DÁSÊ MAKING
As a product of conviality
By Joel Pabustan Mallari
In the warm and humid tropics, various cultures have devised ways and means to make living more bearable, if not comfortable. The Philippines is no exemption and nowhere is this solution as obvious as in the Filipino use of a variety of materials for making sleeping mats.
As a product of conviality
By Joel Pabustan Mallari
In the warm and humid tropics, various cultures have devised ways and means to make living more bearable, if not comfortable. The Philippines is no exemption and nowhere is this solution as obvious as in the Filipino use of a variety of materials for making sleeping mats.
Various species of reeds profusely grow in swampy areas, as well as a number of palm species, and rattan. These materials remain cool in the heat of the day, are smooth to touch, and porous enough to let ventilation through. Throughout the country one encounters a variety of mat making traditions using indigenously grown materials and embellishing these creations with highly imaginative designs. From the Badjao/Samals, Tausugs, Maranaos, Tbolis of Highland Mindanao, Tagbanuas, and the various people of Samar, Romblon, and of the Cordillera all have their unique versions of native mats and woven articles like hats. The commonness of sleeping mats throughout the country attest to the artistry and the superb skills required accomplishing the intricacy evident in this woven works of art.
In a 1940 ethnographic report done by Ricardo E. Galang, kupiang ebus or native hats made from the leaves of ebus (Corypha utan Lam. Arecaceae) are reportedly made in the towns of Arayat, San Luis, San Simon and Apalit. Folk traditions maintain that the magkukupia (hat makers) from Sucad of Apalit, once supplied the local markets not only of Pampanga but also those of Tarlac, Manila, Baguio, Bataan and Zambales. Dr. Ricardo Galang notes that these towns also produced petates (palm mats, Kapampangan dase) and bayones (bayung) In Sto.Domingo, Minalin, turung or kupia making is seasonally done up to this time.
Fray Diego Bergaño in his 18th century Vocabulario dela Lengua Pampango en Romance, notes that the towns situated at the Candaba Swamp are known for the weaving of ebus mats, as dase. Recent ethnographic survey shows that there are a few families from San Luis and San Simon who are still engaged in the dying industry of dase-making. The old magdadase (dase weavers) of San Luis still recall the old days of this industry and with teary eyes narrate the tiring but colorful days when almost all town folks of all ages knew this art of weaving. This fine craftsmanship of the Kapampangans has always been associated with the panaun ning kasakitan, days of hard times (like during the time of war). As they say, this period was then the time when most of the ordinary folks living around the area of the Candaba Swamp burn their midnight oils. Since after the day’s toil they still need to find time to weave a piece of dase. It is in fact that t
he culture of “maglame” did bear a deeper meaning to their lives as magdadase. Pressing need to bring in extra earnings for their insufficient income and the high demand of the local and neighboring market, they tend to find effective ways to work fast and creative. Thus the gathering of several magdadase to one’s sulip (house ground floor) aiming to finish their individual weaving assignments. During this time, the burden of working overnight is replenished with the active moment of accompaniment of singing and guitar playing, bugtung-bugtungan and other forms of dalitan of volunteers. And this affair does not only end to this oral amusement but it plays hot with kapangan and gigutan to keep up till the pamanulauk ning manuk. As they say “mipapaglame bang dakal alalang dase, atin kanta-kanta, pamangan at dungut-dungut king pamaglutu bang dakal agauang dase”. In fact there is an old bugtung about the once common use of this article which relates the importance of this ebus-made article. It runs as follows: “Mig quera cu babo ebus, lalam sasa cu me tudtud.” Literally, “The sleeping mat is laid down upon the floor (of buri); the roof is of nipa”. In the old days, ordinary pinaud (native house with nipa thatching) usually have simple articles inside it, and dase is surely one of them which is just as important as the kalang (clay oven) in the kitchen. While another popular joke rendered as a song was recalled among the old magdadase complements the matter as “Lame-lame alang magkera king dase”. In fact, according to them, lame-lame actually refers to “dakal a gagauang dase kambe ning metung a paritan at dula king radiu”. The art and science of dase weaving starts from the fine selection of ebus leaves. This comes from the specie of Corypha utan (syn. C. elata Roxb, C. gebang), which is widely known in Southeast Asia. This palm tree known as ibus in Bikol, buri and buli among various Tagalog speakers was once a useful tree not only for its leaves, but also for the cluster of small fruits of about an inch in diameter which were once commonly sold as street food offered to school children. Its flower sap was also made into tuba, and in Mindanao, they boiled the sap of ebus just to make sugar called bagkat in Kapampangan and Tagalog. Until the 1970s, ebus palms were still abundant in Central Luzon especially in and around the Candaba Swamp up to the northwest portion of Mt. Arayat. Indeed, the people from Ilug Maisac (in Tarlac) and Mago (spelled as Magao, a village located between Concepcion and Nueva Ecija) supplied the magdadase of San Luis and magkukupia of Apalit until the early 80s and these were delivered by bancas via the Pampanga River. As it was recounted by the magdadase, every delivery of tulud ebus (young ebus leaves, tiluran refers to every single leaf) usually comes sagia (fresh green). From this, they have to be sundried or mebilad at melanat, before the process of individual tistisan and lapakan which is the removing of tingting (midrib). After which, the rolling of the fibers comes next by making loops/circles termed as eikid (or aikid), and eikiran (or aikiran) for the process, while the processed loops is then called balangkat. Every balangkat will be stripped (locally called as gisian) using a batakan, the process is then called bulayan, and binule for every ebus strip. The process involves the pulling of meikid The batakan (in some places it is called panabas) is made from an ordinary wooden bench (similar to the pangudkud ngungut), except that it has specially made pataram (small metalblades usually in a set of 6 pieces). This special bench is so small, that it is bangkung kikilikan for it is very light and transportable that whenever there is work to be done they easily carry it to the place of the maglame. Weaving is commonly called lalala, while the binule that is already part of the weaving process is called as sundu, and so pamisundu-sundu refers to the intricacy of the process being done. The biggest dase which is the usual size available then is the so-called ualuan or ualuan talampakan (around 8-9 ft by 12 ft), and smallest is apat-a-karangan (about 2-3 ft long), while other standard sizes include the didosi (12 talampakan) and didies (10 talampakan). Every size of dase is determined by the available length of mebule which also indicates the age, growth and seasonal characteristics of the ebus palm supplied. Thus, relative to the kauran (rainy season), dase making is better during the kaleldo or summer time. Among the favorite designs except for the plain non-dyed pieces which are in demand are the teladama design and the siper (zipper) type. The teladama design has a checkered board design while the siper has minimal dotted lines with special double-weave finish on all margins which projects durability. Among the colors most requested by dase buyers is malutu (red dyed), dilo and berdi (dyed yellow and green respectively). The violet or red-violet and blue are rarely requested. The dyeing materials include the commercial food coloring mixtures which they call alelina or alelinang butil-butil. The process of coloring takes place immediately among selected ebus but strips after mebule before weaving. Kapampangans have developed this certain cottage industry, in which Apalit for instance, has this mat industry . Mat industry is said to be a home industry among the Apalit mothers and women and in general, the girls learn the job at a very early age . It is a customespecially among the poor and the middle classes, and with the exception of a very few rich families, that a woman who does not know how to make dase is very lazy and is not one whom the Apalit young men regard with much respect.
he culture of “maglame” did bear a deeper meaning to their lives as magdadase. Pressing need to bring in extra earnings for their insufficient income and the high demand of the local and neighboring market, they tend to find effective ways to work fast and creative. Thus the gathering of several magdadase to one’s sulip (house ground floor) aiming to finish their individual weaving assignments. During this time, the burden of working overnight is replenished with the active moment of accompaniment of singing and guitar playing, bugtung-bugtungan and other forms of dalitan of volunteers. And this affair does not only end to this oral amusement but it plays hot with kapangan and gigutan to keep up till the pamanulauk ning manuk. As they say “mipapaglame bang dakal alalang dase, atin kanta-kanta, pamangan at dungut-dungut king pamaglutu bang dakal agauang dase”. In fact there is an old bugtung about the once common use of this article which relates the importance of this ebus-made article. It runs as follows: “Mig quera cu babo ebus, lalam sasa cu me tudtud.” Literally, “The sleeping mat is laid down upon the floor (of buri); the roof is of nipa”. In the old days, ordinary pinaud (native house with nipa thatching) usually have simple articles inside it, and dase is surely one of them which is just as important as the kalang (clay oven) in the kitchen. While another popular joke rendered as a song was recalled among the old magdadase complements the matter as “Lame-lame alang magkera king dase”. In fact, according to them, lame-lame actually refers to “dakal a gagauang dase kambe ning metung a paritan at dula king radiu”. The art and science of dase weaving starts from the fine selection of ebus leaves. This comes from the specie of Corypha utan (syn. C. elata Roxb, C. gebang), which is widely known in Southeast Asia. This palm tree known as ibus in Bikol, buri and buli among various Tagalog speakers was once a useful tree not only for its leaves, but also for the cluster of small fruits of about an inch in diameter which were once commonly sold as street food offered to school children. Its flower sap was also made into tuba, and in Mindanao, they boiled the sap of ebus just to make sugar called bagkat in Kapampangan and Tagalog. Until the 1970s, ebus palms were still abundant in Central Luzon especially in and around the Candaba Swamp up to the northwest portion of Mt. Arayat. Indeed, the people from Ilug Maisac (in Tarlac) and Mago (spelled as Magao, a village located between Concepcion and Nueva Ecija) supplied the magdadase of San Luis and magkukupia of Apalit until the early 80s and these were delivered by bancas via the Pampanga River. As it was recounted by the magdadase, every delivery of tulud ebus (young ebus leaves, tiluran refers to every single leaf) usually comes sagia (fresh green). From this, they have to be sundried or mebilad at melanat, before the process of individual tistisan and lapakan which is the removing of tingting (midrib). After which, the rolling of the fibers comes next by making loops/circles termed as eikid (or aikid), and eikiran (or aikiran) for the process, while the processed loops is then called balangkat. Every balangkat will be stripped (locally called as gisian) using a batakan, the process is then called bulayan, and binule for every ebus strip. The process involves the pulling of meikid The batakan (in some places it is called panabas) is made from an ordinary wooden bench (similar to the pangudkud ngungut), except that it has specially made pataram (small metalblades usually in a set of 6 pieces). This special bench is so small, that it is bangkung kikilikan for it is very light and transportable that whenever there is work to be done they easily carry it to the place of the maglame. Weaving is commonly called lalala, while the binule that is already part of the weaving process is called as sundu, and so pamisundu-sundu refers to the intricacy of the process being done. The biggest dase which is the usual size available then is the so-called ualuan or ualuan talampakan (around 8-9 ft by 12 ft), and smallest is apat-a-karangan (about 2-3 ft long), while other standard sizes include the didosi (12 talampakan) and didies (10 talampakan). Every size of dase is determined by the available length of mebule which also indicates the age, growth and seasonal characteristics of the ebus palm supplied. Thus, relative to the kauran (rainy season), dase making is better during the kaleldo or summer time. Among the favorite designs except for the plain non-dyed pieces which are in demand are the teladama design and the siper (zipper) type. The teladama design has a checkered board design while the siper has minimal dotted lines with special double-weave finish on all margins which projects durability. Among the colors most requested by dase buyers is malutu (red dyed), dilo and berdi (dyed yellow and green respectively). The violet or red-violet and blue are rarely requested. The dyeing materials include the commercial food coloring mixtures which they call alelina or alelinang butil-butil. The process of coloring takes place immediately among selected ebus but strips after mebule before weaving. Kapampangans have developed this certain cottage industry, in which Apalit for instance, has this mat industry . Mat industry is said to be a home industry among the Apalit mothers and women and in general, the girls learn the job at a very early age . It is a customespecially among the poor and the middle classes, and with the exception of a very few rich families, that a woman who does not know how to make dase is very lazy and is not one whom the Apalit young men regard with much respect.
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