April 19, 2016
Banner photo by Jacob Maentz/Jacobimages.com
abu sayyaf, bajau laut, perahu, sama bajau, sea gypsies, southern philippines, tawi-tawi, tropical paradise
Deep in the Sulu Sea, Tawi-Tawi province is a breathtakingly beautiful archipelago of tropical islands, reefs and fascinating sea nomad communities. Unfortunately, it's also home to the Philippines' most feared terrorist groups...
Flying into Tawi-Tawi, one can see tropical islands scattered against a dark blue canvas. Being positioned inside the Coral Triangle, Tawi-Tawi is very rich in natural resources and is one of the global centers of marine biodiversity.
One week prior to my departure to Tawi-Tawi I received an email from the US Embassy in Manila. “U.S. citizens should continue to defer non-essential travel to the Sulu Archipelago, due to the high threat of kidnapping of international travelers and violence linked to insurgency and terrorism there.” This region of the Philippines never gets good press and has a negative reputation among most people in the country. Mention to a Filipino that you are going to Mindanao and you’ll get a concerned look. Mention Sulu and most won’t really comprehend it, as if the place exists only in myth.
A view of Bongao, the capital city of Tawi-Tawi province.
Tawi-Tawi is the southern most province in the Philippines - 300 breathtakingly beautiful islands and atolls in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. It is also the headquarters of the Philippines’ most violent militant group - Abu Sayyaf, which recently aligned itself with so-called ISIS.
I’d wanted to visit this region for a long time and was excited when I was invited along on a shoot with filmmakers, Extra Mile Productions. Obviously I had some concerns, especially being a foreigner. A few weeks before we left, an expat finance officer from a mining company had been kidnapped - the most recent of many such incidents. But I was also aware that media reports rarely expored the detail of such ocurrences and that with the right precautions, we would be safe.
The men keeping peace and order in Tawi-Tawi and our personal escorts during our visit. Here we are on a speedboat heading for Tandubas a long but beautiful ride through virtually untouched islands.
Chief among these was an armed military escort - definitely not the way I’m used to travelling, but necessary in this instance. Still, I wasn’t here for the terrorists, but for the islands, seascapes and above all to visit the Sama Bajau and Tausug communities that are scattered throughout the Tawi-Tawi islands.
The Sulu Sea is one of the most beautiful seascapes on earth. It's also one of the most dangerous.
Despite its fearsome reputation, Tawi-Tawi looks and feels like an untouched tropical paradise - the tourism potential is huge, though I think it will be many years before anything can be effectively developed. Currently, the few visitors that make it out here must arrange their trip with the local tourism office for security reasons and because transport outside of the capital Bongao is extremely limited.
A typical Sama-Bajau community with stilt houses over the coastal shallows of Tawi-Tawi. The Sama-Bajau are originally from Sulu and have adapted a sea oriented lifestyle. Sama-Bajau is really a collective term, used to describe several closely related indigenous peoples who consider themselves a single distinct ethnic group. In the Philippines, the Sama-Bajau are generally referred to as Badjao. Badjao is just a different pronunciation of the word Bajau, which refers to the boat-dwelling, nomadic groups of the Sama-Bajau. Today, the Badjao have almost abandoned boat living and opt to build piling houses in the coastal shallows.
Aside from the natural beauty of the region, it was the people of Tawi-Tawi that I was most interested in - specifically the Tausug and Sama-Bajau. These are the two dominant ethnolinguistic groups in the region andhave coexisted for centuries. The Tausug were once rulers of an independent state known as the Sulu Sultanate, which once covered a huge area, including parts of Palawan, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Tausug adopted Islam when the first Muslim missionary arrived in Sulu in 1380.
Sama-Bajau women applying a natural paste on their faces which they call burak. The paste is made from pounded rice, turmeric and other ingredients to beautify their faces and act as a natural sunblock. Burak is applied to the face as a wet paste. It eventually dries creating a white or yellowish coating. Generally, within Sama-Bajau communities, it is only women who apply this to their skin.
The Sama-Bajau are also thought to originate in Sulu and have adapted a sea oriented lifestyle. Sama-Bajau is really a collective term, used to describe several closely related indigenous peoples who consider themselves a single distinct ethnic group. Historically in the Philippines, the term “Sama” was used to describe the more land-oriented groups, while “Bajau” was used to describe the more sea-oriented, boat-dwelling, nomadic groups. Today, most of the Bajau have long abandoned boat-living, and now build stilt houses in coastal shallows.
A 15 year old Sama Bajau girl on her wedding day, with the charateristic henna tattoos on her hand.
A seaweed farmer inspects his 'crops' in the shallow waters nearby his stilt village.
Tawi-Tawi is considered the largest seaweed producing province in the Philippines with roughly 80 percent of Tawi-Tawians earning a living from seaweed farming. Seaweed is sold to extract its carrageenan, a gelling and stabilizing substance used widely in dairy and meat products. Much of it is exported out of the country. In just about every coastal town we visited there was seaweed either being dried in the sun or harvested nearby in the shallow water.
Tawi-Tawi is the largest seaweed producing province in the Philippines, with roughly 80 percent of Tawi-Tawians earning a living from seaweed farming. Seaweed is sold for its carrageenan, a gelling and stabilizing agent used widely in dairy and meat products. In just about every coastal town we visited there was seaweed either being dried in the sun or harvested nearby in the shallow water.
A couple sort through seaweed, which will end up in food and cosmetics products.
A typical Sama Bajau stilt village close to a mangrove. The seascapes in Tawi Tawi are incredibly rich in terms of biodiversity - one of the hotspots on the Coral Triangle
As our time was limited time we weren’t able to dive or stop at any of the remote beaches or islands in the area. It is clear though just by visiting the markets and coastal communities that the marine ecosystem here, lying as it does in the heart of the Coral Triangle, is in relatively good condition, compared to other regions of the country, probably because there is less pressure on resources due to low population. There are over 1800 species of fish, more than 400 species of algae, five species of sea turtles, 22 species of marine mammalsand over 450 types of coral in the Sulu Sea, a global hotspot for marine biodiversity. However, dynamite fishing, over-fishing, coastal development, sedimentation, and coral bleaching are still serious issues.
Men begin to gather at a local mosque for Friday prayer. Islam is the oldest recorded monotheistic religion in the Philippines. The religion reached the Philippines in the 14th century with the arrival of Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf, Southern India, and their followers from several sultanate governments in the Malay Archipelago.
A Tausug woman during Friday prayer at a mosque in Bongao, the capitol of Tawi-Tawi. The majority of Tawi-Tawi’s population is Muslim and belong to the Tausug or Sama-Bajau people.
It took us four hours by speedboat to reach the remote municipality of Tandubas. We were here to visit a Sama Bajau woman called Haja Amina Appi, a master mat weaver. Tawi-Tawi - and Tandubas in particular - is famed for its intricately woven textiles - handmade muticoloured mats featuring complex geometric patterns. Mat weaving among the Sama-Bajau is exclusive to women, from the harvesting of the pandan leaves to the execution of the design.
The Sama Bajau are master boatbuilders - perhaps unsurprisingly since for centuries their boats were their homes, livelihood and entire way of life.
The Sama Bajau are - or at least were - master shipbuilders too. In Bongao, I’d noticed some impressive looking vessels of a kind I’d never seen before in the Philippines, so went to try and get some photographs. Everything was being constructed by hand and almost all of the workers were Sama Bajau from one community. Shipbuilding in Sulu has a rich history and the Sama Bajau are its most skilled craftsmen.
Large wooden prahus ships being constructed. Prahus refers to a type of boat originating in Malaysia and Indonesia that may be sailed with either end at the front. Today, modern wooden prahus type ships are common throughout this region and are mostly used to transport cargo and passengers.
The wooden ships - known as Prahus - were custom ordered from Malaysia and sell for anywhere between 15-20 million pesos. The men told us it takes roughly one year to build one, all by hand. This is something truly unique to Tawi-Tawi and the craftsmanship is remarkable.
children playing in a typical Sama Bajau village. Most can swim as soon as they can walk, if not before!
A seaweed farmer heads back home with his harvest.
With its incredible natural beauty, fascinating cultures, rich crafts tradition and vibrant marine ecosystems, Tawi-Tawi is a true jewel of the Philippines and of the Coral Triangle as a whole. Perhaps in the future there will be opportunities for ecotourism and the development of sutsainable blue economies. But for now, Tawi-Tawi remains a fascinating and dangerous frontier in one of the most beautiful seas on earth.
Local market. Everything from fresh shells, seaweed, fish, and urchins can be found here.
