The Manangete. Ballpoint pen on Moleskine notebook.
This is a repost. Everyone in my house is/was sick with the flu and now I think I am getting it. I am still working so I don't have the energy to draw a climbing thing. I think this one is perfect and it has a story..
The managete (pronounced Ma-nang- gete) is a man who makes his living by making "tuba" which is an alcoholic beverage derived from fermenting coconut juice. The juices are collected in bamboo tube containers hung up high in the tree. The manangete then collects the fermented juices.
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Coconut trees are very tall. It's obvious the manangetes have no fear of heights. They are very slender men and have very dark skin because they live mostly by the seashore. They climb the coconut trees with ease and with no protective devices. They may use a rope to tie to around the tree if they stay up the tree for a while. They create a melodic noise with their tapping of the coconut fruits and the bamboo tube.
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These are all memories to me now, in sepia tone, of a time and age when the world was full of awe and mystery. As children we saw manangetes but we never spoke to them. They seemed to love their solitude. They are unmistakably identifiable with that slender build, folded pants, bare feet, the bamboo tube slung over their shoulder and that sickle on their waist!
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The tuba was another story. Mother bought them in vast quantities and stored them in beautiful vats to further ferment and distill into vinegar. I loved the way the tuba was delivered. Everything they used then came from the coconut tree and were natural including the basket lined with tightly woven and sealed palm leaves. There was no plastic! Sometimes the manangete came with palm fronds which we used for wrapping ibus, made of sweet sticky rice. Sometimes we just played with them. They are beautiful leaves.
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I drank tuba when I was a child, when Mother was busy negotiating with the manangete. Okay, it was just a taste. It is a very intoxicating drink and men could be seen drinking tuba in front of sari-sari stores in the evening.
.
Coconut trees are very tall. It's obvious the manangetes have no fear of heights. They are very slender men and have very dark skin because they live mostly by the seashore. They climb the coconut trees with ease and with no protective devices. They may use a rope to tie to around the tree if they stay up the tree for a while. They create a melodic noise with their tapping of the coconut fruits and the bamboo tube.
.
These are all memories to me now, in sepia tone, of a time and age when the world was full of awe and mystery. As children we saw manangetes but we never spoke to them. They seemed to love their solitude. They are unmistakably identifiable with that slender build, folded pants, bare feet, the bamboo tube slung over their shoulder and that sickle on their waist!
.
The tuba was another story. Mother bought them in vast quantities and stored them in beautiful vats to further ferment and distill into vinegar. I loved the way the tuba was delivered. Everything they used then came from the coconut tree and were natural including the basket lined with tightly woven and sealed palm leaves. There was no plastic! Sometimes the manangete came with palm fronds which we used for wrapping ibus, made of sweet sticky rice. Sometimes we just played with them. They are beautiful leaves.
.
I drank tuba when I was a child, when Mother was busy negotiating with the manangete. Okay, it was just a taste. It is a very intoxicating drink and men could be seen drinking tuba in front of sari-sari stores in the evening.
Ang Sumsuman. Two Men Drinking Tuba. Oil on canvas. 36x48 inches.
28 comments:
Hi Ces!!!
so sorry to hear everyone was ill...I was sick last week too...It was not fun at all....
These pieces are wonderful...I love your oil painting!!! you need to have an exhibition with all your work!!!
Hugs
Diana
wonderful detailed drawing!
i hope you'll feel better soon!
Nice drawing. I like the perspective from the top of the tree.
Sorry about the illness. I hope you feel better soon.
What beautiful memories. I too could not resist the fermentiing juice of grapes althoug forbidden. There are some happy memories from childhood.
sorry your house is like a hospital, you don't need that at both places.
A crazy amount of detail here ...
Great drawing and beautiful painting. I really enjoyed reading about it. You have a way with words.
What exotic memories you have. I've seen boys shimmying up coconut trees in Tahiti and Fiji with nothing but their feet as traction . . . amazing. I've seen an aboriginal split a coconut and peel it within 3 minutes with nothing more than a spike and his bare hands. Sorry to hear about the flu . .are you sure it doesn't transmit through the ether? We're beseiged by it once again at work. Keep well my friend. Oh, and I love your painting of the two men. It's a very tropical thing to sit outside drinking (we do it all the time!)
Love the perspective on this, afraid of heights as I am. And to think this is ball point pen! Are there still managetes working their magic with bare feet and bamboo tubes? Absolutely amazing. I love your painting as well, the colors and the looseness. I can feel the tropics.
I hope your household recovers quickly. I'm sorry to hear this special week has been marred with illness. Hug the birthday girl for me.
This is really interesting!
I am sorry you're feeling icky. I hope it goes through quickly.
Wonderful drawing Cec. Gorgeous painting too and such superb memories for you. When we were in St Lucia we were amazed at the skill of the chaps who scaled the coconut trees and chopped them off so we had fresh coconut every day. What we didn't like were the rats that ran down the tree as the man climbed up!
I do hope your illness doesn't last too long.
Hello everyone, thanks for all you comments and well wishes. I hope to shake this bug off by tomorrow.
Thank you Diana. Alas, most of my paintings are no longer with me. This one is in the Philippines in someone's estate.
Hello Asjs and welcome. Thank you very much.
Hi Josh, thank you. It's an experimental perspective for me. I thought I'd focus on the guy and show it from his point of view.
Thank you Arija, those drinks are very enticing. I am surprised I never developed a taste for alcohol later in life and if I do drink it's the German Piesporter varieties from the Mosel Saar Ruwer region, Auslese and Spatlese to be exact. Very sweet. Tuba is totally different, it is so vulgar and daring.
Thank you Red-handed. This illustrator loves details!
Thank you dear Sandy. I like that compliment.
Baino, who knows if it is contagious. I thought I'd be spared because I had the vaccine, apparently this is a different strain. Very interesting to care for family memebers. The Epsilons are so very different from one another. First Epsilon reminded me why I hated bedside nursing and went to the ER. Yes, tuba is exotic, I agree.
Why dear Bella, you remembered! Thank you. No birthday greetings for anyone else except Epsilon II this weekend. I am much too irritable and sick. But what am I doing at this hour? I woke up, logged in to work and started reading work emails where I found requests and so here I am. I slept all evening. Must go back to bed. Thanks.
Hi Chris, agree with you about the speedy recovery. I can't wait. Thank you so much.
Thank you BT. Oh drats those rats! They are also in the Philippines but the growers place a sheet of shiny metal around the trunks that are supposed to deter the animals from climbing, who knows if they are successful. Oh gee, now I feel sick thinking about rats and mice. :)
I love this repost!! Get well, everyone! Hope your weekend brings a lift in the flu flog.
Yes, I agree. The flu fog has worn out its welcome!
I remember this drawing and the story! You should put them all in a book and publish them.
Ces, feel free to ignore this if you wish. I've been 'tagged' but the instructions to 'tag' others don't work so here it is. A meme originally from Leatherdykeuk.
25 Things Meme from LeatherdykeUK
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.
It didn't work for me - who's me? - BT!!
Hope you feel better Ces, your art is, as always, wonderful. Stop by, I have something for you that may cheer you up.
I like tuba... alas it is disappearing little by little...
Don't get sick !
Carla, someday, I will get down and do it. Thanks.
BT, thank you. I loved reading your 25. I will do mine as soon as I feel better.
Pam, thank you. I am so honored.
Sidney, I am already sick!
this may sound sick but while looking at the picture on top, i was reminded of an article in BBC where a girl stayed in a glass room in the mall with 5000 scorpions for a month!she came out with some scorpions still clinging to her chest. she was bitten only 13 times.she was from thailand. eeeeeeeek! (to the scorpions not the country)
Ces your beautiful description of the Managetes working in the tops of the coconut trees bring your drawings alive with colour sound and smells.
I hope you are all on the mend*!*
That is very weird B&B.
Bimbimbie, the tuba won't be a good thing to drink right now. It causes diarrhea sometimes because probably it is not pasteurized or sterilized.
I had the flu for 10 days during the xmas and New year holiday, it was bad and I am so grateful to be well now :) I hope you and yours get well soon and I love the drawing and painting as well as the story! I wouldn't mind a taste of tuba :)
Ten days Val! I can't afford to be sick for ten days! Thank you and Thanks for the well wishes.
Hahaha! Nostalgic. I can relate to this post. We also call them "pilot" for reasons I don't know. Back then, I was a very lazy boy but I would volunteer to buy tuba at Nanay Petra's store just so I could have a free taste.
Btw, I really have a difficulty illustrating manangetes and you just did an excellent job showing how high they are up there, with a view of solitary nipa huts and their backyard.
I hope you don't catch the flu. Ingat!:)
Yes, I do remember calling them pilot because they climb UP!
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