Daniel Viray

Filipino Artistic Pieces

Tinkling
      The Tinikling is a traditional Filipino dance which includes three or more dancers. To dance the Tinikling, you need two long bamboo poles, roughly the same size, and two smaller, rectangular pieces of wood. Two dancers, dressed in Filipino traditional costumes, hold the bamboo poles, one in each hand, at the tip of the poles. The dancers hold each pole at opposite ends. They then make the sticks parallel to each other and bang them on the smaller wood, which is placed in front of them, twice then they hit the bamboos together, once. This happens simultaneously at a certain beat. The dancers banging the poles, which kneel down, know the “certain” beat because there is traditional music playing in the background. While those two people are tapping the bamboo, another one or more dancer jumps in between and out of the poles. The bamboos being tapped together sound like drums for the music playing in the background. While watching this, you feel as though you can connect with your cultural background. You feel this because the dance shows you what the Philippines was like long time ago.

      In the Philippines, the Tinikling is a traditional Filipino dance that is preformed on special occasions. It is important to the Philippines because it contains numerous amounts of culture and traditional ways of the older Philippines. It is danced to entertain people and show them some background or culture of the Philippines. Without this dance, a lot of culture would be lost as people would not know how to dance it and pass it on to future generations. Countless parts of the traditions would be lost because there are no modern dances today that are similar to the Tinikling. This dance identifies the Filipino people, environmentally, because it showed that the Filipinos could make an extremely creative dance using their natural recourses; bamboo. This dance is also a great way to be social. It is a great way to meet new friends as you perform this dance to other people. The Tinikling helps the Philippine economy because people buy tickets / pay money to watch these performances. Since people pay their money to see the Tinikling, the businesses that show this dance make money. Hence, it makes the economic levels of the country stronger. Today, the Tinikling is still preformed. Also, various elementary / middle school Physical Education classes, in the United States, study the Tinikling as it exercises endurance and foot eye coordination. This impacts the nations place because the Tinikling is associated with the Philippines. When ever someone says ‘Tinikling’, humans automatically know that the dance is from the Philippines. That is how the Tinikling impacted the Philippine’s place in the world.

Barong Tagalog

      The Barong Tagalog, or Barong, is a formal piece of clothing made out of the finest fabrics. These fabrics consist of Piña fabrics, jusi fabrics, and much more! Piña fabric is made up of pineapple leaf. Jusi fabric is contains banana silk. In the Philippines, traditionally, only boys wear a barong. The citizens of this country will usually only wear this clothing on special occasions such as; weddings or funerals. The formality of a barong in the Philippines would be at par with the formality of a suit or tuxedo in the United States. This fine clothing often has fancy engravings on it which are woven on with thread. People usually wear this over a plain white t-shirt tucked into black pants. They do not tuck the barong in, but they leave it hanging over their pants. The texture of it is very thin as it is woven by affluent fabrics. That is why you can often see through it. When you look at a barong, there are amazing hand woven designs. These designs usually run down perpendicular to your shoulder, across the abdomen part, and then turns at a 90 degree angle to the left so that the design goes back up to the shoulder.
      The Barong Tagalog is worn only on special occasions. Wearing a barong gives special meaning to something. It shows, in the Filipino culture, that you care enough about something that you will wear your finest clothing. Without it, there would not be as many traditional Filipino male clothing to show value of the event that you are attending. Filipinos would not know whether or not there is any value or meaning to an occasion with out different levels of clothing attire. The Filipino community was very creative using their environmental recourses to make this attire. This shows that the people of the Philippines know how to use their natural environment to make something important and high class. This affects the social world because it defines the persons place in the world. If you are going to a formal party, then you will wear a barong because it defines you as wealthy and affluent. The Barong Tagalog helps the Philippine economy because some of these attires are quite expensive. If numerous of people buy these barongs, then the owner of the company who manufacture this clothing will make money. Since the owner is making money, so is the country’s economy (taxes). Thus, it makes the financial system of the Philippines stronger. The barong has changed the Philippine’s place in the world because the Barong Tagalog added affluence to the country. If there was no formal wear, then the Philippines would be perceived as a poor country by other nations. But, since there is formal wear (a Barong Tagalog); it shows that the country can afford formal wear. Thus, making them perceive Philippines as a wealthy country.

Sources:
http://www.philippines.hvu.nl/clothes1.htm
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/tagalog/Cynthia/costumes/barong_tagalog.htm
http://www.gameskidsplay.net/jump_rope_ryhmes/tinikling.htm