Tawi-Tawi’s most outstanding artist gets Ramon Magsaysay Award

Going against her mother's wishes paved the way for Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa to earn a Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is often dubbed as Asia's version of Nobel Peace Prize, for "her single-minded crusade in preserving the endangered artistic heritage of southern Philippines, and in creatively propagating a dance form that celebrates and deepens the sense of shared cultural identity among Asians." 

 

Amilbangsa was born to a prominent Catholic family from Marikina. But she fell in love with a schoolmate who was related to the Sultanate of Sulu. She did not allow religion and her family's opposition to stop her love. She married Datu Punjungan Amilbangsa, the younger brother of the last reigning sultan of Sulu Sultan Mohammad Amirul Ombra Amilbangsa, in 1964. She then moved to his hometown, where she spent the next three decades of her life immersed in the rich arts and culture of the Sulu Archipelago. 

 

In a time when the region's insurgent conflicts were simmering, Amilbangsa turned her love for the arts into a vocation as cultural researcher, educator, artist and advocate of the indigenous arts of the southern Philippines.

 

Pangalay

 

Her signature involvement has been the study, conservation, practice, and promotion of the dance style called pangalay, which means "gift offering" or "temple of dance" in Sanskrit. 

 

It is a pre-Islamic dance tradition among the Samal, Badjao, Jama Mapun, and Tausug peoples of the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. A highly intricate and expressive dance of many variations, traditionally performed in weddings and other festive events, pangalay has the richest movement vocabulary of all ethnic dances in the Philippines and is the country’s living link to the ancient, classical dance traditions elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

 

In the 2014 documentary "Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi," Amilbangsa shared how she learned the pangalay.

 

"I became passionate in recording and learning it from innumerable dancers in the Sulu Archipelago. To preserve the dance, I devised a way of remembering postures and gestures, aided by my own silhouette reflected on the wall by a lighted candle," she said. 

 

There was no electricity all over Tawi-Tawi when she arrived there. Electricity was only introduced in the region in the 1980s. 

 

"The habit irritated my husband because even way past bedtime, I would still dance and analyze my silhouettes on the wall and figure out if my shadow matched what was recorded in my mind. This became my routine every time I would see new postures and gestures from new dancers whom I chance upon in serendipitous situations," she added. 

 

Spreading pangalay 

 

Enamored by the importance of pangalay in the cultural heritage of the Sulu archipelago and the entire Filipino nation, Amilbangsa formed a number of dance companies specializing on the pre-Islamic dance tradition. 

 

She organized the Tambuli Cultural Troupe in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi in 1974. Four years later, she started going beyond the region and helped put up the Integrated Performing Arts Guild in Iligan City in Lanao del Norte. When she moved back to Marikina in 1999, she also formed the Alun-alun Dance Circle, where she is active until today. 

 

Through these companies and other venues, Amilbangsa taught and promoted the dance. She also organized lectures and performances and wrote about pangalay and the arts and culture of the Sulu Archipelago, mainly using her own personal resources. 

 

She stressed that pangalay should not be viewed as museum pieces but something to be nurtured as a living tradition that grows as societies change. 

 

With this, she has innovated pangalay performances done to modern music, conveying contemporary themes like women’s rights and environmental conservation. 

 

Yet, Amilbangsa has always reminded that art must stay rooted in the basic values that humanize: beauty, grace, a disciplined spirituality, and harmony with nature and fellow humans. 

 

"Without looking to the past, something really new cannot be created," she said. 

 

Honors

 

Before bagging a Magsaysay Award, Amilbangsa has also received a number of honors. 

 

Far Eastern University, her alma mater, presented her with the Green and Gold Artist Award for dance in 1994. In the same year, she was named Special Awardee for Dance Research during the 423rd anniversary of the City of Manila. 

 

The Francisca Reyes Aquino Memorial Foundation Award also gave her the Recognition for Dance Research on the 100th birth anniversary of the National Artist in 1999. The Philippine Folk Dance Society awarded her the Parangal Sayaw Bulawan during its Golden Jubilee in the same year. 

 

The Ateneo de Manila University also gave her its most important award for cultural preservation, the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award, in July 2005.  

 

But most importantly, Amilbangsa was finally recognized as the Most Outstanding Artist of Tawi-Tawi in 2011. 

 

Other awardees 

 

Aside from Amilbangsa, other awardees are Kommaly Chanthavong from Laos, Kyaw Thu from Myanmar, and Anshu Gupta from India. Meanwhile, Sanjiv Chaturvedi from India will get the Foundation's award for Emergent Leadership. 

 

Chanthavong (Laos) is recognized for "her fearless, indomitable spirit to revive and develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, creating livelihoods for thousands of poor, wardisplaced Laotians, and thus preserving the dignity of women and her nation’s priceless silken cultural treasure." 

 

Thu (Myanmar) got nods for "his generous compassion in addressing the fundamental needs of both the living and the dead in Myanmar—regardless of their class or religion—and his channeling personal fame and privilege to mobilize many others toward serving the greater social good." 

 

Gupta (India) received the award for "his creative vision in transforming the culture of giving in India, his enterprising leadership in treating cloth as a sustainable development resource for the poor, and in reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity." 

 

Chaturvedi for Emergent Leadership (India) is recognized for "his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly investigating corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting of program and system improvements to ensure that government honorably serves the people of India." 

 

This year's Magsaysay Award winners will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late President, and a cash prize.

They will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award during formal Presentation Ceremonies to be held on August 31 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. —Trisha Macas/KG, GMA News

Photos from Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation