Sawabi
Darhata Sawabi
About Darhata Sawabi
Born: 4 March 1943
Death: March 12, 2005
Awards: National Living Treasures Award, 2004
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Darhata Sawabi is a textile weaver from Barangay Parang in the island of Jolo, Sulu. She specializes in the creation of Pis Syabit — a traditional cloth tapestry worn as a head covering by the Tausug of Jolo, an art that is only passed down to the weavers in the tausug tribe. Woven by hand, her 39 x 40 tapestries usually take around 3 months to finish completely, and these remarkable woven goods are bought by others for the price of P2000. Other than the fact that it is used as a headpiece, the Pis Syabit tapestries are also used to adorn native attire, bags, and other accessories.
Sawabi, faithful to the art of Pis Syabit weaving, recognizes the importance of keeping the art alive and so, she led a mission that let her teach the young women in her community. With quality and dedication to her work, her students learned deeply and are now teachers of the art themselves. Being very dedicated to the art, she looks forward to the tradition of Pis Syabit weaving to remain alive and shared to the younger generations.
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a GAMABA Awardee
In April 1992, the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan or the National Living Treasures Award was institutionalized through Republic Act No. 7355. Tasked with the administration and implementation of the Award is the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the highest policy-making and coordinating body for culture and the arts of the State. The NCCA, through the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan Executive Council, conducts the search for the finest traditional artists of the land, adopts a program that will ensure the transfer of their skills to others, and undertakes measures to promote a genuine appreciation of and instill pride among our people about the genius of the Manlilikha ng Bayan.
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In Barangay Parang, in the island of Jolo, Sulu province, women weavers are hard at work weaving the pis syabit, the traditional cloth tapestry worn as a head covering by the Tausug of Jolo. “This is what we’ve grown up with,” say the weavers. “It is something we’ve learned from our mothers.” Darhata Sawabi is one of those who took the art of pis syabit making to heart.
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​Sawabi remains faithful to the art of pis syabit weaving. Her strokes are firm and sure, her color sensitivity acute, and her dedication to the quality of her products unwavering. She recognizes the need for her to remain in the community and continue with her mission to teach the art of pis syabit weaving. She had, after all, already been teaching the young women of Parang how to make a living from their woven fabrics. Some of her students are already teachers themselves. She looks forward to sharing the tradition of pis syabit weaving to the younger generations.
Textile Art by Sawabi
Pis Syabit
Pis Siyabit (or simply Pis) is a Tausug woven head-cloth made from cotton or silk (or with gold threads) characterized with intricate geometric patterns of colors segmented into the smallest squares, triangles and diamonds.
The pis syabit symbolizes the wearer's elevated position in society. Nowadays, it is common to see even women, especially young students, wearing the pis either in its traditional function or as an accessory in contemporary fashion such as shawl and neckerchief, or used as a table cover, wall ornament or tapestry.
The PIS SYABIT is a precisely a tapestry weave. Square in format, measuring 100 x 100 centimeters, the term syabit, meaning to hook, is a direct reference to the production process of inserting or hooking-in disconnected weft threads of various colors, white included, across a generally dark yet finely striped body of warp threads. Each insertion of a colored weft thread fills-in a centimeter block or blocks delineated by the fine stripes or either red or yellow warp threads, resulting in a design form and virtually engulfing the entire design composition that are locked in a grid