HANUNUO MANGYAN | Trizha C. Talandron

 

HANUNUO

          The Hanunuo Mangyans live in the municipalities of Mansalay, Bulalacao, and some parts of Bongabong in Oriental Mindoro, and in the municipality of San Jose in Occidental Mindoro. Together with their northern neighbor the Buhids, the Hanunuo possess a pre-Spanish writing system, considered to be of Indic origin, with characters expressing the open syllables of the language [Postma, 1981]. This syllabic writing system, called Surat Mangyan, is being taught in several Mangyan schools in Mansalay and Bulalacao. (Learn more from http://mangyan.org/content/hanunuo).

"Inalimunot" is a traditional Hanunuo Mangyan woven design. This design is as old as the Hanunuo Mangyans of Mindoro, a province south of Manila. The Hanuno Mangyans continue to weave and use this ramit (skirt) to this day. (Learn more https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/533817362071897904/). The color of their clothes is usually blue. The ba-ag is white. To the Hanunuo, clothing (rutay) is one of the most important criteria in distinguishing the Mangyan from the non-Manyan (damuong). A Hanunuo-Mangyan male wears a loin cloth (ba-ag) and a shirt (balukas). A female wears an indigo-dyed short skirt (ramit) and a blouse (lambung). Many of the traditional style shirts and blouses are embroidered on the back with a design called pakudos, based on the cross shape.

This design is also found on their bags made of buri (palm leaf) and nito (black fern), called bay-ong. Both sexes used to wear a twilled rattan belt with pocket (hagkos) at their waist. Long hair is the traditional style for a man. It is tied in one spot at the back of the head with a cloth hair-band called panyo. Women also have long hair often dressed with a headbands of beads. The Hanunuo Mangyans of all ages and both sexes are very fond of wearing necklaces and bracelets of beads [Miyamoto, 1985]. Learn more http://mangyan.org/content/hanunuo.

 

I realized that there are more Mangyans than I expected. I was too admired by the culture of other people in other countries, not knowing the culture of my country. The Mangyan culture and the Mangyans are amazingly beautiful. The Mangyan culture is vanishing because of the modern culture. It's sad knowing that it's vanishing because the Mangyan culture has a huge part in Filipino history.