Banig

A baníg is a handwoven mat usually used in East Asia and the Philippines for sleeping and sitting. This type of mat is traditionally made in the Philippines.

Technically, it is not a textile. Depending on the region of the Philippines, the mat is made of buri (palm), pandanus or sea grass leaves. The leaves are dried, usually dyed, then cut into strips and woven into mats, which may be plain or intricate.

The Samal of Sulu usually make their mats out of buri leaves. Mats from Basey, Samar use tikog leaves which are dyed in strong colours to make beautiful, unique designs.

Baníg often refers to the brown, handwoven mat commonly used for sleeping. Baníg weaving has been handed down from one generation to another as it is widely practiced in the country, with designs varying across the regions.

The art and beauty of banig weaving lie in the intricacy of folding over the strips of the material to yield a design of interlaced folds and entails a sequential order of steps to create geometric patterns and rhythm.

An arduous and very tedious process, banig weaving requires hard work, determination and patience from the manugbanig (a person who weaves banig). They cut the bariw leaves using sanggot (an arc-shaped cutting tool) and a long slender bamboo pole to reach the leaves of high-grown bariw plant, the process locally known as the pagsasa.

The paghapnig (bundling) and pagriras (stripping off) are the next steps in the preparation. The manugbanig gathers and bundles the slashed leaves to strip off thorns along the edges and into the middle ridge. In removing the ridge, the leaf is divided into two. Each leaf is piled separately until the bundle is stripped off with thorns. The leaves will be tightly tied up in bundle so that each piece will not curl up as it dries.

The pagbulad or sun- or air-drying follows. Drying of bariw leaves under direct sunlight gives them a shiny brown tone and strengthens the fiber. Air-dried leaves are durable compared to the sun-dried ones. Air-dried leaves create blackish spots or molds that destroy the natural luster of brown mats; however, the molds fall off easily during weaving.

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Wikipedia