Luscious Lumban

Author: Deni Rose M. Afrinidad
Column: Life & Entertainment

WHEN you say Laguna, several hotspots come to mind—Paete’s handicrafts and woodcarvings; Pagsanjan’s hot springs; Liliw’s sandals and slippers; Sta. Rosa’s subdivisions and Enchanted Kingdom; Jose Rizal’s ancestral home in Calamba; and Lucban’s pancit habhab and Pahiyas festival.

Amid this madly popular chain of Laguna destinations is an uncharted town full of environmental frontiers, artistic uproar, and gastronomical sensations. This silently wonderful town is called Lumban—located 104 km southeast of Manila.

A 428-year-old municipality, Lumban is named after the Lumbang tree, whose fruit is made into soaps and fuel. According to Jerwin Abad, a schoolteacher, since the Chinese traders then cannot pronounce the ‘g’ in the word “lumbang,” their town was then later known as Lumban.

With an area of 96.8 sq km, Lumban is the fourth largest in Laguna. According to Wikipedia.com, the province’s capital town, Santa Cruz, as well as Cavinti and the famous Pagsanjan, were once part of Lumban.

Embroidery capital of the Philippines

Lumban is the only Laguna town where embroidery has flourished as a lively cottage industry. Being the center of missionary activities in the province during the Spanish era, the municipality gave birth to generations of embroiders whose ancestors were the past art students of the town’s missionary school.

This has been affirmed by Ma. Marivic Gordovez, president of the Lumban Embroidery Association. She recalled that her family has been in the embroidery business since the Spanish times. She learned about the craft through her aunt.

According to an official document that the local government of Lumban released, there is at least one member of every family in town who is involved in the needlecraft business since childhood, with the women focusing on the needlework, while the men take charge of washing the garments. Gordovez said they had no formal training in embroidery; experience is their best teacher. It is just recently that local schools started to incorporate embroidery in the students’ home economics subject to preserve their town’s needlepoint tradition.

Today, of the town’s estimated 26,000 population, about 30 percent is engaged in the hand embroidery industry, with almost all sectors of the population directly or indirectly engaged in the embroidery business.

“Most of my constituents, about 60 percent of them, are dependent on making barongs for a living,” said the town’s mayor, Wilfredo Paraiso.

As Paraiso further explained, a barong, or the Filipino male’s traditional clothing, passes through seven hands before being sold. This means barong production triggers more employment opportunities for the Lumbeños.

But more than being a means for livelihood, Che Che Tablico, a municipal librarian, believes that their town’s embroidery and barong business also demonstrates how art runs in their blood.

Like the town’s local competitors in the embroidery business-Taal, Batangas and Bulacan-Lumban uses the pitchera design, a U or I bodice pattern of flowers and geometric prints. Similarly, the Lumbeños, like other embroiders, use two methods for transferring the design into the fabric: stamping—the design is drawn on a piece of paper then perforated on the fabric using washable ink; and tracing or drawing the pattern directly on the fabric using a pencil. As for stitching the designs, Lumbeños use traditional stitches known all over the world, like what other local embroiders also do.

Nonetheless, unlike other embroiders, Lumban specializes in hand painting fabrics; and their trademark designs have been in demand to foreigners, designers, and commoners alike.

“I am very thankful because of this industry, I met many important people in our society,” confessed Gordovez, who named Renee Salud, Rajo Laurel, Ferdinand Marcos, Eddy Badeo, Patis Tesoro, Cory Aquino, and Helen Gamboa among the many personalities who had been their clients.

“Even those who are from Bulacan transfer here,” added Gordovez.

As Paraiso has observed, their town’s strength is their light to dark hues or two-toned designs. Tablico, in addition, supposed that Lumban’s signature pattern is mostly nature-inspired-floral for women and leaves for men. Nevertheless, according to an official document, one distinguishing Lumban needlecraft design is the callado, characterized by net-like patterns on the fabric.

Overall, Gordovez described their town’s embroidery as “very fine and intricate that no other province in the country can imitate.”

Besides possessing mastery for patterns, Lumbeños has also learned by heart the kinds of fabric they use.

“Even children can tell the difference between the fabrics,” said Tablico.

The Lumbeños, said Gordovez, mostly use indigenous materials like jusi and piña from Aklan; though imported textiles are also used like linen and cocoon from China.

Apart from craftsmanship and distinct style, Lumban boasts of their durable garments.

“The ternos [Filipino women’s traditional costume] and the barongs here outlive their wearers,” attested Tablico.

This, according to her, is due to the fact that Lumbeños do not only manufacture garments; they also recycle them through changing the outfits’ color. For only P100, barongs and ternos can be dyed in any color the customer wants.

So far, Lumban’s embroidered products, which also include gowns, table napkins, fans, handbags, hankies, shawls, coasters, and even toilet covers, have been exported to local department stores in Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao and Laoag City, as well as in foreign countries like Canada, Hong Kong, USA,

No wonder, with this vast acceptance to their products, Lumbeños were able to sustain their families and embroidery tradition.

“Though this business, I had more time for my family and be able to gain greater profit from just a minimal capital,” disclosed Gordovez, who worked as a government employee for 10 years before she ventured in needlecraft.

“Many of our townsmen got rich or have built big houses just by supplying barongs to department stores like SM and Rustan’s,” added Tablico.

“We’ll try to maintain our products’ high quality to keep the industry sustainable,” affirmed Paraiso.

Toothsome treats

For a gratifying intestinal feast, try Lumban’s kesong puti—a cheese similar to cottage cheese, only that the town’s kesong puti is made of mixed carabao’s milk, salt, and cow’s stomach acid, which makes the cheese last up to a month if kept refrigerated.

There are only two families who make kesong puti in Barangay Wawa, Lumban—the De Lunas and the Del Valles.

According to Olan de Luna, he belongs to the fourth generation of kesong puti makers in town. They process the cheese using a blender not later than 9 a.m., before the milk gets sour. De Luna assured that their no-cook cheese is chemical-free, as their carabaos feed on fresh grass.

On the average, De Luna makes 300 pieces of cheese weekly, and delivers these to restaurants in Metro Manila, particularly in Cravings, Ilustrado, and Makati Skyline.

Another must-try is Opring de Luna’s special espasol or powdered sweets made of milled rice and sweetened coconut rolled in flour. For only P3 apiece, one can savor De Luna’s espasol, which is said to be chunkier and less powdery than other espasols sold in Laguna’s other towns.

Tourist attractions

As a traditional Filipino community, the Lumbeños celebrate a number of feasts in honor of their patron saint, St. Sebastian.

Every Jan. 19, a day before their town fiesta, they ferry around the Lumban lake aboard beautifully decorated pagodas. But the highlight of their annual festivities is every second week of September, wherein they celebrate the Burdang Lumban Festival, which features a bazaar of hand embroideries, jusi-painting demo, and other demos in making the town’s delicacies such as ginataang hipon or shrimps boiled in coconut milk; and special puto with salted eggs.

Paraiso said the objective of the festival is to maintain Lumban’s claim as the “Embroidery Capital of the Philippines.”

“As long as we’re claiming that title, designers will keep on going here,” he said.

The town’s oldest historical site is perhaps the San Sebastian Parish, the first stone church built in the province and also the first one built by the Franciscans outside Manila.

Built in 1600, the church is adorned with stained glass and a neo-classical altar.

Abad said the last two extant Lumbang trees in town are at the church’s fore.

Fifteen minutes from the town proper is the majestic Caliraya Lake, one of the province’s famous hotspots that local and foreign tourists visit yearly for its serene, man-made reservoir and wealth of activities like windsurfing, jet skiing, speed boating, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, and camping.

To get to Lumban, one can trek the South Superhighway en route to Sta. Rosa, Laguna; take the Siniloan, Laguna road via Antipolo, Rizal; or ride a bus heading straight to Lumban from a terminal in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Source: Manila Standard Today

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