1st Death Anniversary of Manlilikha ng Bayan Yabing Masalon Dulo

Posted on: January 26, 2022 | National Museum of the Philippines

The #NationalMuseumPH pays tribute to Manlilikha ng Bayan Yabing Masalon Dulo.

MB Yabing Masalon Dulo, also known as Fu Yabing in the community, has left us a great legacy upon her passing. She was a master weaver known for being excellent in making the Blaan tabih (woven abaca cloth), a craft she has learned from a very young age before her death on 26 January 2021. Her exemplary skills paved the way in her receipt of the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA) in 2016, together with two other awardees from Mindanao.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) granted Fu Yabing a GAMABA Cultural Center that enabled her to teach the next generation of weavers of the Blaan community in Polomolok, South Cotabato. The transmission of such intangible knowledge through mentorship is important as it ensures the existence of a tradition. With her passing at the age of 106, Fu Yabing’s teachings continue to be carried on by her family, students, and the Blaan community in Barangay Landan in Polomolok.

Selected works of Fu Yabing are exhibited and housed at the #NationalMuseumPH. One of which is a tabih that she made when she was twelve years old and donated by Ms. Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz in February 2009 to the Filipino people. The rest of the collections under Fu Yabing’s name were gifts to the nation that were turned over to the #NationalMuseumPH through the NCCA, and are currently on display at the Manlilikha ng Bayan Hall and Hibla ng Lahing Filipino galleries at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila.

#YabingMasalonDulo

#GAMABA

#ManlilikhaNgBayan

#MuseumFromHome

Text and poster by the NMP Ethnology Division and NCCA GAMABA Executive Council.

Photograph of Manlilikha ng Bayan Yabing Masalon Dulo courtesy of the NCCA GAMABA Executive Council