philippines. The exhibition adds to the knowledge base, not only about Muslim Filipinos as a unique population segment, but about a kind of culture and history that has persisted through tremendous conflict and challenges.

Muslim Filipinos has been forged in a crucible of fire and have, as a result, become a people from whom the rest of the world, not just the Philippines, can learn richly.

The elaborate, triangular flange projecting out of the elevated floor level of the Maranao house, is called the panalong. It is characterized by dense arabesques executed in bas relief on hardwood – a material culture genre known as okir among the Maranao, and ukkil among the Tausug, Sama and Yakan. Okir patterning is very clearly a dearly beloved local borrowing from Middle Eastern Islamic art. However, it is important to note that the sinuous, unending lines are thought by Maranaw artists of the past as either evocative or representative of organic form; notably, the serpent naga of Pre-Islamic Philippines. The panalong are fundamental elements of the large house the Maranao call torogan, which could accommodate wealthy traditional leaders, their families and extended relations. Nearly all beams of the torogan are surfaces for exuberant okir.

If the Chinese cultures have Dragons, and Singapore have their Merlion, the Muslim Filipinos have their Sarimanok. The Sarimanok a representation of a mythical fowl is elaborated with polychromatic and dramatically drawn or sculpted feathers. The Maranao again integrate Islamic and modernlayers of their culture in the sarimanok. The organic form of a bird fowl draws from layers of cultural memory when the bird was the favoured evocation of flights into elevated realms. When this mythical figure was a shared motif of transcendence among all Philippine people. Within Islam, the bird motif persisted and was incorporated into Islam-inspired arabesques. In modern Philippines, the sarimanok became a symbol not only of Muslim Philippines, but the entire country.

Kampilan is the sword belongs to a type of weapon characterized by a long, single-edged blade that tapers to the hilt and at the tip forms a nearly trapezoidal profile. It is a form of weapon used in the past by a number of Philippine language groups such as Cebuanos and Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) speakers, with lethal effect on their adversaries (it was used in the Battle of Mactan in 1521 that killed Ferdinand Magellan). This particular weapon was most likely made and used by Iranun smith and warrior at least a century and a half ago. Its Muslim owner (for confidentially reason cannot be disclosed its identity) is currently living in Central Mindanao.

Another sword is called Pirah. This blade distinguishing article is the carabao horn pommel at the hilt end, featuring a high cockatoo crest. This sword has Tausug origins. Its smith and owner lived in and originated from the Sulu Archipelago, most likely in Jolo at least 50-years ago.

The bamboo xylophone called gabbang is an instrument used by the Tausug and Sama speaking people of the Sulu Archipelago. Solo performers can “speak” to audiences intimately with while playing this instrument. However, it is most associated as producing the musical partner to the Sama signature dance pang-alay, a sinuous performance of body syncopation and fluidity.

This is called dabakan – a single-headed drum, with an animal hide membrane and characteristically featuring arabesque patterning on its wood body, and supports the kumintang, the set 8 bossed gongs that have been deeply associated with Islamic Mindanao. The dabakan have conical, hour-glass goblet and tubular form – shaped from a single length of carved-out tree or in other case using the coconut trunks. Its decorative elements firmly place the dabakan within Philippine Muslim tradition, although the drum itself had pre-Islamic origin.

The dabakan can also support the two-stringed lute kudyapi, as well as played by one soloist or a pair of virtuosi. The specimen in this exhibition is of Maranao provenance. It features a restrained decorative sensibility executed in the use of dark tonalities, that was embedded in a kind of high-skilled, expert-controlled multiple layered music making.

The Maranao are the Philippines’ true vistuosos of brass casting, and amonh the most remarkable of Filipinos silver and gold inlay. These talam (or presentation trays of food) exhibit the tough formal qualities of elaborate brassworks, the patternings of which are a combination of archaic Southeat Asian forms and Islamic loan forms. The sheer profusion of talam produced in the Maranao cultural area of Lanao del Sur and the consistency of quality casting, indicate a devotion to mastery over a long period of time. That this mastery was offered to ceremonial food and ritual events, gives a strong sense of the significance the Maranao have placed in food at the center of family and community self-regard.

After roaming around the exhibition and speaking with attendants, I realized that I have limited knowledge with Muslims Filipinos, and I am very much thankful that I visited this event. I learned a lot from about its very rich culture.

And you know what?

I am excited to begin my journey to discover and witness more of its rich tradition and culture in the southern part of the Philippines.

What do you think of this cultural exhibition?

xoxo, Blair