RESEARCH DATA:

The piningitan is a type of Tinguian or Itneg wrap-around skirt traditionally worn by early teens to adult women in Abra. The term is derived from the root word pingit, meaning “on the edge,” which refers to the embellishments along all the edges of the skirt (Respicio, 2000). Its defining features include plain white woven textile panels, bordered at all corners with red-dyed woven threads. The longer sides (the weft ends) are woven in the same style as the white panels, while the shorter sides (the warp ends) are woven using the brocade technique, creating more intricate designs.
Compared to the common skirts worn by Tinguian women, the piningitan is worn and showcased during special occasions when members of the community and/or neighboring communities gather. Respicio (2000) listed some of these occasions, such as the celebration of bedeng (a peace agreement between villages), pakalon or boda (wedding celebrations), lay-og (a commemoration feast for deceased relatives), and traditional feasts to appease the ancestors. While wearing the piningitan, women participate in the traditional Itneg dance called tadek (Respicio, 2000).
The piningitan features simple yet intricate elements that reflect not only the skills of the weavers but also the way the Tinguian people made sense of their surroundings, as well as the process by which the textile was woven. One of the patterns woven into the textile is called the binek-beklat, a python-like pattern woven along the two warp edges of the skirt. It is composed of black/indigo, red, and yellow threads woven using the brocade supplementary weft technique locally known as pinilian (Respicio, 2000). The binek-beklat is also called the tinultulbek or “key,” referring to the warp edges of the textile where the weaving process starts and ends (Respicio, 2000).
Moreover, another motif that represents an animal is the inar-arabas, a caterpillar-like motif arranged in a staccato pattern that separates the three white textile panels of the skirt. The pattern is mainly composed of indigo and red yarns, hand-sewn onto the textile (Respicio, 2000). Lastly, the weft edges of the skirt are called the inurlma, a term derived from the word ulma, which is the Tinguian term for dyeing. Inurlma essentially means “dyed,” describing the dyed threads used to weave the weft edges. Respicio (2000) explains that these dyed portions of the piningitan exhibit pigments extracted from natural sources of dyes, such as vegetables—specifically, sapang for the red, tayum for the indigo, and the wild ginger plant for the yellow.