Besao Mountain Province

What the Jar Creates A Love Letter to Tapey and the People of Besao Who Still Make It There is a gusi tucked somewhere in a Besao household right now. You may not see it immediately; it could be sitting quietly in the corner of an old kitchen, wrapped or covered in banana leaf and settled beneath the weight of patience and time, its clay sides cool to the touch even in the afternoon warmth. The people of Besao have always known where the jar is, and they have always known what is happening inside it- the slow, sacred alchemy of diket and bubod, of rice and yeast and mountain air, becoming something altogether different from what they were. That something is tapey; and if you are from Besao, you already know this. You have tasted it at weddings, at begnas, at the communal table of the dap-ay. You have seen an elder pour just a small cupful at the feet of an offering, a quiet acknowledgment to Kabunyan that abundance flows both upward and downward. You have watched your lola ...

The Dwelling of the Restless A Research Blog on the Takba of Besao, Mountain Province — Its Origins in War and Grief, Its Life in Ritual, and Its Conversation with the Christian Faith (Written for the Applai community of Besao:- elders, descendants, believers, and seekers)  Foreword   When the Community Speaks, the Story Grows The first version of this essay introduced the takba to many readers as a woven basket transformed by ritual, a family heirloom, a receptacle for offerings, a quiet participant in the begnas. It was received warmly. But the people of Besao, those who grew up with the weight of a takba in their homes and the gravity of its presence in their hearts, had more to say. They always do. What followed the publication was something rare in the life of any piece of writing; the community became co-authors. Native voices from Besao- elders and their descendants, believers and scholars, those who inherited a takba and those who deliberately chose not to-...

The Takba - The Basket That Remembers What the Takba of Besao Carries, And What It Is Trying to Tell Us ⸻ ⸻ ⸻ Somewhere in your lolo's house, tucked behind a wooden beam, wrapped in old cloth, sitting quiet like it has been there forever, there may be a basket. Not just any basket. A basket that has seen the faces of your great-great-grandparents. A basket that has stood at the edge of the dap-ay while the elders prayed. A basket that holds more history than most books ever will. In Besao, that basket has a name; it is called the takba . And if no one tells you about it, you might walk right past it one day without knowing what you just walked past. It Looks Ordinary (That Is the Point)  The takba does not announce itself. It does not shine or glow or demand your attention. Woven from anes, the bamboo-like vine that the old craftsmen of Mountain Province knew how to coax into form, it looks very much like the sangi or the pasiking, the everyday carry baskets that Kank...