MARANAO

GEOGRAPHICAL

• Lanao del Sur forms the western portion of Northern Mindanao. It

is bounded on the north by Lanao del Norte on the east by
Bukidnon, on the west by Illana Bay, and on the south by
Maguindanao and Cotabato. The landscape is dominated by
rolling hills and valleys, placid lakes and rivers.
• Found in the interior of Lanao del Sur is Lanao Lake, the largest
lake in Mindanao, where the Maria Cristina Falls, the largest
waterfall in the country is located.
• Lanao del Norte is a province of the Philippines located in the
Northern Mindanao region. Its capital is Tubod. The province
borders Lanao del Sur to the south, Zamboanga del Sur to the
west, Misamis Oriental to the northeast, Bukidnon to the east, and
is separated from Misamis Occidental by Iligan Bay. Lanao del
Norte is a rugged province that ranges from the coastal shorelines
in the north to the high plateaus and mountains in the south. It has
also diverse flora and fauna.
CLIMATE

• The climate in Lanao is characterized by even distribution of

rainfall throughout the year, without a distinct summer season.
The province is located outside the typhoon belt.
HISTORICAL

• The term Lanao is derived from a Maranao word “Ranao” meaning “a

body of water. Maranao means “lake dweller”. They are the natives of
the place occupying the land around Lake Lanao, which is situated at
the central part of Lanao del Sur.
• Lanao applies to the entire area before its division. When it was
divided into two provinces, the southern portion became Lanao del
Sur and the northern part became Lanao del Norte.
• Dansalan, Marawi City’s old name, was explored by the Spaniards as
early as 1639. It is said that at that time, Marawi was already the
citadel of Malayan-Arabic culture in Mindanao. Feeling the pulse of
strong refusal among its inhabitants to adopt Christianity, the
Spaniards abandoned the project of colonizing the area.
• Attempts were made later by foreigners to capture Lanao but fierce
and fanatical resistance of the Maranaos to colonial rule made the
planting of Christianity in Dansalan an unlikely outcome.
SOCIO-CULTURAL

• Kinship System. There are special practices in the address system

when one deals with the royalty and nobility (i.e. the datu and salip).
One never or seldom refers to a datu as "Datu X." The normal practice
is to use teknonymy, i.e. by reference to his first child. Thus, Datu X
should be called Bapaq ni Y. Among the nobility, bapaq is preferred to
the more common ama.

• Before the advent of western and/or modern influences, a Maranao

girl belonging to a noble family was very closely watched by her
parents and other close relatives so as not to expose her to the public.
This practice comes from the traditional high regard for the virtues of
modesty and virginity, and also to preserve the integrity, nobility and
royalty of the family concerned.
• Marriage. Marriage in Maranaw society is a fusion by affinal
ties of two families seeking to establish socioeconomic and
political relations with one another. Traditional marriage has
therefore always been contracted through parents, although the
practice is slowly becoming modified to conform with the times.
• The wedding rite (kakawing) itself is simple. The imam holds his
thumb up with the thumb of the groom and covers them with a
white handkerchief. He recites a prayer from a Holy Qur'an,
gives advise to the groom, and asks the consent of the
woman's parents. This done, the groom searches for the bride
who has been hidden all this time somewhere in the house.
When he finds her, he touches or kisses her forehead, marking
the beginning of the couple's marital life.
• Art. Maranao art is very distinctive. Mats and cloth from Lanao
are decked in flamboyant colors. Intricate traditional designs
grace the people's gleaming brassware and handicraft. The
Maranaws weave not only cloth and mats but also bags,
centerpieces, placemats, and unique neckties.
The Maranaws are, by far, the largest manufacturers of brass-
wares in the Philippines. The art can be traced to pre-Spanish
Chinese contacts. The designs (okir) on the brassware are
basically the same as those on carved wood.
The carving of wood, horn, and ivory, like brass manufacture, is
a man's work. Yet, while almost male in Lanao has some
knowledge of this art, only those who has undergone a certain
ritual eventually engage in it.
POLITICAL

• The sovereignty of the datu over the sultanate includes the

pegawidan (royalty), the pegawid (the governed) and the oripen
bisaya (slaves).
ARCHITECTURAL
CHARACTER
A. LANDSCAPE AND SETTLEMENT S
E
T
• The Maranao live in the Lanao region of Mindanao.
They live in settlements on the shores of Lake Lanao or T
on the hilly “dry-rice-area” near a water source. Their L
homes are lined along rivers, lake shores and roads. E
• The ranggar, a small Islamic prayer house, would be M
located near the community.
E
N
T
 E
B. TYPES OF MARANAO HOUSES X
T
• There are three major typologies of the Maranao house: E
• the lawig (small house), R
• the mala-a-walai (large house) and the torogan. The mala-a- I
walai are large houses, a necessity in the polygamous culture O
of the Maranaos.
R
• The Maranao house is E
raised on pilings from .32 to
2.21 meters above the X
ground. T
• Depending on its size, the
house usually has 9 to 12 E
posts and the main room, R
without partitions,
measures about 7.86 to I
18.9 meters. O
• The roof, walls, flooring, R
doors and windows are
made of bamboo material
lashed together with rattan.
 E
• For the roof, which is steep, the Maranao usually use thick cogon
X
grass and lash this to a split bamboo frame with rattan. T
• Most of the houses have no ceiling. E
• Windows are located at the front – to watch neighbors pass by –
and on the right side – to check on the carabao inside its corral R
below the house, especially at night. To open the windows, one
has to push their covers to the side.
I
• The porch, fenced to prevent children from falling off, is in front of O
the house while the kitchen, built half a meter lower, is at the back.
R
• The porch ladder has bamboo poles with notches for steps.
Another bamboo ladder leads to the kitchen door at the left side.
• The area under the house is walled with split bamboo usually
woven in crisscross patterns. Here the women weave mats during
the daytime when it is hot.
 I
N
T
E
• Like many ordinary houses in the south, the old Maranao house is
simply one big partitionless room and you create bed spaces by R
using several carved chests, the woven split rattan sapiyay or the I
mosquito screen as dividers or headboards.
O
• There are shelves on the wall. The Maranao use small, low round
brass trays as tables. Brass stands and brass tray cuspidors are R
well arranged in the room. S
• In the kitchen are stone stoves, pots and pans, water containers,
the plaited bamboo tapaan on which fish or meat is smoked.
• Under the house are farming and fishing equipment, the plow and
harrow, the mortar and pestle, and a big vessel for storing rice.
TOROGAN

• The torogan is the ancestral home of the upper-class

Maranaos, who in the past kept their young daughters hidden
like jewels in some secret lamin and who had the exclusive right
to the art of the colorful okir.
• The distinct high gable roof of the torogan, thin at the apex and
gracefully flaring out to the eaves, sits on a huge structure
enclosed by slabs of timber and lifted more than two meters above
the ground by huge tree trunks set on rocks.
No structure within the
sultanate should be larger
than the torogan of the
datu, the immensity of
which affirms rank,
prestige, wealth. The
torogan is also used for a
variety of socio-religious
activities such as
weddings, funeral wakes,
conferences and even
court proceedings. It also
serves as a guest house.
 E
EXTERIOR CHARACTER X
T
• The torogan clearly stands out because the floor beam ends in E
front and at the sides of the torogan protrude and flare upward R
into sculptured wings of wood with elaborate designs on them.
These beam ends are called panolong or boat-prows and the
I
wings carry floral and snake motifs ornately incised into the O
wood. The Maranaos believe that the naga or sacred snakes
should greet the rising sun.
R
 E
FLORAL MOTIF X
T
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R
 E
SNAKE MOTIF X
T
E
R
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 E
X
T
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R
I
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PANOLONGS WITH ALTERNATING SNAKE AND FLORAL

MOTIFS
 The Maranao house E
has a high and steep X
roof similar to that of
T
the Malacca house or
the Batak and E
Menangkabau houses R
in Sumatra. There is a I
diongal decoration O
found atop the truss of R
the torogan.
The wooden uprights E
behind each panolong, the X
floor panels and wall
T
sidings of the windows are
also decorated with okir E
carvings painted in different R
colors. I
O
Windows are narrow R
horizontal slits stretching
some two meters long and
15.4 centimeters wide
between the panolong.
Three rounded geometric
designs are painted on the
upper wall panels.
Inside the torogan the center beam I
known as the tinai-a-walai or “intestine N
of the house” holds up the pulaos
T
bungan or king post of the roof and
stretches from one end of the house to E
the rafter. The beam is heavily carved R
and completely polychromated. What I
serves as the ceiling of the torogan is a O
cloth that hangs from the rafters and R
absorbs the heat from the roof.
This residence of the datu or sultan is a partitionless, I
multifamily dwelling where all the wives and children live N
together.
T
The territory of each wife and her children is on a E
designated multipurpose area in the torogan where they R
do their daily routine, play and sleep and sometimes eat. I
Brightly colored weaves or malong are hung on ropes O
around a particular territory for privacy. They sleep on the R
floor on kapok-filled mattresses or on woven mats on top
of rice stalks. Holes are provided on the floor as
spittoons.
 I
N
T
A communal kitchen, E
half a meter lower than R
the main house, is for I
both cooking and O
eating. The slaves R
sleep in the kitchen or
under the main house.
Because of the practice of closely guarding a
Maranao lady belonging to the nobility, the lamin
(lady’s dormitory tower) is constructed atop the
torogan to hide the princess and her ladies. Its
entrance is always located near the sultan’s bed.
The presence of a lamin is one way of
announcing the presence of a royal lady in the
community.

A lamin is not a permanent place for a liyamin

(the lady) and her manga ragas (ladies-in-
waiting). It is a temporary hiding place when the
sultan or datu calls for meetings or other
important gatherings. Within the torogan, a room
called gibon is constructed which is the
permanent room of the liyamin. It is usually built
near the sleeping area of the sultan and his lady.
The difference
between the two
is that a lamin is a
structure built to
stand out from the
torogan while a
gibon is a room
within a torogan.
In most cases a
lamin is decorated
with a sarimanok
on top of the roof.
 S
STRUCTURAL T
R
• Typhoons rarely occur in Mindanao but earthquakes are U
frequent. The huge torogan is thus constructed to sway with C
the convulsions of the earth. As many as twenty-five posts of
huge tree trunks of the torogan are not buried but are
T
freestanding, to slide on rounded stones on the ground. U
• To test the quality of the construction of the torogan, the Maranao R
say that the best ways is to have two carabaos fight under it. If the
torogan survives, it is fit to house the datu. A
L
 S
Mortise, rabbet or tenon
techniques are used to T
assemble the components R
of the structure. If needed, U
only wooden pegs are used C
to secure the wood T
members. All these
U
prevent the gigantic
torogan from shattering and R
collapsing. A
L
S
T
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ARCHITECTURAL
EXAMPLES
• DULOG– Maranao floor joist
• GIBON – room constructed within the torogan for a Maranao
noble lady.
• KALASAGAN- purlins
• LAMIN – a Maranao lady’s dormitory tower
• LANTAY- flooring
• OKIR - the term for geometric and flowing designs (often based
on an elaborate leaf and vine pattern) and folk motifs that can
be usually found in Maranao artwork
• PANOLONG- decorative Maranao beam end
• PULAOS BUNGAN - Maranao kingpost
• RANGGAR – small Islamic prayer house
ARCHITECTURAL TERMS

• LAWIG –
• MALA-A-WALAI
• SARIMANOK - the legendary bird that has become a ubiquitous
symbol of Maranao art. It is depicted as a fowl with colorful
wings and feathered tail, holding a fish on its beak or talons. It
is said to be a symbol of good fortune.
• SUMANG- rafter
• TINAI –A- WALAI – central beam of the torogan on which the
kingpost rests
• TOROGAN - ancestral house of the upper class Maranao.
• TUKOD- Maranao post