AGUILA, PATRICIA

CAMILLE T.
MARANAO
Sarinamok - is a legendary bird of the Maranao
that has become a ubiquitous symbol of their
art.

Maranao also known as “ people of the lake” is

the largest ethnolonguistic group.

Maranao has a 1,142,000 or 1.25% of total

population.

The life of the Maranaos is centered on Lake

Lanao, the largest in Mindanao, and the second
largest and deepest lake in the Philippines.

Maranao are one of three related indigenous

Moro groups native to the island of Mindanao.
In turn, these groups also share
genes, linguistic and cultural ties to non-Muslim
Lumad groups such as the Tiruray or Subanon.
MARANAO:
CULTURE

 Maranao is an Austronesian language spoken by the Maranao people in

the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur in the Philippines.
 The native Maranao have a fascinating culture that revolves
around kulintang music, a specific type of gong music, found among
both Muslim and non-Muslim groups of the Southern Philippines.
 Biyula is another Instrument for the Maranao people to use.
 Exquisite Maranao cuisine and hospitality are palpable. They are known
of having a spicy taste in their foods. A condiment made of
traditionally cultivated spices, locally known as Palapa is one of their
distinguished cuisine symbol. It is made of stewed scallion bulbs or
“sakurab” in Maranao. The thinly sliced scallion bulbs and ginger are
caramelized by slow cooking and mixed with chillies and little coconut
oil.
MARANAO:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

 The four settlement principalities is know as

pangampong, around lake Lanao in the province of
Lanao del Sur are the traditional population center of
the Maranaos.
 These settlements are organized like a
hamlet, consisting of three to thirty multifamily
dwellings.
 In areas where wet – rice agriculture is practiced, the
houses are generally organized in rows following the
length of a river, road or lakeshore while in dry
areas, communities are smaller and the houses may
aggregate irregularly near a water source.
MARANAO:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

o THREE TYPES OF MARANAO HOUSES:

 Lawig or small houses

 Mala – a – walai or large house

 The torogan, the ornately decorated ancestral residence of the datu

and his extended family.
MARANAO:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

 Lawigs vary in size from field huts, which are raised

above ground on stilts with lean-to roofing and an
outdoor cooking area.
 These structures are mainly used for sleeping.
 These are common household structures which have
an interior hearth.
 Usually occupied by a single family unit, the lawig is
not normally adorned, except for an occasional
wooden adornment that may embellish the window sill
or door portal.
LAWIG HOUSE
MARANAO:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

 Mala–a-walai is a single room and partitionless structure, is a house of a

well-to-do family.
 Although architectural ornaments are present in the structure, the house
does not have the panolong – an elaborately carved beam extension
identified with the royal torogan.
 The okir decorations are generally to be found on the
baseboards, windowsills and doorjambs.
 The house stands 0.3-2.2 meters above the ground and rest on 9 to 12
bamboos or wooden poles.
 The kinansad, a bamboo- fenced porch, marks the façade of the house;
the kitchen which is 0.50 meters lower than the structure is located at
the back.
 The main body houses the sleeping area, which doubles as a living and
working area at daytime.
MARANAO:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

 Chests, headboards, mosquito screens or sapiyay

or woven split rattan are used to partition the
interior into sleeping and non- sleeping zones.
 The roof of mala-a-walai is made of thick cogon
thatch secured on bamboo frames by rattan
chords or occasionally, of bamboo spliced into 12
halves or rangeb.
 Notched bamboo poles are placed at the fron
and back of the house to serve as ladders.
MALA - A - WALAI
TOROGAN

 The Torogan is the ancestral house of the

upper-class Maranao in the Lanao Region
of Mindanao. It is the dwelling place of the
datu along with his wives and children. There
could not be any house larger than torogan of
the datu within the sultanate, for this
signifies rank, prestige and wealth.
 The existing torogans were built by the
community and the slaves for the datu in
1800s. This house of the datu has no
TOROGAN:
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS

 The windows of torogan are slits and richly framed in wood panels
with okir designs located in front of the house.
 The communal kitchen is half a meter lower than the main house is both
used for cooking and eating.
 The distinct high gable roof of the torogan, thin at the apex and
gracefully flaring out to the eaves, sits on a huge structures enclosed by
slabs of timber and lifted more than two meters above the ground by a
huge trunk of a tree that was set on a rock.
 The end floor beams lengthen as panolongs the seemed to lift up the
whole house.
 The torogan is suffused with decorations. There were diongal at the
apex of the roof, also an intricately carved tinai a walai, okir designs in
the floor, on windows and on panolongs. There were also brightly colored
weaves or malongs hanging from the rafters, it was hung up using ropes
around a particular territory for privacy. The house was built to sway
TOROGAN:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

o Maranao Torogan house:

 The most noticeable feature of
the torogan is the panolong, a
wing- like house beam with a
pako rabong or fern or naga or
serpent motif.
 These are ends of the floor
beams that project and splay out
like triangular butterfly wings on
the façade and side elevations.
 The motifs are chiseled in high
TOROGAN:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

 The interior of the house is a cavernous

hall with no permanent wall partitions.
 Supporting the kingpost of the high-
ridged roof is the rampatan or tinai a
walai central beams considered as the
intestines of the house.
 What serves as the ceiling is a cloth
suspended from the rafters to absorb
the heat from the roof.
 A carabao horn ornament at the roof
apex of the rumah adat in
Batak, Indonesia is distinguish from the
Maranao dongal.
 To asses the torogan’s strength and
TOROGAN:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

 SECTIO
N
OF
MARANA
O

TOROGA
TOROGAN:
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES