MASINO INTARAY
Filipino poet | bard artist | musician from Palawan
BACKGROUND
A Filipino poet, bard artist, and musician from Palawan. An outstanding master of the Basal, Kulilal and Bagit. He was born on April 10, 1943 in Makagwa, Valley, and grew up in Booke's Point Town, Palawan, with the major indigenous cultural communities of Batak and Tagbanwa. Masino is not only well-versed in the instruments and traditions of the basal, kulilal and bagit but also plays the aroding (mouth harp) and babarak (ring flute) and above all is a prolific and pre-eminent epic chanter and storyteller. Masino and the basal and kulilal ensemble of Makagwa valley are creative, traditional artists of the highest order of merit.
AWARDS
Intaray was awarded the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA), or National Living Treasure Award, in 1993. According to Executive Order No. 235, this award is given to “Filipino citizen or group of Filipino citizens engaged in any traditional art uniquely Filipino, whose distinctive skills have reached such a high level of technical and artistic excellence and have been passed on to and widely practiced by the present generations in his/her community with the same degree of technical and artistic competence.”
He received the GAMABA Award for his outstanding artistry of basal, kulilal, and bagit. In doing these artforms, he used his creative memory, endurance, clarity of intellect, and spiritual purpose to chant all night, for successive nights, countless tultul (epics), sudsungit (narratives), and tuturan (myths of origin and teachings of ancestors).
