GA'DANG
Ga'dang is one of the various indigenous communities of Paracelis Mountain Province in the Cordillera region. Ga’dang is their identity, settlement, and language. The extent of their geographic settlement is now referred to as ga'dang ancestral domain.
​
Ga'dang means high ground as from seashore or riverbank. Long before the colonization of the philippines by the spaniards, a group probably from the malayan invasion came up from the lowlands of the cagayan valley to the higher grounds of eastern cordillera
GA’DANG ATTIRE
Margareth Balansi Domawa & Amparo Mabanag
Ga'dang Culture Bearers
Ga’dang Dance & Music Terms
Dance
Bumbuwak: Couple/courtship dance
Tontak: Ensemble dance with musicians traveling along dancers
Dance Terms
-
Dumappa - arms raised, head level
-
Mangulafat - arms flapping
-
Malamano - hand shake
-
Misassad - traveling foot work
Music
Instruments: Gansa
Tontak: Wood beaten and faster in rhythm
Bumbuwak: Hand tapped and slower in rhythm
Mayag si Kararwa
(Calling of the soul)
-
balay - house
-
addan - stairs
-
makammang - babaylan or shaman
-
bikol - heirloom bead
-
sinamat - long cloth as pathway
-
karasiya - porcelain bowl
-
baggat - rice grains
Illustration by Don Aguillo
Photo by: This Is It Photography
​
Culture Bearers:
Amparo Mabanag & Margareth Balansi Domawa
​
Parangal’s Ga’dang attires funded in part by Alliance for California Traditional Arts Living Cultures Grants Program 2015