Free Workshop on T'boli Cultural Arts

SAMAHAN Arts welcomes T’boli master artist Yebong Lyn Amfan Buti for a one-hour session exploring T’boli cultural arts, including traditional dance techniques, music, attire, and other indigenous traditions. Affectionately called “Yebong” (a respectful T’boli term for “big aunt”), she is a highly regarded a T'boli culture bearer. A ritual specialist, artist, performer, and chef featured on GMA 7 and ABS-CBN, she has dedicated her life to preserving and teaching T’boli traditions, sharing her culture internationally in places like San Francisco, New York and at Moda de Filipinas 2026 in London.

Yebong Lyn's people. the T'boli are an indigenous Lumad group living mainly in the highlands of South Cotabato, especially around Lake Sebu and the nearby mountain slopes. South Cotabato is in Mindanao, Southern Phlippines. The T'boli are celebrated for their colorful traditional clothing, detailed beadwork, and brass ornaments, but most famously for the sacred T’nalak cloth—carefully handwoven from abacá fibers and adorned with ancestral patterns that embody stories, beliefs, and identity passed down through generations.

The Workshop Series on T'boli Cultural Arts by SAMAHAN Arts is made possible through a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) Living Cultures Grant. This opening workshop, led by T'boli Master Artist Lyn Amfan Buti, launches the series. Stay tuned for forthcoming sessions presented by SAMAHAN Arts ethnomusicologists and dancers, who conducted immersive field research in the Philippines. They spent several days in the T'boli village of Yebong engaged in observation, learning, and active participation in T'boli cultural arts, rituals, and traditions.