page_title: Basilan
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Basilan / People / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Sta. Isabel Cathedral, Isabela City, Basilan
context_page_description: The Province of Basilan is an island province of the Philippines in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Basilan Island is the largest and northernmost of the major islands of the Sulu Archipelago. It is just off the southern coast of the geographic Zamboanga Peninsula.
  Isabela, the former capital, is a component city under the provincial government of Basilan but is administered as part of the Zamboanga Peninsula Region and is listed statistically independent. The provincial capital has since been transferred to Lamitan.
  Basilan is home to three main ethnolingusitic groups: the indigenous Yakans, and the later-arriving Tausugs and Chavacanos. The Yakans and Tausugs are predominantly Muslim, while the Chavacano are mainly Christian. There are also a number of smaller ethnic groups. Although the official languages are Tagalog and English, the main native language is Yakan and lingua franca is Chavacano. Other languages include Tausug, Cebuano, and Sama.
  Basilan, although classified as a 3rd-class province in terms of gross provincial income, has one of the lowest incidences of poverty in the Philippines, ranked 20 among the Philippines' 80 provinces.
context_section_description: The biggest cultural influences on the island derive from  Basilan's tri-ethnolingusitic community: the native Yakan, Tausug, and Chavacano peoples. The Yakans and Tausugs are predominantly Muslim, while the Chavacano are primarily Catholic.
  Among the Tausugs and Samals, the phrase "mag-tausug na kaw" means "become a Muslim", instead of the more literal translation, "become a Tausug", as the Tausug ethnic is regarded as the "original Muslims" of the area. Although the majority of the Yakans are Muslims, a significant number conform to traditional local beliefs, traditions and rituals, while a few have likewise opted to be baptized Catholics. Along with a majority of the Chavacano, the Cebuano and the Ilonggo/Hiligaynon Bisaya are also Catholics.
  Culturally, the Yakan and the Tausug are distinct ethnolinguistic nations; the Yakan represent the "Lumad" (albeit lately most Yakans have since converted to Islam) or indigenous peoples of Basilan, while the Tausugs, the Samal and the Bajao are regarded as the "original Muslims", and the Chavacano, Cebuano and Ilonggo are the "Cristianos". The rest, a mixture of Ilocanos, Waray, Bicolanos, Maranaos, Iranuns and Maguindanaos, are more recent migrants permanently residing in the region, itinerant merchants or government workers.
  This mix of ethnicities, forged first by the Spanish practice of establishing re-settlements or reducciones, as well as the multinational plantations' importation of skilled Christian farm workers and laborers from the Visayas and Luzon, gives Basilan a distinct culture in the Philippines. It is the only predominantly Muslim province that is governed primarily by its indigenous population and whose most commonly spoken language is Chavacano.
  The Tausugs and Samals, for the most part having been denied ownership of land, and owing to their primary livelihood of fishing, live along the coastlines, constructing their houses on stilts at the water's edge near population centers. Their houses are, for the most part, outside of the municipal water and sewerage systems of the urban centers. This group controls nearly 100% of the bountiful aquatic resources that surround the island.
  The Yakans, on the other hand, having been driven far inland, are scattered throughout the island's interior, in similar raised houses usually made of light materials, but separated from each other. Yakans control nearly all Local Government Units, and since the late 80s have found employment in Government jobs. The Christians are mostly found in the plains, the cities and in the plantations, squeezed between the Tausug-dominated coasts and the Yakan-dominated hinterlands. They make up the bulk of the island's professionals, entrepreneurs, and lowland farmers. The Christians, however, own most of the arable land, as well as nearly all of the businesses and occupy most of the professions.
  Tausug/Samal festivals are usually connected to the sea, celebrating the bounty of the seas, even staging dazzling fluvial wedding parades on colorfully bedecked vintas and paraws, a nod to the Tausugs' former naval prowess. Catholic fiestas are almost always related to good harvests on the farms, as well as saintly miracles against natural calamities and victories against Moro attacks in the past. Yakan festivals, meanwhile, are rooted in older, pre-Islamic rituals such as warrior dances, colorful wedding pageants, and harvest rituals.
  Culturally, therefore, the Chavacanos, Cebuanos, and Tausugs have had a close relationship, both professionally as well as in trade and commerce, being regarded as the island's "lowlanders" by the Yakan, who are regarded as "de arriba" by the Chavacanos or "tagihamas" by the Suluanon Tausugs, which roughly translates as "uplanders". Conversely, the Yakan have reason to be suspicious of the intents and motives of their lowland neighbors, having been at the receiving end of slave raids, invasions and punitive attacks from both groups for over 500 years.
  With the island's strategic location right at the crossroads of the warring camps of Tausugs and the Spanish, Basilan wa
caption: Santa Isabel Cathedral, in the heart of Isabela City's poblacion, is the center of Basilan's thriving Catholic community.
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