Senior High School

Department of Education
National Capital Region
SCHOOLS DIVISION OFFICE
MARIKINA CITY

Arts and Design

CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE ARTS
FROM THE REGION
First Quarter-Module 2
Various Contemporary Art Forms and Performance
Practices from Various Regions

Writer : Victor P. Rebosada, MAT

Cover Illustrator: Nicole A. Lacson

0
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 What I Need to Know

Good day learners! In this lesson, you are going to learn to:

Describe various contemporary art forms and practices from the various regions

Moreover, in this lesson, you will learn concepts and do practice activities that will help
you do the following:

1. Give details on various regional contemporary art forms and their practices;
2. Identify different contemporary art forms and practices from various regions;
3. List down various contemporary arts and practices in your community; and
4. Promote local contemporary art form using a medium.

Duration: 1 week

What I Know
Before you proceed to the different activities inside the module, answer first the
short pre-assessment activity below.
Complete the sentence below based on your own understanding.
1. Based on my readings, different regions has its own forms of contemporary arts
like
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
2. In the place I live in, I know that some of its contemporary arts are
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

1
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 Lesson Contemporary Art Forms and
1 Practices

What’s In
In the previous module, you learned about the history of Philippine Arts and some
of the regional art forms, techniques, and performance practice. What can you say of our
art forms and the way we live? Why do you say so?

______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

What’s New
A. Before Reading Activity
After studying your first module, I know that you already know that our country has
its colorful history when come to the arts. You also learned of some art forms, its techniques
and practices. Do you still remember what these are?

B. During Reading Activity

Let us first analyze the excerpt below.

“For the Manobos in Caraga, Region 13, the art of EMBROIDERY is called
"SUYAM". This art of embroidering is both a gift from Magbabaya and an inherited
knowledge since time immemorial because not all Manobos can do this. Every thread,
every color, every design, and every detail has a meaning
that depicts the qualities and personality of the one wearing
it as envisioned by the artist and accordingly, what is being
told by the spirits. Every tribal attire of a Manobo is itself a
story of rich culture and tradition.
Thus, we abhor the use of our attire just for a SHOW
or for Commercial Purposes and I believe the word
RESPECT is not too much for the asking.”
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4047974485226213&set=pcb.4047974831892845
-Datu Ferdausi Saniel Cerna

2
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 C. After Reading Activity
Let us know what you have understood of the excerpt by answering the following
questions:

1. What is suyam?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

2. How important is the suyam?

_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
3. Is the call of the datu to respect the suyam valid? Why? Why not?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

What is It
Our country is very rich in its cultures and traditions. With culture and traditions also
come a variety of art forms and practices which is found in the different regions. In its blog
on the history and culture of the Philippines, iexplore.com revealed that despite being
colonized by unsympathetic rulers, the Philippines has produced a friendly, resilient, family-
oriented, deeply religious and artistic population, most of whom are indigenous, Spanish or
of mixed heritage. It is also said that the Filipinos are family oriented and often religious
with an appreciation for art, fashion, music and food.
The same source confirmed that we are hospitable people that we love to sing, eat
and dance evident in our calendar packed with festivals, many of which combine costumes
and rituals from the nation’s pre-Christian past with the Catholic beliefs and ideology of
present day.

3
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
The Cordilleras
The Cordilleras is a great manifestation on how our people are love its culture and
the arts. The six provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and
Mountain Province comprised the Cordillera region, which, according to
itsmorefuninthephilippines.co.uk, is the country’s only land-locked region which is
fascinating from a cultural point of view thanks to several fascinating burial sites and to the
presence of tribes maintaining their traditional ways of life.
The Hagabi
It is a very long wooden bench carved from a single piece of wood, and according
to lifeisacelebration.blog, a symbol of wealth and social prestige among the Ifugaos.
Creatign the “hagabi involves a ritual in which a hosting of a public feast where priests
traditionally called the “Mumbaki” perform a ceremony called “mamaldang” to determine if
the omens for the creation of the hagabi bench are favorable. It was revealed that the ritual
begins with the search for the right tree (usually a
narra), the journey of the woodcarvers to the forest
to select, cut and carve the tree, and the villagers
taking turns in transporting the carved “hagabi”
bench out of the forest through mountain trails. It was
further explained that this activity takes several days
and ends with more days of eating, drinking of rice
wine and dancing.
https://designkollective.com/stores/out-of-asia/products/5698

The Hudhud
The Hudhud, as read from the blog about this
art from ich.unesco.org, consists of narrative chants
traditionally performed by the Ifugao community
practiced during the rice sowing season, at harvest time
and at funeral wakes and rituals. It is thought to have
originated before the seventh century and comprises
more than 200 chants, each divided into 40 episodes.

https://theberntraveler.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/hudhud.jpg

The same source further said that the language of the stories abounds in figurative
expressions and repetitions and employs metonymy, metaphor and onomatopoeia,
rendering transcription very difficult, the reason why there are very few written expressions
of this tradition. The chant tells about ancestral heroes, customary law, religious beliefs and
traditional practices, and reflects the importance of rice cultivation. The narrators, mainly
elderly women, hold a key position in the community, both as historians and preachers.
The Hudhud epic is chanted alternately by the first narrator and a choir, employing
a single melody for all the verses. transmit their knowledge and to raise awareness among
young people.

4
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 As the theberntraveler.wordpress.com put it, more than a ritual song, the hudhud
plays a key role in shaping and preserving the ways of life of the Ifugao people for more
than 2,000 years. At present, the songs are still really revered and have never been altered
from how their ancestors sang them many centuries ago.
The Visayas
The Visayas or Bisayas, as read from https://www.britannica.com/, is an island
group in central Philippines and is consists of seven large and several hundred smaller
islands clustered around the Visayan, Samar, and Camotes seas. The seven main islands
are Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Masbate, Negros, Panay, and Samar. These islands and their
smaller neighbors make up the central group of the Philippine archipelago.
The Ambahan
The Ambahan, as sourced from https://www.esquiremag.ph, is a Visayan verse of
unrhymed seven-syllable couplet whose two lines could be interchanged and still make
sense. It used in “balak,” a poetic debate between a man and a woman on the subject of
love, accompanied by musical instruments. It is also said that the more literary form of
verse of the ambahan was the siday or kandu, which took at least six hours to sing and is
full of heavy metaphors and talk about heroic exploits of ancestors or exaltations to living
heroes.
Moreover, the same site revealed that the kandu was the basis of the Visayan folk
epics that we enjoy today some of which are Labaw Donggon, Kabungar and Bubung
Ginbuna, and Datung Sumanga and Bugbung Humasanun, which weaved supernatural
phenomena with heroic exploits, giving us a glimpse of Visayan life through the lens of the
people who lived in it.
The Bariw Weaving
The banig is the main product of the
municipality and the importance of banig (bariw)
weaving as a major means of livelihood of the
Libertadnons in Antique is celebrated during the
Banigan Festival held from March 14 to 16.
http://www.benjielayug.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Banig-products.jpg

According to benjielayug.com, the versatile bariw (Pandanus copelandii) plant,

indigenous to this mountain and coastal town, is a close relative of pandan plant that some
Filipinos use to make their cooked rice more fragrant.
This wonderful plant is used to produce various export-quality products including
place mats, hats, coasters, bags, purses and other home accessories plus, uniquely, a
woman’s terno.
The weaving process is tedious, according to the source, as prior to the weaving by
the manugbanig, the dried bariw leaves are shredded through a wooden-based kurulhadan
(splicer or shredder) to form long twines of different thicknesses (pagkulhad). Then, the

5
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
bariw strands are folded into halves (pagkyupis). After that, the four strands are folded
together in pairs; horizontally and vertically, with the glossy brown color in the outer surface.
Furthermore revealed by the source, the weaving begins with the taytay, the
framework of the entire mat. During this stage, the size and the length of the mat is already
assured while the dimensions of the width are determined by weaving with the sides
forward. Then, edge-lines (sapay) are made on both sides of the mat, followed by the
folding (hurip) of the remaining strands on the sides (or edge-line) to keep the weave tightly
locked in place. Finally, unwanted and excess strands in the mat are cut (gutab).
The CARAGA Region
Caraga is an administrative region of the Philippines, on the northeastern portion of
the island of Mindanao, designated as Region XIII, according to https://www.dti.gov.ph/.
One of the inhabitants of the region are the
Manobos, whose name, according to
thingsasian.com, may came from “Mansuba” from
man (person or people) and suba (river), meaning
river people. The first Manobo settlers, as read
from the site, lived in northern Mindanao and that
at present Manobo tribes can be found at the
hillsides and river valleys of the northeastern part
of Cotabato.
Datu Ferdausi Saniel Cerna (https://www.facebook.com/ferdie.cernaaphio)

It is further revealed that a Manobo community is mostly male dominated where the
man is considered as the head of the family and makes the family decisions. Accordingly,
only a Royal, a Datu can practice polygamy, only with the consent of the first wife and her
parents. The first wife will remain the head wife. The Datu or Chief must also have proven
his bravery and leadership in battle as a bagani. This position can be passed on to a Datu's
children, as long as they have the necessary qualifications. Village member are expected
to help in any way from their kinship group or persons related by marriage, this relationship
is named upakat or reciprocity.
The Manobo are both strong in mind and spirit, their cultural identity is firmly rooted
in the land and its nature. It is maintained through storytelling, language, family and the
passing on of traditional skills and arts.
7
The Taebang
One of the valuable arts and masterpiece of the Manobos is the “Taebang,” as read
from the Facebook page of Datu Ferdausi Saniel Cerna, a National Commission of
Indigenous Peoples Regional Director, who says that the Taebang is the Manobo tribe’s
headdress.

6
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 The taebang, according to him is
given to a legitimate Datu only upon ritual or
conferment to him as such. The garment is
worn as a sign of authority given to the Datu
by his community and not for any show nor any
commercial purposes.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4044812665542395&set=a.7448114855425

For the Manobos, the headdress is sacred and that nobody could touch it without
the express consent of the owner. He likewise revealed that this should not touch the
ground and at all times be in the possession of the owner as he performs his tasks as a
Datu.
The Golden Tara
Butuan is a bustling city in the CARAGA which
prides itself in its arts history. As phtourguide.com puts
it, the city is the home to its two icons of its pre-history -
the Golden Tara and the Balanghai Boat.
As reported by the above source, the Golden
Tara of Butuan, also known as the Icon of a Storied Past
(the pre-colonial times of Butuan), is a gold figurine of a
“Tara” or escort goddess from the Buddhist Pantheon. It
is said to be found by a Manobo native along the Wawa
River in Central Agusan in 1917.

https://sites.google.com/site/museumsofthephilippines/gallery/golden-tara

Accordingly, the Golden Tara gold image is cast in 21-karat gold, weighs nearly 4
pounds and measures around 8 inches in height and that the image is a Goddess of the
Buddhist Pantheon in the Mahayana group. It is said to be related to the concept of a female
Boddhisattve and at the same time the counter-part of the Hindu Goddess Sakti as a Tara
of wife of a Buddhist God.
The source further said that the Golden Tara is believed to be an Indic influence on
our gold producing culture during the Sri-Visayan Empire (700 – 1377 A.D.) and the
Madjapahit Empire in Java (1292 – 1478 A.D.).

7
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 What’s More

Answer the activities that will follow to practice your knowledge and skill about the
topic on various contemporary art forms and its practices from the various regions.

Activity 1
In your own words, write a paragraph containing at 50 words describing the
“taebang” of the Manobos.
_________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________

Activity 2
Identify an art form and make a detailed description on this and how it is practiced
until now. You may choose from one of the arts and practices presented in this module and
come up with a more detailed discussion or do a research on other contemporary arts and
practices from the different regions. Include your source/s.

Be guided by the rubrics for grading below.

Rubrics for Grading Output

Criteria Outstanding Very Satisfactory Satisfactory Needs
10 points 8 points 6 points Improvement
4 points
Content Art form and Art form and Art form and Art form and
practices are practices are practices are practices are not
properly satisfactorily somehow properly described
described and described and described and and discussed and
well-discussed. discussed. discussed. Some sources are not
Sources are Sources are sources are found legitimate.
legitimate. legitimate. to be
questionable.

8
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
Write your answer here:
_________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________

What I Have Learned

In this module, you have studied about the various contemporary arts and its
practices from the different regions. Express what you have learned by doing the activities
below. Do as directed.
Identify one (1) art and practice from the regions presented in this modules and in
your own words describe each using 20-40 words.

Regional art form and practice Own description

1.

2.

3.

9
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 What I Can Do

Apply what you have learned on the topics you studied by doing the following:
1. Make an online survey on the different art forms and practices in your
community.
2. List down and describe at least two of these arts and practices.
3. Print (manually or electronically) your answers on separate sheet/s of
paper

Community Art Form Description of the art Practice of the art

1.

2.

Assessment

Showcase the knowledge and skills you have learned in this lesson by answering
the assessment activity.
Describe the following art forms and its practices. Write at least three sentences
consisting of not more than 100 words.
1. Hagabi
___________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
____________________________
2. Suyam
___________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

10
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 3. Taebang
___________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
____________________________
4. Golden Tara
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_____________________
5. Ambahan
___________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
___________________________

Additional Activities
Marikina City is known for its shoe making and leather craft. This art of shoe making is
known not only in the Philippines but also around the world.
Research on this art and promote this on social media.

Criteria Outstanding Very Satisfactory Satisfactory Needs

10 points 8 points 6 points Improvement
4 points
Content Research is Topic is Topic is Topic is not
comprehensive, satisfactorily somehow comprehensive,
well- discussed comprehensive, comprehensive, properly discussed
and examples discussed and discussed and and no examples
are used to some examples less examples are given to make
make the points are used to make are used to make the points clear.
clearer. the points the points clearer.
clearer.

11
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 Posttest
Answer the following questions correctly. Write the letter corresponding your
answer on the space provided before each item.
_____ 1. Which of the following is NOT true about the Filipinos when it comes to its
history and culture?
A. Filipinos are religious in its appreciation for art.
B. Filipinos has a combination of indigenous, Spanish and mixed heritage in its
history and culture.
C. Filipinos has been using festivals to show distaste to its colonizers.
D. Filipinos has unique distaste on art.

_____ 2. The following is TRUE about the hagabi EXCEPT? d

A. A ritual is made before the making of the hagabi to determine if the omens for
the creation of the hagabi bench are favorable.
B. It is a symbol of wealth and social prestige among the Ifugaos.
C. It is a very long wooden bench carved from a single piece of wood.
D. The mumbaki transports the carved “hagabi” bench out of the forest through
mountain trails.
_____3. What is “hudhud”?
A. It is consists of narrative chants traditionally performed by the Ifugao community
practiced during the rice sowing season, at harvest time and at funeral wakes
and rituals.
B. It is thought to have originated before the sixth century and comprises more
than 100 chants, each divided into 40 episodes.
C. The chant tells about ancestral heroes, customary law, religious beliefs and
traditional practices, and reflects the importance of the tribes.
D. The language of its stories abounds in figurative expressions and repetitions
and employs metonymy, metaphor and onomatopoeia, rendering transcription
very easy, the reason why there are a lot of written expressions of this tradition.
_____4. What is a marugbanig?
A. A kind of a mat
B. A mat weaver
C. A material used to make a woman’s terno
D. An indigenous plant used in mat weaving

12
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 _____ 5. What is the taebang sacred?
A. The taebang is a headdress that should not touch the ground.
B. The taebang is an art masterpiece.
C. The taebang is conferred to a Datu only.
D. The taebang is only worn by the Manobo Datu and it is a sign of authority given
to him by the tribe.

References
Internet Sources:
All You Need to Know About the Cordilleras. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https:
//itsmorefuninthephilippines.co.uk/the-cordilleras/
BenCab Museum: A Feast for the Senses. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://
lifeisacelebration.blog/tag/cordillera-art/
Golden Tara of Butuan. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://www.phtourguide.
com/golden-tara-of-butuan/
High Culture: The Visayans Before Spanish Colonization Were Badasses. Retrieved
March 5, 2021 from https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/visa
yan-culture-a2212-20200303-lfrm2
Hudhud and DArangen: Voices from Pre-Colonial Philippines. Retrieved March 5,
2021 from https://theberntraveler.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/hudhud-
and-darangen-voices-from-pre-colonial-philippines/
Hudhud Chants of the Ifugaos. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://ich.unesco.
org/en/RL/hudhud-chants-of-the-ifugao-00015
Image of Bariw Products. Retrieved on March 5, 2021 from https://www.benjiela
yug.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Banig-products.jpg
Image of Datu Ferdausi Saniel Cerna. Retrieved with permission on March 4, 2021
from https://www.facebook.com/ferdie.cernaaphio
Image of Golden Tara. Retrieved on March 5, 2021 from https://sites.google.com/
site/museumsofthephilippines/gallery/golden-tara
Image of Hagabi. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://designkollective.com/store
s/out-of-asia/products/5698
Image of Manobo Princess. Retrieved with permission on March 4, 2021 from https:
//www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4047974485226213&set=pcb.4047974831892845
Image of Taebang. Retrieved with permission on March 5, 2021 from https://www.
facebook.com/photo?fbid=4044812665542395&set=a.7448114855425
Image of Women Chanting the Hudhud. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://the
berntraveler.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/hudhud.jpg
Philippines — History and Culture. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://www.ex
plore.com/articles/travel-guides/south-and-southeast-asia/Philippines/his
tory-and-culture#:~:text=The%20culture%20ofthe%20Philippines,%2C%20
fashion%2C%20music%20and%20food.
Profile of CARAGA. Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://www/dti.gov.ph/regions
/caraga/profile/
The Banig Weavers of Libertad (Antique). Retrieved March 5, 2021 from https://
benjielayug.com/2014/02/the-banig-weavers-of-libertad-antique.html
The Last Tribes of Mindanao, the Manobo, river people of Cotabato. Retrieved Marc
h 5, 2021 from http://thingsasian.com/story/last-tribes-mindanao-manobo
-river-people-cotabato

13
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
Answer Key

14
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE
 Development Team of the Module

Writer: Victor P. Rebosada, MAT

Editor: Jovita Consorcia F. Mani
Layout Artist: Maria Isabel G. Tutor
Management Team:
Sheryll T. Gayola
Assistant Schools Division Superintendent
OIC, Office of the Schools Division Superintendent

Elisa O. Cerveza
Chief, CID
OIC, Office of the Assistant Schools Division Superintendent

Jovita Consortia Mani

EPS-MAPEH

Ivy Coney A. Gamatero

EPS – LRMS

For inquiries or feedback, please write or call:

Schools Division Office- Marikina City

Email Address: [email protected]

191 Shoe Ave., Sta. Elena, Marikina City, 1800, Philippines

Telefax: (02) 682-2472 / 682-3989

15
DISCIPLINE • GOOD TASTE • EXCELLENCE