Who Am I: A Tausug (Part 2)

From the Sulu and Tawi-Tawi history and geography, let's now go to the way of life. The culture of Tausugs, Sama and Badjaos are somewhat alike. What one eats, the other will also eat. When I went away from home to pursue a degree, the way of life is what I am missing so much especially foods.

 Those foods above? They are heaven especially the second to the last one. It is called Ukuh Ukuh. It is made from a sea urchin wherein rice is cooked together with the sea urchin meat in its shell. Delicioso indeed! There is nothing like

 This baby here (photo in the left) is a personal favourite. It is called Satti. It is one of those food that I keep on looking for when I came to Iligan. I mean, you cannot eat something like that here because you see only fastfood chains which I almost gross out in my daily life.

I have always been a fan of my tribe's cuisine. I mean, they are so palatable. Plus, whatever food you find in other places, we have it in our cuisine. It's just so amazing. (Ethnocentric much? haha)


Talking about food makes my tummy growl at the moment. Perhaps, I should probably stop talking about it. :D

Moving on, let us not forget the Tausug/Sama attire. I adore dressing up so much. So, for this part, I made it a point that I'd wear two of the Tausug/Sama attire for you guys. Haha. Okay. Here ya go:

(Click to view larger image) For more of these photos, visit http://heymiss.info.

 See? I really modeled for today's post. :) Anyway, the first one is known as Batawi. I kinda researched on it and found some similarities in Indonesia with their Betawi. BUT! As you can see, there are huge differences. Number one is that the gold pieces (Yes, those are actually gold. It is a hand-me-down from my grandma), are sewn down in the Tausug Batawi while the gold ones in the Indonesian Betawi is like a gigantic necklace. Correct me if I am wrong. :) The second one is the Sablay. The Sablay is more loose than the Batawi. Those with bad figures cannot really bring the Batawi look. However, the Sablay is more of convenient and comfortable for anyone to wear.

To take a look at the boys' attire you may watch the video below. What they are dancing is the infamous Pangalay. It is a dance that needs flexibility and patience of the dancer. However, I was not gifted to be able to dance such, or else, I would have shown to you. hahah.

In the part 1 of this post, I have written down how Tausugs are brave right? Well now, let us take a look at what they use for battle (well, now they used mostly guns but hey history is great to tell.)

What you are seeing above are two of the Tausug weapons. The first one is everyone's favourite, the Barong. The next one is the Kalis or more known as the Kris. :) I am not going to expand more since I know nothing about weapons. hahah.



The above video shows the favourite instruments of Tausugs - the Gabbang (bamboo xylophone) and the violin. I really do not know the story behind these but in every occasion, the two instruments together with a singer is always present. Anyway, the song they are singing are: Linggisan, Dalling-dalling, and Lolay-lolay. 


Btw, the ladies in the background are wearing the daily Tausug woman attire - the Sambra. 


I guess, I'd stop here this time. There will still be more of these. :) More stories I have to tell about my colourful heritage. I hope you guys would be reading still. Thanks.


photos: google.com and yours truly ( if you use my photos, make sure  you credit me.)
videos: youtube.com
story: yours truly


- to be continued.