PHILIPPINES
Region : Southeast AsiaCapital : MANILA
Largest City : QuezonArea :
299,764 sq kmPopulation : 91,983,000 (2009)
Languages : Filipino (based on Tagalog)English, Bikol, Cebuano,Hiligaynon,
Ilokano,Pampango,Pangasinense, Tagalog, Waray etc.
Time Zone : PST (UTC+8)
The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by thePhilippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 92 million people, the Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country. An additional 11 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic cultures. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences.
The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 marked the beginning of an era of Spanish interest and eventual dominance. Manila emerged as the Asian hub of the Manila–Acapulco galleon fleet. Missionary work led to widespread Christianity. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, there followed in quick succession the short-lived Philippine Revolution, the Spanish-American War, and thePhilippine-American War. In the aftermath, the United States replaced Spain as the dominant power. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until the end of World War II when the Philippines gained independence. The United States bequeathed to the Philippines the English language and a stronger affinity for Western culture. Since independence the Philippines has had an often tumultuous experience with democracy, with popular "People Power" movements overthrowing a dictatorship in one instance but also underlining the institutional weaknesses of its constitutional republic in others.
HISTORY
Prior to 2010, the earliest known human remains found in the Philippines were those of the pre-Mongoloid Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 24,000 years ago.In 2010, however, ametatarsal of Callao Man (possibly Negrito in physical type) discovered in 2007 was reported to have been reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago. Negritos were among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants but their appearance in the Philippines has not been reliably dated. They were followed by speakers of Malayo-Polynesian languages who began arriving around 4000 BCE, displacing the earlier arrivals. By 1000 BCE, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four kinds of social groups: hunter-gathering tribes, warrior societies, petty plutocracies, and maritime-centered harbor principalities.
Trade between the maritime-oriented peoples and other Asian countries during the subsequent period brought influences from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. During this time there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine Archipelago. Instead, the islands were divided among competing thalassocracies ruled by various datus, rajahs, or sultans. Among them were the kingdoms of Maynila, Namayan, and Tondo, the rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu, and the sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu. Some of these societies were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit, and Brunei. Islam was brought to the Philippines by traders and proselytizers from Malaysia and Indonesia. By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and by 1565 had reached Mindanao, the Visayas, and Luzon
In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines and claimed the islands for Spain. Colonization began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first European settlements in Cebu. In 1571, after dealing with the local royal families in the wake of the Tondo Conspiracy and defeating the Chinese pirate warlord Limahong, the Spanish established Manila as the capital of the Spanish East Indies.
Spanish rule contributed significantly to bringing political unity to the archipelago. From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and then was administered directly from Madrid after the Mexican War of Independence. The Manila galleons linking Manila to Acapulco traveled once or twice a year between the 16th and 19th centuries. Trade introduced foods such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, and pineapples from the Americas Roman Catholic missionaries converted most of the lowland inhabitants to Christianity and founded schools, a university, and hospitals. While a Spanish decree introduced free public schooling in 1863, efforts in mass public education mainly came to fruition during the American period.
José Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, and Mariano Ponce: leaders of the Propaganda Movement
During its rule, the Spanish fought off various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges from Chinese pirates, the Dutch, and the Portuguese. In an extension of the fighting of the Seven Years' War, British forces under the command of Brigadier General William Draper and Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish briefly occupied Manila. They found local allies like Diego and Gabriela Silang who took the opportunity to lead a revolt, but Spanish rule was eventually restored following the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
Revolutionary sentiments were stoked in 1872 after three priests—Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, andJacinto Zamora (collectively known as Gomburza)—were accused of sedition by colonial authorities and executed. This would inspire a propaganda movement in Spain, organized by Marcelo H. del Pilar,José Rizal, and Mariano Ponce, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. Rizal was eventually executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion. As attempts at reform were meeting with resistance, Andrés Bonifacio in 1892 established the secret society called the Katipunan, a society along the lines of the freemasons, which sought independence from Spain through armed revolt. Bonifacio and the Katipunan started the Philippine Revolution in 1896. A faction of the Katipunan, the Magdalo of Cavite province, eventually came to challenge Bonifacio's position as the leader of the revolution and Emilio Aguinaldo took over. In 1898, the Spanish-American War began in Cuba and reached the Philippines. Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898 and the First Philippine Republic was established the following year. Meanwhile, the islands were ceded by Spain to the United States for US$20 million dollars in the 1898 Treaty of Paris. As it became increasingly clear the United States would not recognize the First Philippine Republic, the Philippine-American War broke out. It ended with American control over the islands which were then administered as an insular area
The more than 7,000 islands in this vast archipelago east of Vietnam between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea offer a stunning range of natural gifts and splendors. A former colony of Spain ceded to the United States after the Spanish-American War, the islands were occupied by the Japanese during World War II, but democracy thrives today. Sitting astride a global typhoon belt, the islands typically endure as many as a half dozen cyclonic storms a year. Poverty and deforestation mar the islands' many charms.
CLIMATE
The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate and is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons:tag-init or tag-araw, the hot dry season or summer from March to May; tag-ulan, the rainy season from June to November; and tag-lamig, the cool dry season from December to February. The southwest monsoon (from May to October) is known as the Habagat, and the dry winds of the northeast monsoon (from November to April), the Amihan.[92] Temperatures usually range from 21°C (70°F) to 32°C (90°F) although it can get cooler or hotter depending on the season. The coolest month is January; the warmest is May.
The average yearly temperature is around 26.6°C (79.88°F). In considering temperature, location in terms of latitude and longitude is not a significant factor. Whether in the extreme north, south, east, or west of the country, temperatures at sea level tend to be in the same range. Altitude usually has more of an impact. The average annual temperature of Baguio at an elevation of 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) above sea level is 18.3°C (64.9°F), making it a popular destination during hot summers. Likewise, Tagaytayis a favored retreat.
Sitting astride the typhoon belt, most of the islands experience annual torrential rains and thunderstorms from July to October, with around nineteen typhoons entering the Philippine area of responsibility in a typical year and eight or nine making landfall. Annual rainfall measures as much as 5,000 millimeters (200 inches) in the mountainous east coast section but less than 1,000 millimeters (39 inches) in some of the sheltered valleys.The wettest known tropical cyclone to impact the archipelago was the July 1911cyclone, which dropped over 1,168 millimetres (46.0 in) of rainfall within a 24-hour period in Baguio City.Bagyo is the local term for a tropical cyclone in the Philippines
EDUCATION
The National Statistics Office reports a simple literacy rate of 93.4% and a functional literacy rate of 84.1% for 2003. Literacy is about equal for males and females. Spending for education is around 2.5% of GDP.According to the Department of Education, or DepEd, there were 42,152 elementary schools and 8,455 high schools registered for the school year 2006–2007 while theCommission on Higher Education (CHED) lists 2,060 higher education institutions, 537 of which are public and 1,523 private. Classes start in June and end in March. The majority of colleges and universities follow a semester calendar from June to October and November to March. There are a number of foreign schools with study programs. Republic Act No. 9155 gives the framework of basic education in the Philippines and provides for compulsory elementary education and free high school education.
The University of Santo Tomas, founded in 1611 is the Philippines' and Asia's oldest existing university.
Several government agencies are involved with education. The Department of Education covers elementary, secondary, and nonformal education; the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) administers the post-secondary middle-level education training and development; and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) supervises the college and graduate academic programs and degrees as well as regulates standards in higher education. In 2004, madrasahs were mainstreamed in 16 regions nationwide mainly in Muslim areas in Mindanao under the auspices and program of the Department of Education.
CULTURE & SOCIETYPhilippine culture is a combination of Eastern and Western cultures. The Philippines exhibits aspects found in other Asian countries with a Malay heritage, yet its culture also displays a significant amount of Spanish and American influences. Traditional festivities known as barrio fiestas (district festivals) to commemorate the feast days of patron saints are common.
Percussion instruments that make up the Philippine kulintang ensemble, an example of pre-Hispanic musical tradition
The Moriones Festival and Sinulog Festivalare a couple of the most well-known. These community celebrations are times for feasting, music, and dancing. Some traditions, however, are changing or gradually being forgotten due to modernization. The Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company has been lauded for preserving many of the various traditional folk dances found throughout the Philippines. They are famed for their iconic performances of Philippine dances such as the tinikling and singkil that both feature the use of clashing bamboo poles.
Ethnologue lists 175 individual languages in the Philippines, 171 of which are living languages while 4 no longer have any known speakers. They are part of the Borneo-Philippines group of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is itself a branch of the Austronesian language family.
According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is a de factoversion of Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila and other urban regions. Both Filipino and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business. The constitution designates regional languages such as Bicolano, Cebano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog, and Waray-Waray as auxiliary official languages, and mandates that Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.
Other languages such as Aklanon, Boholano, Chavacano, Zamboangueño, Cuyonon, Ifugao, Itbayat, Ivatan, Kalinga, Kamayo, Kankana-ey, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Masbatenyo, Romblomanon, Surigaonon, Tausug, Yakan, and several Visayan languages are prevalent in their respective provinces.
Religion
More than 90% of the population are Christians: about 80% belong to the Roman Catholic Church while 10% belong to other Christian denominations, such as the Philippine Independent Church, Iglesia ni Cristo, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventist Church, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Orthodox Church. The Philippines is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being East Timor.Between 5% and 10% of the population are Muslim, most of whom live in parts of Mindanao, Palawan, and the Sulu Archipelago—an area known as Bangsamoro or the Moro region. Some have migrated into urban and rural areas in different parts of the country. Most Muslim Filipinos practice Shafi'i, a form of Sunni Islam.
Philippine traditional religions are still practiced by many aboriginal and tribal groups, often syncretized with Christianity and Islam. Animism, folk religion, and shamanism remain present as undercurrents of mainstream religion, through the albularyo, the babaylan, and the manghihilot.Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion, are dominant in Chinese communities. There are also followers of Baha'i.
Mythology and literature
Philippine mythology has been handed down primarily through the traditional oral folk literature of the Filipino people. While each unique ethnic group has its own stories and myths to tell Hindu and Spanish influence can nonetheless be detected in many cases. Many of the myths are creation stories or stories about supernatural creatures, such as the aswang (vampire), the diwata (fairy), and Nature. Some popular figures from Philippine mythologies are Maria Makiling, Lam-Ang, and the Sarimanok.Philippine literature comprises works usually written in Filipino, Spanish, or English. Some of the most known were created in the 19th century.Francisco Balagtas the poet and playwright who wrote Florante at Laura is recognized as a preeminent writer in the Filipino language. José Rizalwrote the novels Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibustering, also known as The Reign of Greed) and is considered a national hero. His depiction of the injustices of Spanish rule, and his death by firing squad, inspired other Philippine revolutionaries to seek independence. In the 20th century, among those officially recognized as National Artists of the Philippines in literature are N.V.M. Gonzalez, Nick Joaquin, F. Sionil Jose, and Alejandro Roces.
PALAWAN PROVINCE
The crystal clear waters and limestone karsts of Palawan.
Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The Province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island, measuring 450 kilometers (280 mi) long, and 50 kilometers (31 mi) wide.
Palawan
Palawan is composed of the long and narrow Palawan Island, plus a number of other smaller islands surrounding the main island. The Calamianes Group of Islands, to the northwest consists of Busuanga Island, Culion Island, and Coron Island. Durangan Island almost touches the westernmost part of Palawan Island, while Balabac Island is located off the southern tip, separated from Borneo by the Balabac Strait. In addition, Palawan covers the Cuyo Islands in the Sulu Sea. The disputed Spratly Islands, located a few hundred kilometers to the west is considered part of Palawan by the Philippines, and is locally called the KalayaanGroup of Islands.
THE BEAUTIFUL BANGUIO CITY (SUMMER CAPITAL OF PHILIPPINES)
The City of Baguio is a highly urbanized city in northern Luzon in the Philippines. Baguio City was established by Americans in 1900 at the site of an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway. Baguio City was designated by the Philippine Commission as the Summer Capital of the Philippines on June 1, 1903 and incorporated as a city by the Philippine Assembly on September 1, 1909. Baguio is the seat of government of the Cordillera Administrative Region. The name of the city is derived from the word bagiw in Ibaloi, the indigenous language of the Benguet Region, meaning 'moss'. The city is at an altitude of approximately 1500 meters (5100 ft) in the Luzon tropical pine forests ecoregion conducive to the growth of mossy plants and orchids.
According to the 2007 census, Baguio City has a population of 301,926.
View of Bagio
The City of Baguio celebrated its Centennial on September 1, 2009. The celebrations marked the first 100 years of the Baguio City Charter, which was authored by former Philippines Supreme Court Justice George A. Malcolm.
The region around Baguio was first settled primarily by the Kankana-eys and the Ibalois. In the nearby town of La Trinidad, Spaniards established a commandante or military garrison, although Kafagway, as Baguio was once known, was barely touched. In 1901 Japanese and Filipino workers hired by the Americans built Kennon Road, the first road directly connecting Kafagway with the lowlands of Pangasinan. Before this, the only road to Kafagway was Naguilian Road. On September 1, 1909 Baguio was declared a chartered city. The famous American architect Daniel Burnham, one of the earliest successful modern city planners, laid a meticulous plan for the city in 1904. His plan was, nevertheless, realized only to a small extent, primarily due to growth of the city well beyond its initial planned population of 25,000 people. The Americans earlier declared Baguio the Summer Capital of the Philippines on July 1, 1903 and The American Residence as the residence of the American governor-general to escape Manila's summer heat. They further developed Baguio, building parks and public structures such as Wright Park in honor of Governor General Luke E. Wright, Burnham Park in honor of Baguio city planner Daniel Burnham, Governor Pack Road, and Session Road.
One of the Attraction in Bagio
Baguio is the site of the formal surrender of General Tomoyuki Yamashita and Vice Admiral Okochi. It is where they gave up the entire Imperial Japanese Armed Forces to American authorities at the High Commissioner's Residence (now the United States Ambassador's Residence) in Camp John Hay on September 3, 1945, marking the end of World War II.
Traditional performers of Bagio
Geography and climate in Bagio
Baguio City is located some 1,500 meters above seal level, nestled within the Cordillera Central mountain range in northern Luzon. The city is enclosed by the province of Benguet. It covers a small area of 57.5 square kilometers. Most of the developed part of the city is built on uneven, hilly terrain of the northern section. When Daniel Burnham plotted the plans for the city, he made the City Hall as a reference point where the city limits extend 8.2 kilometers from east to west and 7.2 kilometers from north to south. It is the highest major Philippine city in terms of elevation.
The city is known for its mild climate.It is because of this that Baguio is nicknamed the "Summer Capital of the Philippines". Owing to its high elevation, the temperature in the city is 8 degrees Celsius lower compared to the average temperature of the rest of the country. Average temperature ranges from 15 to 23 degrees Celsius. It is usually lower during the late and early months of the year. The lowest recorded temperature was 6.3 degrees Celsius on January 18, 1961. This is in contrast to the all-time high of 30.4 degrees Celsius recorded on March 15, 1988 during the 1988 El Niño season. Baguio seldom exceeds 26 degrees Celsius even during the warmest part of the year.
Volcano Lake in Philippines
The people of Cordillera, 3'000 years ago took on one of mankind's most impressive landscape modification projects in order to farm effectively transform a mountainside region into what some now call the eighth wonder of the world. These are The Rice Terraces of the Philippines Cordillera. The project is astonishing due to the fact that it was completed thousands of years ago without the use of modern apparatus and machinery takes the terraces and integrated irrigation systems to a whole new level.
Banaue Rice Terraces in Philippines - Amazing Human Engineering Achieve
In Luzon Province of the Northern Philippines, through mountains and rice terraces, the road ends at a church, in a small town called Banaue. 4,000 feet above sea level in Banaue sits a small market village in Ifugao province. Located north of Manila in the Philippines, Ifugao province is famous for the handiwork of its people, who increased cultivable lands by carving gigantic rice terraces from the sides of mountains.
Mayon Volcano in Luzon
CUISINE:
Philippine cuisine has evolved over several centuries from its Malayo-Polynesian origins to become a mixed cuisine with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian influences that have been adapted to local ingredients and the Filipino palate to create distinctively Filipino dishes.
Sinigang
Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to the elaborate, such as the paellas andcocidos created for fiestas. Popular dishes include lechón, adobo, sinigang, kare-kare, tapa, crispy pata,pancit, lumpia, and halo-halo. Some common local ingredients used in cooking are calamondins, coconuts, saba (a kind of short wide plantain), mangoes, milkfish, and fish sauce. Filipino taste buds tend to favor robust flavors but the cuisine is not as spicy as those of its neighbors
The halo-halo is a dessert made of ice, milk, various fruits, and ice cream.
Unlike many of their Asian counterparts, Filipinos do not eat with chopsticks; they use western cutlery. However, possibly due to rice being the primary staple food and the popularity of a large number of stews and main dishes with broth in Philippine cuisine, the main pairing of utensils seen at the Filipino dining table is that of spoon and fork, not knife and fork.
a street food - Okoy
The traditional way of eating with the hands known as kamayan is seen more often in less urbanized areas.
Mountain tribes in Northern Luzon
Their ancestors constructed the fascinating rice terraces with the perfect working irrigation systems. These mountain tribes still distinguish themselves by their specific cultural expression and their skills They have skills in making bowls, baskets, weapons and clothing. It were the Bontocs and the Ifugao people who built up the rice terraces. Traveling in the provinces of Ifugao or other provinces in Luzon, will make clear to you that the way of living of these people didn't change. They are still living and working as in the past.
Many tourists decide to make the long bus-trip from Manila to these provinces especially to meet the Ifugao, the Bontocs, the Kankanays or other tribes. n the past the Ifugao were feared head-hunters, just as other tribes in the mountainous regions of northern Luzon. The war-dance (the bangibang) is one of the cultural remnants of the time of tribal conflict his dance is traditionally held on the walls of the rice terraces by the men, equipped with spears, axes and wooden shields and a headdress made of leaves.
Typical houses of the Ifugao tribes:
The Ifugao build their houses on piles. The pyramid-shaped roof is used as a bedroom, kitchen and storeroom. All in one space!
There are no windows. To please the gods, the skull of a sacrificed pig is fixed on the outside of the house. The residents still live in the same type of houses as their ancestors.
Skills of the Ifugao : The Ifugao still practice the same skills as in the past: Woodcarving and weaving clothes. They discovered the tourists as a welcome client for their products in a time that the most young Ifugao prefer Western clothes.
MINDANAO ISLANDS:Mindanao is located at the mos southerly and easterly point in the Philippines. The island has a unique character that makes it seem very different from the rest of the Philippines. It is also a land between modern and traditional. Mindanao is the centre of Islam in the Philippines, though it is now the island's minority religion. Even so the struggle to secure an independent Muslim state on the island has been taking place for centuries and continues to these days.
Waterfront, Zambaonga, Mindanao
The thriving industrial centre that is Davao City certainly belongs to the 21st century, as do the many intensive agri-businesses producing commodities like pineapples and meat.
But once away from centres of population in the largely unspoiled back country, adventurous visitors will find themselves in a nature – lovers paradise and will be fascinated by the timeless way of life. Rich flora and fauna, astonishing attractions, stunning coastlines and islands, white sand beaches, crystal water, different ethnic communities with colourful festivals – all combine to make Mindanao a popular tourist destination.
Thanks & Regards, Raj. Kumar (Information & Images Courtesy to various Websites)
www.keralites.net |
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