Cleveland Museum of Art

Mandaya ikat textile (dagmay)

Date

c. early 1900s

Medium

plain weave hemp, dyed

Culture

Philippines, Mindanao

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This textile is a Mandaya abacá ikat cloth woven in southeastern Mindanao. It is made from hand-stripped abacá fibers that are resist-dyed using the Mandaya ikat technique, in which selected warp threads are tightly bound before dyeing to produced patterned sections during weaving. The designs embody Mandaya cosmology and are traditionally associated with protection, fertility, and the presence of umagad (ancestral spirits). After weaving, abacá ikat cloths were soaked in iron-rich river mud, which deepens the browns and blacks, strengthens the fiber, and sets the dyes.

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