Panapisan/ Tubular Garment

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The cloth of abaka (Musa textilis Nee) is constructed into a tubular garment called panapisan by the Bagobo who made it—although similarly called wrap-around skirts called tapis, the root of panapisan, were ubiquitous in island Southeast Asia. This panapisan is made rarefied by the loss of proficiency, among the Bagobo, in the weft ikat technique that was deployed in its making. Weft ikat involves the tying of tiny segments of clusters of threads intended to become the warp of a cloth, dyeing the tied threads taken down from the warping frame. The outcome are bunches of threads with the binary rendering (dark and abaka-colored or positive and negative) along their length. These are then woven, when typical patterning prominently includes reptilian evocations; notably, the crocodile, which figures immensely in island Southeast Asian mythology.

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