Author: National Museum of the Philippines

Eid Mubarak to our Muslim brothers and sisters celebrating the Hari-raya Puasa or Eid al-Fitr!

Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. During the Eid al-Fitr, Muslims hold communal prayers in mosques or open spaces, which are often adorned with special lamps, drapes, and mats. They also wear their finest clothes as they visit other households and create and renew bonds by sharing local delicacies specially prepared for Eid al-Fitr.

Joining today’s celebration, the #NationalMuseumPH features the mosque, a place of worship for our Muslim brothers and sisters. There are 2 types of mosques in the Philippines, the ranggar or langgal, and the masjid. The ranggar is a small structure accommodating a few individuals for daily prayers in rural areas. The masjid is a permanent structure facing the holy city of Mecca. Its architecture is inspired by Western influences such as the presence of minarets (tall towers attached to or adjacent to the mosque), mihrab (a niche indicating the direction of Mecca), minbar (a pulpit on which the imam or prayer leader stands when delivering a sermon), and a place of ablution. During prayer, the floor is covered with a tepo (prayer mat) or carpet. In most mosques, men and women have different entrances and also separate prayer rooms. There are, however, mosques wherein both men and women can enter together but women would pray behind men.

The Sheik Karimol Makhdum Mosque located in Tubig Indangan, Simunul, Tawi-Tawi is the oldest mosque in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. It is believed to have been constructed in 1380 by Sheikh Makhdum Karim, an Arab trader who introduced Islam to the country. The 4 pillars found inside the mosque are the oldest Islamic artifacts in the country and date back to the 17th century.

The Sheik Karimol Makhdum Mosque was declared a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in May 2013.

#EidAlFitr
#HappyEid
#EidMubarak
#MuseumFromHome

Text by the NMP Ethnology Division

Photo courtesy of Mr. Paul Quiambao

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

 “Men at Work” by National Artist Ang Kiukok

The #NationalMuseumPH salutes all the Filipino working men and women in the country and around the world this Labor Day, May 1, 2022, featuring a painting by National Artist Ang Kiukok entitled “Men at Work” (1979).

“Men at Work” is a large-scale triptych oil on canvas painting created in 1979 by Ang Kiukok (1931-2005). This semiabstract painting depicting solid, heavy, and muscular human limbs and torso in tones of black and white and engaged in physical work represents the strength of the labor force. It was created in 1979 as a commissioned painting for the National Manpower and Youth Commission (NMYC) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). This was before the NMYC merged with the Bureau of Technical and Vocational Education (BTVE) of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS). The Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) of DOLE formed the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA in 1994. The painting used to be displayed at the auditorium entrance of the TESDA-NCR Office in Taguig.

The painting is currently loaned to the National Museum of the Philippines by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and can be viewed at the Spoliarium Hall. In 2021, Ang Kiukok’s “Men at Work” (1979) was declared a National Cultural Treasure (NCT) and Important Cultural Property (ICT) by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). 

Ang Kiukok (1931-2005) was born on March 1, 1931 in Davao City. His parents were Chinese immigrants. He attended a Chinese high school where he learned Chinese calligraphy. A commercial artist also taught him how to make charcoal portraits. In 1952, he flew to Manila and took art classes at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). While studying at UST, his work “Calesa” was awarded third place at the Shell National Students Art Competition in 1953. In 1954, he was forced to stop his studies due to financial constraints. He then ventured to produce watercolor works and held his first one-man exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in 1954, where he featured more than twenty watercolor pieces. Ang Kiukok’s proficiency in this medium was noticed by one of his mentors at UST, National Artist Vicente Manansala (1910-1981), who even showed Ang Kiukok’s watercolors to his students. In the succeeding years, he earned awards at the Art Association of the Philippines Annual Competition, such as the first prize for “The Bird” (1959), third prize for “Still Life in Red” (1963), second prize for “Fish” (1963), and second prize for “Geometric Still-Life Fish” (1963). His works in the 1960s gained popularity with a distinct style that combines influences from cubism and expressionism. 

His contribution to Philippine art was recognized with the conferment of the National Artist for Visual Arts in 2001. Four years later, Ang Kiukok passed away due to cancer on May 9, 2005. 

The National Museum of Fine Arts is now open for walk-in visitors! For visitor guidelines, please visit www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph. You may also view the 360 degrees virtual tour of selected NMFA galleries on the link https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nmfa360/HTML5/NMFA360.html. See you at your National Museum!

#AngKiukok
#LaborDay
#BeatCOVID19

Text and photo by NMP FAD

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

Traditional Food Wrappings in the Philippines

In celebration of the Filipino Food Month 2022, the #NationalMuseumPH explores Filipino gastronomy by featuring wrapped rice cakes, ground corn, mashed bananas and root crops using leaves from plants from different regions.

Filipino food ranges from sweet to savory, and from soupy to dry. Whether savory or sweet, food is usually served on platters, wrapped or unwrapped. For the former, the wrapper can be edible, folded, wound, or woven.

Common traditional food wrappers are leaves of banana, taro, coconut or buri, and corn sheaths. These are favored for their overall structure, pliable properties and aroma. Their inherent properties secure the food and prevent it from spilling—the broadness of banana leaves makes food wrapping easier as there is room for multiple folding while strips of coconut or buri leaves are woven into small containers.

Food such as suman Taal, suman sa lihiya, suman Bulacan/Tagalog, tamales, binot-ong, and sinaing na isda are cooked while wrapped in banana leaves. The pastil/pastel or cooked rice topped with sautéed shredded meat of Maguindanao and Maranao is also wrapped in a banana leaf and can be consumed on-the-go as well as the Palabok Tanza of Cavite and Pancit Habhab of Quezon.

The pusô in Visayas and Mindanao is rice cooked in woven pouch made from palm strips (Cocos nucifera) and usually paired with grilled meat. Palm strips are also used in wrapping and cooking suman sa ibos in Rizal, Aurora, Quezon, and Bicol. Dizon’s bakery of Cavite City, on the other hand, uses pandan (Pandanus sp.) as wrapped-around leaf to naturally infuse its aroma to pan de coco.

Edible food wrappers such as the lumpia wrapper made of cooked starch are used in making the fresh lumpia, fried spring rolls or lumpiang shanghai, and turon or fried plantain wrapped in lumpia wrapper covered with caramelized sugar. Taro or gabi leaf (Colocasia esculenta) is widely used in the Bicol region in coconut-based cooking—the spices and other ingredients of pinangat are wrapped in multiple layers of the leaf before stewing in coconut milk. The softened leaves due to long hours of cooking are edible and just perfect when mixed with the spices and other ingredients in it. Gabi leaves are also used in cooking another local dish called inun-on.

Food in traditional food wrappers is more sustainable and economical especially outside the metropolis. Traditionally wrapped food is an example of tangible cultural heritage, as it reflects the uniqueness of the cuisine in different regions.

#FilipinoFoodMonth2022
#FoodWraps

Text and poster by the NMP Ethnology Division

Photographs used courtesy of Jane Maren M. Dasal, Jessica T. Marquinez, Marites P. Tauro, Odie Dela Cruz/ The Dela Cruz Ancestral House, and Angel Weena Santos

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

KALUTANG: Marinduque’s Traditional Musical Instrument

Date: May 17, 2022

In celebration of National Heritage Month, the #NationalMuseumPH
invites you to a free webinar entitled “Kalutang: Marinduque’s Traditional Musical Instrument” on
17 May 2022 from 9 AM to 10:30 AM via Zoom Meeting.
The webinar aims to foster awareness and appreciation of the intangible cultural heritage of
Marinduque and encourage its safeguarding and transmission.
Kalutang is a musical instrument made of identical pair of wood from the kwatingan/twatingan
(Pterospermum obliqum) and bayog (Pterospermum diversifolum/P. acerifolium) trees. When
strike on particular points along their length, the wood produces notes of definite pitches and of
tonal quality that remotely resembles the sound of marimba and castanets. Kalutang is
classified as concussion idiophones composed of varying sizes. A band of 10 to 12 can create
music using this instrument.
Forester and Prof. Jovito L. Opeña of Marinduque State College (MSC) — School of Agriculture
will discuss the ecological status of kwatingan and bayog trees. Dr. Rex Emmanuel Asuncion,
also of MSC – School of Education will talk about the topic “Local Folk Music and Indigenous
Instruments of Marinduque.”
Participants can pre-register at this link: https://bit.ly/3HPqsVQ
Those who can’t join in Zoom can watch the webinar simultaneously at the National Museum
Marinduque-Romblon Facebook page. For inquiries, please call (042) 332-0507 or 0919-077-
9858 or email us at nm.mramso@gmail.com or marinduqueromblon@nationalmuseum.gov.ph
You may also visit the #NationalMuseumPH in Malusak, Boac. We are open from Tuesday to
Sunday, 9AM to 4PM.

Curator’s Talk

Date: May 18, 2022

FREE WEBINAR. Who’s up for a review on the archaeological studies in the Eastern Northern Mindanao, specifically in #Butuan?

In celebration of the International Museum Day (May 18) and National Heritage Month (May), your #NationalMuseumPH brings you “Curators’ Talk: The Beads, Boats, and Bowls of Butuan”, a free webinar on May 18, 2022, Wednesday, at 9am-12nn via Zoom and Facebook Live.

This is a three (3)-hour webinar to discuss and highlight the national archaeological collections excavated from Butuan and currently on display and are being conserved at the NMP-ENM and the National Museum of #Anthropology.

Resource persons shall be experts from the Archaeology Division to discuss the following topics: Overview and Updates of the Butuan Archaeological Project; Ceramic Collections from Butuan; and Lawson Heritage and Preservation. After the lectures, a question-and-answer portion shall follow.

Just fit for the #NHM2022 theme which says, “PAMANANG LOKAL: Binhi ng Kulturang Pilipino”, this activity aims at highlighting the importance of preserving and promoting local heritage within the community and its impact on shaping the Philippine cultural identity.

It is also aimed that through this event, we shall be able to generate the interest of educators and learners for further archaeological studies and research in the region.

The vicinity of Butuan, where the Regional Museum is located, has been recognized as an Archaeological Site by Presidential Proclamation 86 of President Corazon Aquino. Said proclamation declared the Balangay a National Cultural Treasure. Since then, Butuan became famous to contemporary society with the discovery of the first plank-built edge-pegged boat in the early 70s. In earlier times, around the 10th century or thereabouts, Butuan was already famous for other places in Southeast Asia and China for participating in the Southeast Asian Maritime Trading. Involvement can be traced to the nine (9) boats identified then, the thousands of ceramic pieces and other artifacts recovered, and ecofacts.

The webinar will give further understanding of the maritime involvement of ButuanCity, its artifacts, and ecofacts that were recovered in association with boat-building, trade,and habitation. In partnership with the NMP Archaeology Division, the NMP-ENM targets to bring this online event to the history and social sciences educators and students in the region and in Mindanao.

Should you want to learn more about these, join us and pre-register through this link: bit.ly/cutalk518.

We look forward to your active participation!

Pamanang Pilipino: Puno, Palayok, Pinsel – A ONE-DAY SPECIAL GUIDED TOUR

Date: May 18, 2022

In celebration of the National Heritage Month and International Museum Day, the #NationalMuseumPH through its Central Museum Visitors Operation Division (CMVOD), invites museum fans to join a One-Day Special Guided Tour entitled “Pamanang Pilipino: Puno, Palayok, Pinsel”, on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. The activity will be simultaneously conducted at 10 am and 2pm in all three buildings of the NMP complex namely – National Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Anthropology, and National Museum of Natural History.

For those who want to join the activity, you may register with our frontline staff stationed near the entrances of our museum buildings at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the tour. Slots are limited to a maximum of 25 participants per session to practice social distancing and ensure safety.

Through its interpretive services, the National Museum aims to educate and inspire its
visitors on the importance of promoting, preserving, and protecting the rich cultural
heritage and natural resources of the Philippines.

SEE YOU THERE!

#NHM2022
#NationalHeritageMonth
#PamanangLokal