PALAW’A

N TRIBE
PALAWAN STUDIES
HISTORY
PALAW’AN TRIBE
 

The Palawan Tribal People, also known as the Palawano or the Palaw’an, is an indigenous
Ethnic Group of the Palawan Group of Islands in the Philippines. The Palawanos are more
popularly known as Palawans, which is pronounced faster than the name of the Province.
 
The Palaw’ans are divided into 4 ethno-linguistic subgroupings. These are the ;

• Quezon Palawano (Central Palawano)

• Bugsuk Palawano ( South Palawano)
• Brooke’s Point Palawano
• Southwest Palawano

The Palawans were originally a tribe in the Southern part of
Palawan until agrarian settlers started to occupy their once vast
domain. The tribe would exploit the most fertile piece of land and
move on to the next. Their family units were very small, possibly
due to high mortality rates. They built their houses usually on a
hillside but close to the river or stream using four skinny trunks
of trees. The floor is roughly 15 to 20 feet from the ground, and
families used a slanted log to climb up to their houses, except for
single or bachelor’s shanties where a suspended rope is preferred.
◦ The Palawans were so naïve in socializing with their outside
world, and they would welcome you with extreme precaution as
they were always scared of getting sick. At the onset of this fear,
they would immediately abandon their area. It is believed that
they have the shortest life span of all people but no statistical
data are however available to support this claim. They do not
have a concept of year or years. The Palawanos would reference
their ages through a standing tree, explaining that they were
born when a particular tree was about a certain height.
There are many linguistic variations among Palawan Family
Groups with words changing from one valley to the next.
Tagalog is frequently used to supply words lacking in the local
dialect for modern objects and actions which can cause
confusion, especially among the younger generation, between
Tagalog and Palawan. The more familiar a family or a village
is with the Tagalog Lowland Culture, the more common the
language overlap.
 PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE
PALAW’AN
 
TRIBE
The palaw-ans are most likely to be tanned, short, and have curly hair.

For the men Palaw’ans, they wear g-strings while the women would wear patadyong which is a
native wrap that is similar to the malong.
LOCATION
PALAW’AN TRIBE

◦ The Quezon Palawano subgroup are found in the Southern part of

Palawan, particularly on the western section of the municipality of
Quezon including the eastern part of Abo-Abo of the municipality
of Sofronio Espanola, going southward down to the northern
section of the municipality of Rizal. A large group of the Palawans
can also be found in the Sitios Gugnan, Kambing, Tugpa, and
Kalatabog od Barangay Panitian.
 The Palawanos or the Palaw’ans are originally found in the interior regions of
South Apuruan on the West Coast and South of Abo-Abo on the East Coast,
these regions may be located in the Southern part of the Province of Palawan.

 Palawanos can be found in here in;

◦ Quezon Palawan
◦ Bugsuk Palawan
◦ Brooke’s Point Palawan
◦ Southwest Palawan
TRADITIONS
AND
CULTURE
PALAW’AN TRIBE

TRADITIONS

The Palaw’an Tribe are hunters, forest-foragers, and cultivators

who prefer to live in a far-flung upland areas near the forests where
they mostly acquire their everyday necessities. Wild pig is the
Palaw’ans favorite meat, and they must make a request to the pig
animal master before catching it.
Bees are also believed to have their own master who can only be
seen by the Beljan (shaman) during trance.

They hunt wild animals using spears with lethal poison at the tip of
it and catch fish by using a special root sap that is diluted in a
shallow river or stream.

The Palaw’ans hardly domesticate chickens nor hogs, they prefer

dogs which comes very helpful during their hunt.
CULTURE

Palaw’ans were animists who regularly performed rituals to appease the good and
bad spirits to assist the tribe in both spiritual and material matters. The Palaw’ans
grow most of their food on small plots of land in the forest. Before clearing an
area for planting, they consult and appease various spirits and interpret omens in
their dreams.

Their ceremonies , prayers, chanting, and healing dances are all part of what they
call the adat et kegurangurangan, or the “ customs of the ancestors ”.
 MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
PALAW’AN TRIBE

Pagang(bamboo zither)
– this is played like a harp.
It is only played by the
adult members of the tribe.
Suling (banded flute)
- Usually made of ’tamiang bamboo, a
long bamboo which has a very thin
surface. The head of suling, near a
small hole is circled with a thin-band
made of rattan or rotan to produce air
vibration.
Basal (gong)
- Is a gong ensemble
consists of a set of one or
two big gongs.
Aruding (jaw’s harp)
- atype of Philippine jaw
harp made from bamboo
ETHNIC
DANCE
PALAW’AN TRIBE
How they
worship
PALAW’AN TRIBE

Palaw’ans worship thru their Ritual Dances. This is used to

communicate to their TILADMANIN to bless and protect them. There
are dances in which the performers and even the spectators work
themselves into trance in order to transcend their ordinary selves and
receive the power of the Gods or as in the case of Indian Temple
Dancers, in which the performer enact the stories of the Gods as a way
of worshipping them.

( If a person dies of natural death, the soul travel to basad, the underworld, and
becomes the tiladmanin )
Palawanos / Palaw’ans performing their Ritual Dances.
Medicinal
plants
( how they cure )
PALAW’AN TRIBE

Their Ritual Dances also associates to healing, their ritual dances

were used to communicate to their dead relatives to help them with
cure for their sickness.

Most of the documented medicinal plants were trees (35%),

followed by herbs (33%), shrubs (20%), and climbers (12%).
The Manobo plans that this is the vast compendium of ethnomedical plants
that have passed down from generation to generation, and that is the subject of
a recent study for Scientific Conservation Purposes.

“ Our tribe have been using these plants since time immemorial and they are
effective in treating various illnesses such as fever, diarrhea, cough and skin
diseases, among others”, Datu Palagsulat told Mongabay in a phone interview.
“ I have never been admitted to a hospital ever since because I used these
plants that are abundant in the forests or in our backyards for treating various
malaises that I would fell”.
The Agusan Manobo use various parts of the planet to treat different health problems,
including;

Asthma  Tuberculosis,
Cough  Snake and Insect Bites
Bone fractures and dislocations  Tumors

Arthritis  Ulcers

Aches and pains  Wounds and more

Cysts
Poisoning
Skin Diseases and Infections
Sample
of
song and
dance
PALAW’AN TRIBE

Palaw’ans performing their dance for a good harvest.

Palaw’an Tribe performing their Tribal Dance
THANK YOU!