The tubaw is a colorful headwrap made mostly in Cotabato, Mindanao in southern Philippines, and the

ethnic tribes who originally produce this colorful cloth are known for their fine weaving traditions.

The most finely-made tubaw are worn by the village elders and some patterns or motifs especially those
woven by the best weavers in a village are accorded with meanings or were made to convey certain
beliefs shared by the tribe. Intertwined patterns are said to connote the linked or connected existence
of all living things on earth.

The tubaw’s intense colors are also popular that there was a time in the 1980s when the tubaw was
mostly worn and made popular by activist students in protest rallies. Wearing the tubaw later entered
mainstream street wear as a fashionable neck or head scarves used by young people.