ABEL WEAVING AND PAGBURNAYAN
Traditional crafts and folk
arts in the form of fabrics and jars is a testament of the rich cultural
heritage preserved in the City of Vigan.
A pagburnayan (pottery barn)
has produced a national artist in the city of Vigan and export quality fabrics
were produced by the loom weavers. We were fortunate to have personally witnessed
how these traditional crafts came into existence.
BURNAYAN
Alongside a fenced corner
lot, our horse-drawn carriage (kalesa)
was parked. Souvenir items ranging from
shirts, ref magnets, key chains and all sorts peddled greeted us as we walk
through the compound. We passed by a
small alley and jars were distributed all over.
Entering another compound after the alley, in the corner was an old man
sitting beside a molder with hands drenched in clay. He is Fidel Antiporda Go – a national folk
artist.
Mr. Go was recognized by the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts in the year 1990 for his
exceptional skill and ingenuity in the traditional craft of jar making thereby
significantly contributing to the conservation of the precious cultural heritage
of Vigan, the marker says so.
The pagburnayan visit was an opportunity for us to witness how the
national artist works. The heavy
downpour of rain was the backdrop of this event. Most of those from my generation would
imagine pottery in a scene from the movie of Demi Moore, Ghost, and the music comes into play. But quit the imagination as
the burnayan is an open space and sans
the music, this involves muscle power.
Clay is placed on the turntable; another worker kicks the bottom of the
circular stone making the molder spin and the artist shapes the clay to its
desired configuration.
The hand-molded clay are
dried and transferred to the adjacent brick-and-clay furnace, where the pieces
are cooked for some time.
The Burnay industry preceded the arrival of the Spanish colonizers in
the Philippines. Introduced by early Chinese
settlers, the Burnay served as an
all-weather container of local products for shipment to China and other Asian
kingdoms in pre-colonial times. Burnay is also used in fermentation of
fish sauce, vinegar, and Basi, the Ilocano wine from sugarcane juice.
It is said that the method
utilized for jar-making is traditional, making this tour to the burnayan, a part of the “glimpse of the
past” heritage tour in Vigan City.
ABEL WEAVING
“Our next stop is Abel
Weaving.” Unfamiliar and ignorant, I
concluded that the weaving center is owned by a certain person named Abel. We get off the coaster, passed by some
residential houses and arrived at the weaving center.
The first weaving center I
have visited was in Abra Province. Women
empowerment in the rural areas is what this industry promotes and I truly
support that. Sharing the same cause,
Abel Weaving in Ilocos particularly in Vigan is worth the admiration as well.
Wooden handlooms manned by a
keen weaver were a sight to behold.
Synchronizing the movements of their hands and feet is no easy
feat. It takes mastery indeed.
The process was explained to
us by the owner of the center and afterwards, we bought samples for souvenirs,
as we’ve been told this is the cheapest place to purchase abel products.
I left the weaving center
without knowing what Abel weaving is.
In one random conversation
with a friend, she declares with conviction that abel is the generic term for the cloth. It is a traditional woven
product of the province of Ilocos and is made of yarns of cotton or sagut, sourced from many lands in
northern Luzon allocated to growing this plant.
Another learning it was.
Burnayan and Abel Weaving
are two of the industries in the province of Vigan that exemplifies the power
of the hands.
x----------------------x
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2 comments
Hindi ko ito napuntahan .. nice sobra .. pede bang itry din cya i mean magpaturo or gagawa k ng sarili mo din prang souveneir
ReplyDeletepwede kang gumawa at magpaturo sa kanila kac pagkatapos binabasag dn naman nila. Hehe
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