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Lang Dulay was a Living National Treasure as she was a traditional weaver, known for her traditional motifs of T’nalak weaving amidst the commercialization of the modern style from the non-T’boli. Lang Dulay was born on August 03, 1928, from ake Sebu, South Cotabato. She came from a prominent line of rulers in her tribe as she was known to be a T’boli princess. Lang Dulay also bores two sons named Florencio and Minggod. She became interested in weaving from her mother named Luan Senig, where she started at 12. Her first T’nalak cloth was from her dream, so the elders called her the ‘dreamweaver.’ She makes her masterpieces and trains her granddaughters to make a T’nalak weaving in her workshop Manlilikha ng Bayan Center in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. She wishes the young girls to be also interested in weaving.

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In the year 2011, Lang Dulay retired from weaving because of her age. She achieved over 100 designs, and most of them symbolize the culture and tradition of her tribe, T’boli. Even if the emerging of modern design of T’nalak, she remains to weave a traditional T’nalak even though the modern design got a better price. In her T’nalak cloths, you can see the history of T’boli people because Lang Dulay wants to keep their tradition and cultures alive through her masterpieces.

On April 30, 2015, Lang Dulay died at 91 after she suffered a massive stroke and fell into a coma. Her community mourned her death. Due to finances, her family decided to take her home; her granddaughters took care of her until her remaining days. She was also given a state burial. The people in her community were in tears seeing their Living Treasure’s casket was lowered into a shrine rested on a hill just above the weaving house.

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