The Mandaya house is wholly made of carefully selected bamboo flattened into slats and held together by horizontal bamboo strips or a rattan. Ascent to this single room with a small kitchen area is through a removable single-notched trunk of a tree. Traditionally, its elevated floor line served as one of the safety measures against attacks of other ethnic groups in the periphery of Davao Oriental. These warring conditions made the bagani or warrior class a high and most coveted social ranking.
The earliest Mandaya houses were lean-tos which had a wooden framework and a slanting grass-thatched roof which also served as the wall.
An improvement on the lean-to was the ile or houses built on trees or
Each ile was connected to another by hanging bridges at a maximum elevation of 9 meters.
There were usually two partitions, one sleeping area for the men and one of the women. Inside the house were an assortment of native weaponry, an altar with religious offerings, a spinning wheel, earthenware, baskets, and musical instruments.
When darkness fell, ladders made of knotted vines were retrieved into the house as a precautionary measure against mangayao or raids.
Today, Mandaya houses are usually one-room dwellings built on mountain slopes.
Resting on the sawn-off trunks of big trees, these are built 1 to1.7 meters above the ground.
The standard Mandaya houses has four walls made of tambullang (flattened bamboo slides), sinansan (woven rattan slats), sawali (flattened tree barks), or inak-ak (wooden strips).
The roof is constructed from either cogon thatch or tambullang, while the roofs are made from either tambullang or the 5 centimeter betel palm babi (hardwood).
Toilet facilities are not available even among the rich who can be distinguished from the poor in terms of the size and quality of
The few rich Mandaya have bigger houses made of wood, but rich or poor, these are usually dwellings with only one room serving as living room, sleeping room, dining room, and kitchen.
Separate corners are reserved for the boys and the girls.
An excemption to this one-room house is the house of a man who has two or more wives. The sleeping quarters of the wives used to be divided by the dagmay, the bangki (camote container made of rattan) or the lapi (basket for farm products).
Today, these divisions have become part of the Mandaya architecture; the dagmay, bangki, and lapi have given way to more permanent partitions such as the tambullang slats or sinansan.
With an elevated box design, the kitchen is usually located in a corner of the house.
Three stones are arranged in a triangle to hold up the cooking pots or the tambullang for the loot (viand cooked in a bamboo tube).
Firewood pieces are placed below the hearth, at the side of which kitchenware is kept.
The Mandaya home has very few articles of furniture; tables and chairs are considered unnecessary.
The few household possessions include the handloom, musical instruments. Weaponry and tools, and jewelry.
BAL’AY
Bal’ay is a rectangular in structure erected on stilts some five feet above ground and is usually occupied by two or three families.
The walls are usually made of sayapo bar, securely tied in bamboo laths of uway or rattan strip in a zigzag pattern.
The tip of the laths are carves with a distinct figure called ligpit to prevent joints from slipping.
Posts and beams are all made of round timber, while the floor is made of sinasana kawayan or flattened bamboo.
The nuknukan (stairs) are made of round timber, carved with distinctive foothold while the kal’lubabay (handrails) are installed afterward.
A Bal’Lay with a distinctive split bamboo is commonly called a lyupakan.
Reference:
https://essc.org.ph/content/view/705/1/
https://www.canva.com/design/DAD9z4_b5Ks/qpAxEH1zbkcUYpYpVVe0gA/edit#2/