Masino Intaray
Definition
Masino Intaray was a Palaw’an master musician and epic chanter from Brooke’s Point, Palawan, honored in 1993 among the first recipients of the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (National Living Treasures Award). A farmer by life, he was renowned as a virtuoso of the basal (gong-and-drum ensemble), as a singer of kulial songs, and as a chanter of the tultul, the epic narratives of the Palaw’an people.
Identities
| Source Type | Identity |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Masino Intaray |
| Wikidata | Q42306802 |
| DBpedia | N/A |
Also Known As
Masino Intaray, Pala’wan epic chanter
Examples and Analogies
Among Philippine musicians, Masino Intaray occupied the position of a living library: a single performer carrying the equivalent of an entire shelf of Palaw’an epics in memory, accompanied by his own drumming — at once the storyteller, the orchestra, and the keeper of the keys.
Usage Scenarios
He performed tultul epics and basal music at celebrations and rituals in Brooke’s Point communities; cultural workers recorded his repertoire for documentation; his recognition set the template for honoring traditional artists under the GAMABA program.
Strategies
His art demonstrates the traditional strategy of embedding literature in performance: chanted over nights with gong and drum, epics taught history, ethics, and cosmology to whole communities rather than to individual readers.
Security and Safety Measures
Preservation of his tradition now relies on recorded archives, transmission to younger Palaw’an musicians, and the GAMABA program’s mandate of support and documentation for traditional arts.
Historical Context
Intaray grew up in the oral world of southern Palawan before roads and schooling reached far inland; the 1992-1993 inauguration of the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan under RA 7355 brought him national recognition as one of its first three awardees, alongside Ginaw Bilog and Samaon Sulaiman.
Challenges and Controversies
His death highlighted the fragility of orally transmitted epic traditions; younger Palaw’an face schooling, migration, and media that compete with the long apprenticeship his art required, making deliberate transmission urgent.
Related Topic
Palawan