Last of two parts
JOLO, Sulu (MindaNews/12 August) — Endemic is the art of movement in Sulu archipelago that the various ethnicities in the region, having each their own localized rendition of the dance, laid claim respectively, naming it according to their unique interpretations. What the dominant Tausug famously claim as Pangalay, the majority Filipino scholars – after having debated hard and long in the academic and theatric platforms and papers – nicknamed this the “finger dance” or “muslim dance.” Among seabound Badjaus and southern Sama of Tawi-Tawi, a suit is called Igal, what to the central Sama ethnics – of Laminusa, Bangingi, Kalibugan, Yakan – ultimately considered for its status-affirming and class-dignifying role of the tanjak bangsa, is Pamansak.
To admire the igal or pansak without seeing the badju’ or pakayan (dress) of the a’mamansak or a’ngingigal is to miss half of the Sama dance repertoire.
Among the a’a Laminusa (Siasi Sulu), the use of Sama traditional blouse-and-trouser ensemble or badjuh bangsa is a must in dancing Pamansak. Two kinds are most common, the bangsawan and mundu-mundu. These dance costumes reiterate the tanjak function of Pamansak (the dance). Tanjak is the symbolic use of objects or acts (i.e. movements such as dance) to convey a dignified status of to confer honor by venerating a dignitary.
Bangsawan, literally by tradition refers to anyone descended of legitimate ancestry and famous bloodline, usually of nobles and traditional leaders known for their integrity and good standing in the community. The conferment of the name ‘bangsawan’ used to be held and measured by the virtues of respectability and nobility of the lineage or bangsa. In the age of royal empires and the rise of elitism, to be bangsawan has come to be arbitrarily equated now as correspondent to materialistic status of altawan (wealth) and position of power, summarily taken as of a race or of link to the lineage of royalty (i.e. karatu’an and kasultanan).
To be dressing in bangsawan used to mean the ancient epitome of respectability in appearance, modelling the decency and integrity of a virtuous noble. In present times, the social corruptions of power have drastically changed the meaning of bangsawan into cheap mimicry of the ostentatious display of wealth in the images of excesses of royal extravagance and the pretentiousness characteristic of highbrowed elite. Badjuh bangsawan has then become equated with royal costumes.
The mundu-mundu, in elegance and style, is of the same esteem as the bangsawan. Equal in dignity and ostentation, except that its provenance recalls the rich and exotic goods exchanged in the maritime trading economy of the Nusantara. Often featuring the tangible cultures of the Mughal empires, of exoticism of Arabia and India, and of the other-worldly celestial appeal of China, these dresses got its name associated with ‘mundu’ or piracy in being presumed part of goods procured illegally through illicit channels (i.e. as contraband, as its acquisition is not approved by government or by the royal empiric rulers). The mundu-mundu appears from where we now term as “black market” economy, whose commerce is driven and circulated through extra-governmental routes under the often shadowed control of enterprising privateers. In the mundu-mundu, the imagery of might, courage, independence, and defiance of an elusive piratical lot that Sulus have been stereotyped especially in the colonial accounts from the West, seems resurrected and proudly symbolized. That the mundu-mundu has to better represent, not only the eclecticism of China and India, but also touches of warrior-like Ottomans or the enigma of harsh desert-warriors of Arabia.
Perhaps already lost in the rest of Sulu, it is now only in Laminusa that I know a pamansak is danced in variant moves called Joget – a traditional dance still alive in most of Borneo island, in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and in Indonesia.
The Sama of Laminusa integrates Joget into serious procedures and protocols of a Sama Muslim marriage rituals. Pansakan joget is danced as a play of wit and humor in a decisive dance contest or show-down during marriage ceremony, particularly shortly prior to pagbatal. The families on either side of bride or groom challenge each other in a jovial duel-in-dance with the two parties alternately throwing in and staking their best dancers. The burden on the bride’s side demands that her team should always win the upper-hand (judged by the audience applause) so that the bridal shroud and chamber would remain closed and inaccessible until the groom’s people have been stripped off of every talent and material possession that may be demanded by the bride’s side on the spot. Until the bride’s family is satisfied with the dance counter-move demanded from the humbuk (partner on groom’s side), only then would the two families dance the Joget together. And the bride’s dancers having bowed out of the Joget, they would then hesitantly allow the groom to access the bridal chamber and do the consummation of marriage vow or pagbatal and claim his rights to the girl.
Read 1st part:
WHERE TWO SEAS MEET: A’mamansak – A’ngingigal : Sama dancers of Sulu Archipelago
https://mindanews.com/mindaviews/2024/08/where-two-seas-meet-amamansak-angingigal-sama-dancers-of-sulu-archipelago/#gsc.tab=0
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mucha-Shim Lahaman Quiling is Chief Executive Officer and Senior Researcher of Sulu Current Research Institute and Sharif Ul hashim Incorporated. She is also the secretary of the Sangguniang Bayan ng Jolo)