3156 PHILIPPINES (National Capital Region) - Feast of the Black Nazarene

The Black Nazarene is a life-sized image of a dark-skinned, kneeling Jesus Christ carrying the Cross enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in the Quiapo district of the City of Manila. It was carved by a unknown Mexican from a dark wood in the 16th century, and arrived in Manila via galleon from Acapulco, on May 31, 1606. It depicts Jesus en route to his crucifixion, and was housed in several churches near Manila in the early decades, arriving in Quiapo Church in 1787 where it has been enshrined ever since.

2453 PHILIPPINES (Cordillera Administrative Region) - Hanging coffins in Sagada

Sagada is nestled in a valley at the upper end of the Malitep tributary of the Chico River, in the Central Cordillera Mountains, enveloped between the main Cordillera Ranges and the Ilocos Range. Perhaps for lack of transportation and willing guides, few conquistadors set foot in Sagada during the Spanish Era, and a Spanish Mission was not founded until 1882. As a result, it is one of a few places that has preserved its indigenous culture with little Spanish influence.

2212 PHILIPPINES (CALABARZON) - Maglalatik

 

The Maglalatik is a dance from the Philippines in which coconut shell halves are secured onto the dancers' hands and on vests upon which are hung four or six more coconut shell halves. The dancers, all male, perform the dance by hitting one coconut shell with the other, and sometimes the shells worn by another performer, all in time to a fast drumbeat. The name comes from the latik, which means "fried coconut milk curd", a coconut product that is used in Filipino cooking, particularly in snacks.

2197 PHILIPPINES (National Capital Region) - The map of Manila

Located on the eastern shores of Manila bay, which rests on the western shores of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, Manila is the capital of the country. Even if it is only the second most populous city in the country, it is the densest populated city in the world with 42,857 people per square kilometer. The Pasig River bisects the city, so that almost all of it sits on alluvial deposits and on some land reclaimed from Manila Bay.

2065 PHILIPPINES (Western Visayas) - Dinagyang Festival

The Dinagyang is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo City, on Panay island, which takes place on the fourth Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog in Cebu and the Ati-Atihan Festival in Kalibo. It is held both to honor the Santo Niño and to celebrate the arrival on Panay of Malay settlers and the selling of the island to them. It isn't as ancient as the one in Kalibo, but is definitely impressive in choreography and striking in terms of the attires worn by participating tribes.

1762 PHILIPPINES (Southwestern Tagalog Region) - Pandanggo sa Ilaw dance

Pandanggo dance evolved from Fandango, a Spanish folk dance, which arrived in the Philippines during the Hispanic period. This dance, together with the Jota, became popular among the illustrados or the upper class and later adapted among the local communities. In the early 18th century, any dance that is considered jovial and lively was called Pandanggo. Ultimately, it has become popular also in the rural areas. There are many versions of this dance and each locality has its own version, but there is one thing in common between different versions: they have gay and sprightly figures.

1731 PHILIPPINES (Cordillera Administrative Region) - Balangbang Dance of Kankanaey people

The Kankanaey live in western Mountain Province, northern Benguet and southeastern Ilocos Sur, and are part of the Filipino indigenous group known as the Igorot people. They are one of the larger tribes the region, and, like most Igorot ethnic groups, built sloping terraces to maximize farm space in the rugged terrain of the Cordillera. Therefore, most of their income comes from tilling the fields, but they are also into mining since the territory yields lots of minerals, particularly gold. Hunting is also practiced by the people with the use of spears and dogs, while fishing is done with the use of bamboo traps. The women are said to be the best weavers in Benguet province.

1468 PHILIPPINES (Central Visayas) - Fort San Pedro in Cebu

Front entrance of Fuerte de San Pedro

Built in 1565 in the pier area of the Cebu City by Spanish and indigenous Cebuano labourers under the command of conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi, Fuerte de San Pedro served as the nucleus of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. The fort is triangular in shape, with two sides facing the sea and the third side fronting the land. The two sides facing the sea were defended with artillery and the front with a strong palisade made of wood. The three bastions were named La Concepción; Ignacio de Loyola, and San Miguel. The walls are 6.1m high by 2.4m thick, and the towers are 9.1m high from the ground level. Fourteen cannons were mounted in their emplacements most of which are still there today.

1249 PHILIPPINES (CALABARZON) - Kumintang

The kumintang is the name given to several distinct styles, techniques and forms in music and dance, probably originating in the areas used by early Spanish chronicles to denote a province centering around what is known as Batangas, on the southwestern part of Luzon. Early 19th-century travelers' accounts often mention the kumintang as a Tagalog "chant national", describing them as dance-songs performed by pairs of men and women, with texts concerning love and courtship. All accounts mention a glass of coconut wine passed from hand to hand by the dancers as they sing. Jean Baptiste Mallat describes it as a pantomimic dance where the man runs around and gestures to a woman, and finally pretends illness to get the woman's full attention. In the 20th century, Francisca Reyes-Aquino dubbed as kumintang the circular hand and wrist movement also known as the kunday. Among present-day afficinados of musical and dance events called awitan and pandangguhan in and around the city of Batangas, kumintang also refers to a guitar-plucking style, considered the most melodious and beautiful of all guitar styles accompanying the old kinanluran style of pandangguhan dance songs.

0942 PHILIPPINES (Northern Mindanao) - A Talaandig solemn ritual

 

Mindanao is the most culturally diverse island in the Philippines where people of different languages, tribes and races meet. The native Maguindanaon, Moro or Lumad groups have a culture that is different from the main culture of the Philippines. There are 17 ethnolinguistic groups Lumad (shortening for Katawhang Lumad, which in Cebuano literally means "indigenous peoples"), which at the beginning of the 20th century controlled an area covering now 17 of Mindanao’s 24 provinces, but by the 1980 census they constituted less than 6% of the population of Mindanao and Sulu. Katawhang Lumad are the un-Islamized and un-Christianized Austronesian peoples of Mindanao (about 20 general hilltribes). One of this tribes is the Talaandig, estimated to comprise about 100,000 people or more, who live in the province of Bukidnon, around the mountain of Kitanglad, their sacred "temple" and ancestral home. They have continued to preserve and promote its customs, beliefs and practices, despite the strong influx of modernization.

0847 PHILIPPINES (Cordillera Administrative Region) - An Ifugao dance

Ifugao is a landlocked province in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon, covering a mountainous region characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys, and massive forests, and is famous for its rice terraces (about which I wrote here), included among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995. The terraces were constructed by the ancestors of the Ifugao people (people of the hill), who still live and work as in the past. They are named Igorot (mountain people) by non-Cordilleran, and are different from other tribes in the area in culture, tradition, language, and idealism. In the past they were feared head-hunters, just as other tribes in these mountainous regions. Igorots may be divided into two subgroups, who prior to Spanish colonisation didn't considered themselves as belonging to a single ethnic group: one who lives in the south, central and western areas (adept at rice-terrace farming), and one who lives in the east and north. They may be further subdivided into five ethnolinguistic groups: the Bontoc, Ibaloi, Isnag (or Isneg/Apayao), Kalinga, and the Kankanaey.

0786 PHILIPPINES (Central Visayas) - Chocolate Hills Natural Monument (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

The Chocolate Hills are located in Bohol Province and is a rolling terrain of haycock hills, mounds of a generally conical and almost symmetrical shape. Estimated to be from 1,268 to about 1,776 individual mounds, spread over an area of more than 50 square km, these cone-shaped or dome-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone, that turns brown (like chocolate) during the dry season, hence the name. The domes vary in sizes from 30 to 50m high with the largest being 120m in height. They have been declared the country's third National Geological Monument and proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2006, under the name Chocolate Hills Natural Monument.

0362, 0782 PHILIPPINES (National Capital Region / Ilocos Region / Western Visayas) - Baroque Churches of the Philippines (UNESCO WHS)

0362 Paoay Church

Posted on 18.10.2012, 03.08.2013

As I said here with reference to the Philippines, "from Spaniards have remained Christianity and the name". Regarding the Christianizing of the native population, it began with the arrival of Magellan in 1521, and the Spaniards proved to be very effective, so that today Philippines is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic nations in Asia (the other being East Timor), about 93% of the population being Christian.

In parallel with the conversion of the indigenous were built many churches, "in the European style", but not a few of them suffered major destructions due to earthquakes in the area. For the Church as institution, this didn't mean only material damage, but also a loss of image and credibility, so the churchs builders had to make major structural changes. So appeared a new architectural style, EarthquakeBaroque, used also in Guatemala and even in Lisbon, characterized by more robust proportions, smaller height, and thicker and heavily buttresses.
  

0725 PHILIPPINES (Southwestern Tagalog Region) - Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (UNESCO WHS)

The Tubbataha Reef is an atoll coral reef and a Natural Marine Park in Sulu Sea, at 150km southeast of Puerto Princesa City, comprising two huge atolls (the North Atoll and South Atoll) and the smaller Jessie Beazley Reef. It considered to be the global center of marine biodiversity, because contains no less than 600 fish species, 360 coral species, 11 shark species, 13 dolphin and whale species, and 100 bird species. As a result, naturally, was included among UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.

0591 PHILIPPINES (Southwestern Tagalog Region) - Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park (UNESCO WHS)

Located on the northern coast of the island of Palawan, this park offers a spectacular limestone karst landscape, the main attraction being St. Pauls Underground River Cave - a more than 24km long cave, which contains an 8.2-km-long underground section of Cabayugan River, which was the world's longest underground river until 2007, when was discovered another one longest in Yucatán Peninsula. The river winds through the cave before flowing directly into the South China Sea, and is navigable with a boat up to 4km in from the sea.

0562 PHILIPPINES (CALABARZON) - Corregidor

To get to Manila by sea you have to get inside the Manila Bay, which is guarded by four islands: Corregidor, El Fraile, Caballo and Carabao. All were fortified during the American occupation of the Phillipines (begun in 1898), the most important being Corregidor, the largest among them. In 1908, a Regular Army post was established on the island, designated as Fort Mills, and in following year began the construction of concrete emplacements, bomb-proof shelters, and trails. Fort Mills, together with Fort Hughes (on Caballo), Fort Drum (on El Fraile) and Fort Frank (on Carabao), could withstand a six-month-long siege, after which the United States would provide aid.

0209 PHILIPPINES (Cordillera Administrative Region) - Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras (UNESCO WHS)

"For 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have followed the contours of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they have helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment", wrote UNESCO on its official website with reference to the site Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, inscribed among World Heritage Sites in 1995.

0201 PHILIPPINES (Ilocos Region) - Historic Town of Vigan (UNESCO WHS)

The City of Vigan is located in the delta of the Abra River, off the coastal plain of the South China Sea, close to the north-east tip of the large island of Luzon. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Isla de Vigan (Island of Vigan) was a small coastal trading post, consists of wooden or bamboo houses on stilts. In 1572 the conquistador Juan de Salcedo founded a new town on this site, which he named Villa Fernandina de Vigan (in honor of King Philip II’s son, Prince Ferdinand, who died at the age of four) and made it his capital when he was appointed "Justicia Mayor de esta Provincia de Ylocos" (Province Mayor of Ilocos). In 1576, Salcedo returned to the capital, bringing with him some soldiers, and Augustinian missionaries to Christianize the region.

0170 PHILIPPINES (Central Visayas) - Sinulog Festival

As I said here, the spaniards left to Filipinos the name and Christianity. If the name not undergone any change, the Christianity (more precisely Roman Catholicism), essentially the same as anywhere else of course, dressed forms of manifestation adapted to the local specific. Among these manifestations are traditional festivities, known as barrio fiestas (district festivals), which commemorates the feast days of patron saints, but also the pagan origin of the inhabitants. The Moriones Festival and Sinulog Festival are the most well-known. The second of these festivals, that honors the Santo Niño (the child Jesus - the patron saint of the province of Cebu), is held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City and lasts nine days.

0126 PHILIPPINES - The map and the flag of the country

Says Wikipedia: "The Philippines has been part of several empires: the Spanish Empire during the age of Imperialism, the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898, and the Japanese Empire during WWII, until the official Philippine independence in 1945." The phrase is so wonderfully dry and at the same time filled with content, that it seems literature. Kurt Vonnegut would be added finally "So it goes".