Maranao people

Maranao people
Bangsa Mëranaw
ماراناو‎
Maranao people performing the Singkil dance
Total population
1,800,130 (2020 census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Philippines
(Bangsamoro, Soccsksargen, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Manila, Cebu)
Languages
Native
Maranao
Also
Filipino • Cebuano • English
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Iranun, Maguindanaon, Tiruray
Lumad, Tausūg, Visayan,
other Moros,
other Filipinos,
other Austronesian peoples

The Maranao people (Maranao: Bangsa Mëranaw; Filipino: mga Maranaw[2]), also spelled Meranaw, Maranaw, and Mëranaw, is a predominantly Muslim Filipino ethnic group native to the region around Lanao Lake in the island of Mindanao. They are known for their artwork, weaving, wood, plastic and metal crafts and epic literature, the Darangen. They are ethnically and culturally closely related to the Iranun people and Maguindanao people, all three groups being denoted speaking Danao languages and giving name to the island of Mindanao. They are grouped with other Moro people due to their shared religion.

Etymology

The name "Maranao" (also spelled "Mëranaw", or "Maranaw") means "people of the lake" (lanaw or ranaw, archaic danaw, means "lake" in the Maranao language). This is in reference to Lake Lanao, the predominant geographic feature of the ancestral homeland of the Maranao people.[3]

Music and performing arts

Maranao kulintang music is a type of a gong music. Sarunaay is also found among both Muslim and non-Muslim groups of the Southern Philippines. Kobbing is a Maranao instrument and Biyula is another popular instrument. Biyula is a string instrument. In 2005, the Darangen Epic of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao was selected by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Kulintang ensemble exhibited at the National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)

References

  1. "Ethnicity in the Philippines (2020 Census of Population and Housing)". Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  2. [1] Archived October 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Hamilton, Roy W. (1998). From the rainbow's varied hue: textiles of the southern Philippines. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. p. 135. ISBN 9780930741648.