Uwang Ahadas

Reported by :

• Aljon B. Ocampo
• Jhonvic Calces
Uwang Ahadas
• A Yakan musician from Lamitan,
Basilan.
• His near blindness eyesight made
music his constant companion.
• A people to whom instrumental
music is of much significance,
connected as it is with both the
agricultural cycle and the social
realm.
Uwang Ahadas
• Uwang’s teaching style is
essentially hands-on. He teaches
by showing; his students learn by
doing. His hands constantly keep
a firm hold on those of his
students, the gentle pressure
encouraging them to tap out
music from the silent bamboo
blades and the splendid brass
gongs.
• Yakan tradition sets the
kwintangan as a woman’s
instrument and the agung, a
man’s. His genius and his
resolve, however, broke
through this tradition. By the
age of twenty, he had
mastered the most important
of the Yakan musical
instruments, the kwintangan
among them.
Different Yakan Instrument
that Ahadas played
Kwintangan Kayu
• an instrument consisting of five wooden
logs hung horizontally, from the shortest
to the longest, with the shortest being
nearest the ground.

• the kwintangan kayu is played to

serenade the palay, as a lover woos
his beloved.
Gabbang

• Is an instrument of Mindanao
that also known as bamboo
xylophone and it is made of
Bamboo
Agung
His own family, gifted with a strong tradition in music, complemented the instruction he
received. He and his siblings were all encouraged to learn how to play the different
Yakan instruments, as these were part of the legacy of his ancestors.

Uwang Ahadas is a GAMABA (Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan) 2000 awardee for

his dexterity in playing Yakan Musical Instruments.
Source:

http://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-
arts/culture-profile/gamaba/national-living-
treasures-uwang-ahadas/