MANGYAN

GET TO KNOW THE MANGYANS AND DISCOVER THE

BEAUTY AND RICHNESS OF THEIR CULTURE
MANGYAN
QUESTIONS

• Explain their culture, arts, and form of clothing.

• Explain their form of communication and what
language the are using. Give 3 examples of words.
• What is their form of living?
• What part of the Philippines they are from?
• Etymology
CULTURE

• Mangyan are mainly subsistence agriculturalists,

planting a variety of sweet potato, upland (dry
cultivation) rice, and taro. They also trap small
animals and wild pig. Many who live in close
contact with lowland Filipinos sell cash crops such
as bananas and ginger.
• Their traditional religious world view is primarily
animistic; around 10% have embraced Christianity,
both Roman Catholicism and Evangelical
Protestantism (The New Testaments have been
published in six of the Mangyan languages).
ART

• Mangyans offers a rich artistic heritage to the history

of pre-colonial Philippines. Like any other indigenous
tribes in the country their art is an expression of social
relations in their community hence the adage, “Art
for art’s sake” does not apply to them. One of their
arts is the Ambahan, a rhythmic poetic expression
with a meter of seven syllables presented through
recitation and chanting.
ART

• A variation of this is the Urukay, wherein it uses eight

syllables instead.
• The indigenous Mangyans also offer a myriad of
culturally rich artifacts that give insight into their
culture and trade. The people living in Southern
Mindoro during the pre-Hispanic era are
exceptional in their weaving, pottery, and system of
writing.
CLOTHING

• In the olden times the Iraya traditional attire was

made of dry tree bark pounded flat and soft.
Women usually wore blouse and men in g-strings
made of cloth. Today, however the Irayas chose to
dress in lowland clothes.
• Their clothing differs between genders. The male
generally wears loincloths as covering for the lower
body whereas the female would wear a skirt and a
shirt for the top. The terms and materials would differ
from tribe to tribe, but the exceptional would come
from the Hanunó'os. Their textiles are dyed in indigo
blue and has an embroidery design called pakudos
at the back and can also be found on their woven
bags.
CLOTHING
FORM OF COMMUNICATION

• The mangyans have their own syllabic alphabet.

• In Southern Mindoro,different tribes of mangyan use
3 languages to communicate: Hanunoo,buhid,
tawbuid.
• The Tawbuid language is a language spoken by
Tawbuid Mangyans in the province of Mindoro in
the Philippines. It is divided into eastern and western
dialects. The Bangon Mangyans also speak the
western dialect of Tawbuid.
• The Mangyan script is also primarily used for
recreation and personal correspondences,
especially in the form of poetry and love songs.
LANGUAGE

• Their languages are mutually unintelligible, though they

share some vocabulary and use Hanunó'o script to write:
Tawbuid and Buhid are closely related, and are unusual
among Philippine languages in having an /f/ phoneme;
Tawbuid is divided into eastern and western dialects;
Western Tawbuid may be the only Philippine language
to have no glottal phonemes, having neither /h/ or /ʔ/.
• The term iraya means man or adult in the Iraya
language, and is used by the Irayas as the common
autonym. Genetically, it is a Western Austronesian
language of the Northern-Mindoro group of languages,
a small group consisting of Iraya, Tadyawan and
Alangan.
EXAMPLES

• bidu’ -how much; much

• umaning -how much, e.g. how big
• kayu, pakayu -what
• Nakay -why, what
• Saru -where
FORM OF LIVING

• Mangyans lived in peaceful societies as compared

to the head hunting tribes of North Luzon and the
brave defiant warrior tribes of the South.
• Despite being grouped as one tribe, Mangyans
differ in many ways. In comparison to the
technological advance between the two
geographical divisions, the Southern tribes are more
advanced as seen in their use of weaving, pottery
and system of writing. The Northern tribes, on the
other hand, are simpler in their way of living. Their
language just like the whole Philippines came from
the Austronesian language family. However, even if
they are defined as one ethnic group the tribes
used different languages.
LOCATION

• Mangyan is the generic name for the eight indigenous

groups found on the island of Mindoro, southwest of the
island of Luzon, the Philippines, each with its own tribal
name, language, and customs. The total population
may be around 280,000, but official statistics are difficult
to determine under the conditions of remote areas,
reclusive tribal groups and some having little if any
outside world contact.
• There are around 300 million indigenous peoples in the
world. In the Philippines, of the projected population of
94 million in 2010, about 15% belong to indigenous
groups. [AusAID]
• Mindoro is the seventh largest island in the Philippines,
with an area of 10,224 square kilometers and two
provinces – Oriental and Occidental. Of the total
population of one million, the indigenous population is
estimated at 100,000.
LOCATION
Iraya Bangon
Alangan Buhid
Tadyawan Hanunoo
Tau-Buid Batagnon
ETYMOLOGY

• The Mangyans were once the only inhabitants of

Mindoro. Being coastal dwellers at first, they have
moved inland and into the mountains to avoid the influx
and influence of foreign settlers such as the Tagalogs,
the Spanish and their conquests and religious
conversion, and raids by the Moro (they raided Spanish
settlements for religious purposes, and to satisfy the
demand for slave labor). Today, the Mangyans live
secludedly in remote parts of Mindoro but eventually
comes down to the lowlands in order to make usual
trades. Their sustenance are farming for their own crops,
fruits, and hunting. A certain group of Mangyans living in
Southern Mindoro call themselves Hanunuo Mangyans,
meaning “true”, “pure” or “genuine,” a term that they
use to stress the fact that they are strict in the sense of
ancestral preservation of tradition and practices.
SOURCES

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangyan
• http://iloko.tripod.com/Iraya.htm
• http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/139/th
e-culture-and-art-of-the-mangyan
• https://insidemanila.ph/article/3496/look-the-
traditional-attire-of-indigenous-people-in-the-
philippines
END – GROUP 4