104 places · 7 areas

Places of the Bangsamoro

Islands and white sand, lakes in the highlands, mosques, falls and the old forts and houses of the sultanates: what is there, how to get there, and what to know before you go.

Ervin Malicdem · CC BY-SA 4.0Photo by Ervin Malicdem, CC BY-SA 4.0. Open the source file.

Beaches 6

Islands 11

Mosques 10

Lakes 5

Falls 5

Mountains 7

Nature 21

Heritage 22

Museums 5

Cities 2

Markets 2

Memory 8

Every place is traced to the pages it came from, and the guide’s own entries are the travel workspace’s. Photos are from Wikimedia Commons or English Wikipedia under free licences, each credited on the photo. 7 areas: Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Cotabato City and the Special Geographic Area.

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A Yakan tennun head cloth woven by Ambalang Ausalin, the Lamitan master weaver the centre honours.

Places · Museum

Ambalang Museum and GAMABA Weaving Center

Lamitan, Basilan

Also known as GAMABA Weaving Center, GAMABA School of Weaving

Valenzuela400 · CC BY-SA 4.0Photo by Valenzuela400, CC BY-SA 4.0. Open the source file.

Overview

A weaving school and museum in Lamitan honouring the Yakan master weaver Apuh Ambalang Ausalin.

Ambalang Ausalin (1943–2022) was a Yakan master weaver from Lamitan, known for sinalu'an and seputangan, 2 of the most intricate Yakan textiles. She learned from her mother, reputed to be the best weaver in Basilan, and received the National Living Treasures Award (Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan) in 2016. She died at her home in Parangbasak, Lamitan, in February 2022.

The GAMABA Weaving Center in Lamitan also works as a School of Living Tradition, where she taught a new generation of magtetenum (weavers) to make tennun, Yakan for woven cloth. In June 2024 her eldest son, Berty Ausalin, led the inauguration of the weaving centre and the Ambalang Museum on Yakan culture.

Yakan cloth is woven in geometric patterns in bright, contrasting colours. A 2-metre cloth takes between 2 weeks and a month to make, and designs include the rainbow-like palipattang, the python-inspired buga-sama and the vine-patterned dawen-dawen.

Things to do

  1. 01Watch Yakan weavers at the loomsThe centre is a School of Living Tradition where weavers make tennun on traditional looms.
  2. 02Buy Yakan woven clothWeavers make table runners, clothing, bags and wall decor as well as traditional cloth.

Food to try

  • A bowl of near-black beef soup beside a red onion and dried chillies.TausugTiyula ItumBlack beef soup, colored by burnt coconut.Photo: Nurfadzrie Abubakar
  • Tausug satti: grilled meat skewers with a bowl of spiced sauce and ta'mu rice cake in woven coconut leaf.TausugSattiSkewered meat in a hot red sauce, with a block of rice — the breakfast of the archipelago.Photo: Anak 1 at en.wikipedia
  • TausugKulmaA mild peanut-and-coconut curry, close to a korma.
  • TausugPianggangGrilled chicken in burnt-coconut sauce.

The food is halal. Named eateries come from dated listings, so check they are still open.

Places to stay

Phone, Facebook, or the city tourism office. Very little is listed online.

Each is named in an official or dated source; none could be checked against an accreditation list. No prices: rates change quickly, so confirm and book directly before you go.

Sourcesen.wikipedia.org ·nomadicexperiences.com ·en.wikipedia.org