"The lantay, whether found in the yard or inside the house, is a household feature that offers a peek into the Cebuano himself."
LANTAY: a piece of life
In many houses in the rural areas, one finds a very common feature called the lantay. It is a long platform made of split bamboo nailed or lashed onto a framing of wood or bamboo poles. The lantay, whether found in the yard or inside the house, is a household feature that offers a peek into the Cebuano himself.
The lantay has no fixed usage. It serves a number of functions. One can sit on it, lie in it - it can be used for eating, reading and conversations as well. Cebuanos know what activities can be performed in this space within specific times.
EAST MEETS WEST
Here, we differ starkly from people of other cultures. In Japan, the walls within the room move to accommodate the day's activities within the same space. In many Western countries, the people move from space to space for each activity. But we are able to make do with less walls and lesser space. And this is possible because we carry around us internalized behavior within the house which we have learned in childhood. Like looking the other way when someone in the room needs privacy. Consequently, we do not feel crowded or depressed when we do not have enough space.
The psychologist Robert Sommer discovered in a study, that interactions among Westerners were most frequent when people were seated at right angles to each other or when they were face to face. A side-by-side seating arrangement, on the other hand, resulted to disengagement and discouraged conversation. But it is interesting that in our case, the side-by-side arrangement afforded by the lantay offers to us Cebuanos a wholly different experience. It also offers charming insights into how we relate with others.
HOSPITALITY
When a guest is ushered into the house and invited to sit in the lantay placed against the wall by the window, he is let into the private realm of his host. The hos takes his place on the same lantay, side-by-side with his guest and in doing so share with his guest the same view, whether it is the interior of the room or the scenery outside. There is no direct eye contact, as the case with many Asians, but with this engagement the host might as well have taken the guest by the hand and walked with him into his own private world, baring to him his thoughts, allowing the guest glimpses into his soul. In effect, he is saying to his guest, I am totally bare and vulnerable before you because I trust you. He is in that manner displaying the highest kind of hospitality, the kind that goes deeper than an offer of food or shelter.
The lantay shared, thus symbolizes a more profound connectedness among the Cebuanos, expressed often as genuine concern about the state of affairs of friends and acquaintances. Some of my foreign colleagues at the University still get taken aback every time a Cebuano unleashes a litany of the recent events of his life in answer to the peremptory morning greeting "how are you?".
JEEPNEY INTIMACY
This also probably explains why the seating arrangements inside our jeepneys work so well, and we hardly mind the thigh-pressed-against-thigh intimacy, even as the driver cajoles more commuters into his vehicle by cries of "sibug-sibugi lang bay kay walo-walo man ni." (please compress because this can seat eight).
This connectedness is manifested also in the clustering of houses around matriarchal or patriarchal home bases. Or in the way we give directions not by steet and house numbers but by places which have meaning to residents like "likod sa mercado" (behind the market), or "kilid sa tindahan ni Nang Monay" (beside the store of Madam Monay).
And we feel most secure when this sense of connectedness is reinforced in the places which we inhabit. This is why planners and designers now are more sensitive in the handling of spaces for human habitat. A New Zealand architect Ian Athfield appreciated this enough in his design for the relocation site for the Dagat-dagatan community in Tondo in the mid 70's.
CASUAL MEETINGS
His lay-out, inspired by the barangayan concept, took into consideration the Filipinos' penchant for relating with neighbors and friends. It features a network of workplaces, open areas and housing clusters with porches, cultivated gardens and silongs for the chickens. The development concept was geared to the specific needs of the low-income groups with job opportunities to ensure self-sufficiency, ecological fitness, and also (and very importantly), with provisions for pedestrian and non-motorized lanes that ensure casual meetings and socialization among the residents -- in short, their need for connectedness.
Cebuanos can learn lessons from this set-up. Government plans to construct multi-level housing might be better-looking than the flimsier native, single-detached units. But they could be more disturbing to live in that what they replace. Unless our tangible needs like human relationships, a sense of dignity, openness and hospitality are sensitively handled and responded to.
Other articles by the author in this website.