THE DREAMWEAVER
LIFE AND HISTORY OF LANG DULAY
THE BEGINNING
On August 3, 1928, Lang Dulay was born. As a T'boli princess, she descended from a notable line of rulers in her tribe. Her roots are at Sitio Tukolefa, Lamdalag, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. T'nalak was considered a significant product at the time because it allowed people to swap it for water buffalos or horses. T'nalak cloth is regarded as an example of dowry that can be utilized to make women's dresses.
According to stories, Lang Dulay's mother, Luan Senig, influenced her to weave when she was 12 years old. She sits in the center of the second story of a typical T'boli home in her modest workspace at the Manlilikha ng Bayan Center in Sitio Tukolefa, Lamdalag, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. She creates her masterpieces with two bamboo contraptions and teaches her granddaughters the skill of T'nalak weaving there.
Surprisingly, her mission to pass along this inheritance to future generations of girls was successful, although she only had two sons. Florencio is one of them, and Minggod, who is already dead, is the other. Lang Dulay was the third of her husband's six wives, as polygamy is common in the T'boli society.
LIFE AS THE DREAMWEAVER
In T’boli culture, it was believed that the goddess of abaca, Fu Dalu, who teaches the art of T’nalak weaving, bestows her gift upon chosen women in the community. According to these women, they often dream about the sacred patterns that they eventually weave into textile. Lang Dulay was one of these chosen women. In an interview, she said that the goddess came to her in a dream, told her to go to the mountains without crossing the river, and there she would find a sacred pattern on a stone. The goddess told her that she would become connected with the spirit of abaca once she used the pattern on her weave design. Since then she has weaved over 100 designs, and has become the most renowned T’boli “dreamweaver”.
A COLORFUL CONCLUSION
Lang Dulay retired in 2011 due to her advanced age. Her accomplishments include over 100 designs that represent the T'boli people's history and customs. Her paintings are marked by the words 'Lang Dulay' at the very end of the T'nalak fabric. Remarkably, the NCCA purchased her most recent design before she died.
Her community remembered and lamented her loss. She had a huge stroke and went into a coma, it was known. The 40-day hospital stay was unsustainable and costly. As a result, her family chose to take her in and care for her. Her grandchildren cared for her for the next two months, until her 91-year-old body succumbed. The T'boli community spent four weeks to grieve her passing, and a state funeral was held. Everyone in the community was in tears as her casket was lowered into a shrine perched on a hill directly above the weaving home, including his then and only living son.
THE DREAMWEAVER LEGACY
Lang Dulay’s works are known to be infused with the history which tells the story of her people where she was conferred the National Living Treasures Award in 1998. That same year, her works were featured in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in the United States as part of the Philippine Independence Centennial celebrations. Also, as part of the celebration of the Philippine Centennial, Lang Dulay was invited to showcase her textiles at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, to great acclaim. While modern designs have emerged, Lang Dulay’s textiles were exceptional because of the “fine,even quality of the yarn, the close interweaving of the warp and weft, the precision in the forms and patterns, the chromatic integrity of the dye and the consistency of the finish.”
Lang Dulay taught her granddaughters and students for them to keep the history of the T’boli people and their traditions. Preserving her T’nalak weaving gained widespread popularity and enabled weavers to earn a steady income from their art. The recognition she received when her works were exhibited and shown at Washington was not only recognized within our borders but also outside the world. Her legacy still remained even today and was then renounced as the “dream weaver” due to the beautiful designs and remains of her crafts.