The municipal government of this town is aiming to preserve its traditional bamboo weaving by setting up a demonstration center and training the younger generation.

In an interview on Thursday, tourism officer Rona Mae Paticaoen said weavers are mostly senior citizens, and the sustainability of bamboo weaving itself is a challenge.

But with the demo center, they hope to ignite the interest of young people in learning the traditional craft.

“We are trying to give them jobs at the demo center, which we will establish. So, we’re planning to build a demo center and then hire young people so that they will have a salary. So that they will be inspired. It’s like an employment, and the elder weavers will train them,” she said.

Paticaoen said the idea of a demo center came from tourists who wanted to witness the actual weaving of the bamboo products they are purchasing.

Three out of the town’s 17 barangays are into bamboo weaving.

“Duplas-Bulalaan weavers, their product is the basket, the pouch, and then the wallets, and then the Turod Bamboo Weavers, they have the baskets, the trays, and the bags. They’re crafting different (products), so that they won’t compete,” she said.

Duplas and Bulalaan have 20 members, and Turod has 10.

Also part of their sustainability and preservation effort is the bamboo-planting activity since the bolo bamboo is the main raw material for their products.

Paticaoen said with the demand for the weavers’ products, they needed to source bamboo from other places.

“We started planting bamboos, or what we call Bamboo Planting month, every first week of October since last year at the Top Allan Adventure Park,” she said.

The adventure park is an emerging attraction offering a scenic view of mountains, a sea of clouds, and the aerial view of some parts of La Union.

Luisito Corpuz, 54, a bamboo basket weaver, said he has been weaving bamboo into baskets and bags since he was 10 years old. His father taught him the craft, which eventually became his family’s source of income.

Noli Velasco, 70, said he was able to send his children to college while weaving bamboo for about 30 years. However, his children expressed no interest in continuing with bamboo weaving.

The bamboo weavers’ products are sold in sets ordered by various companies from La Union and outside the province. It would take approximately two days to finish a product, starting from cleaning the bamboo up to the actual weaving. (PNA)