page_title: Tboli people
section_title: Indigenous Tboli religion
hierarchical_section_title: Tboli people / Indigenous Tboli religion
caption_attribution_description: July 2017. T'nalak, aka &quot;Dream Cloth&quot;, is a tradition and spirit-infused cloth woven from abaca fibers by the T'boli &quot;Dream Weavers&quot; and represents natural patterns 'seen' by the weavers in their dreams after meditating and praying. T'nalak production is a labour intensive process requiring a knowledge of a range of skills learned from a young age by the women of the tribe. First, abaca fiber is stripped from the abaca tree, cleaned, dried and separated into strands. These strands are then carefully selected, hand tied and rolled into balls. Natural vegetable dyes produced by the T'boli weavers themselves are used to stain these hand spun abaca fibers. The T'nalak is then woven, usually in tones of red, brown and black, with the end product requiring months of work to produce a single, unique weaving. The T'boli are an indigenous peoples of South Cotabato in Southern Mindanao. The Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Program (NTFP) advocates for and supports indigenous enterprises using non-timber forest resources. The Manila showroom features fairly-traded value-added products from across the Philippines. Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Photograph by Jason Houston for USAID
context_page_description: The Tboli people are one of the indigenous peoples of South Cotabato in Southern Mindanao. The body of ethnographic and linguistic literature on Mindanao, they are variously known as Tboli, T'boli, Tböli, Tagabili, Tagabilil, Tagabulul and Tau Bilil. They term themselves Tboli. Their whereabouts and identity are somewhat imprecise in the literature; some publications present the Tboli and the Tagabili as distinct peoples; some locate the Tbolis to the vicinity of the Lake Buluan in the Cotabato Basin or in Agusan del Norte. The Tbolis, then, reside on the mountain slopes on either side of the upper Alah Valley and the coastal area of Maitum, Maasim and Kiamba. In former times, the Tbolis also inhabited the upper Alah Valley floor. After World War II, i.e., since the arrival of settlers originating from other parts of the Philippines, they have been gradually pushed onto the mountain slopes. As of now, they are almost expelled from the fertile valley floor.
context_section_description: The T'boli people believe in a highly-complex traditional religion that is unique to the region. Their religion is regionally-complex and is composed of the life ways and belief systems inherent to the Tboli psyche. However, in modern times, their religion has been degraded to a certain extent due to the introduction of Roman Catholicism, Protestanism, and Islam. Nevertheless, some communities continue to preserve and conserve the religion practices of their ancestors, which has been established thousands of years ago.
caption: T'nalak cloth of T'boli dream weavers have patterns inspired by dreams and blessed by Fu Dalu, the god of abacá[3]
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