The #NationalMuseumPH continues to celebrate and join the communities around the world in welcoming the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, known as a day of reunions, gift-giving, and feastings important to the East and Southeast Asians. For this week’s #MuseumfromHome feature, we are highlighting some of our ethnographic stoneware jars as evidence of the vibrant trade relations between the Filipinos and Chinese communities. 

Before the Spanish colonizers arrived in the Philippines in 1521, the Chinese were already actively engaged in trading with early Filipinos especially those who lived near waterways. This is evidenced by a number of artifacts, such as the earliest Chinese ceramic wares dating from around the 9th century, which early Filipinos exchanged for forest and sea products, for aromatics, and traditional medicine. 

Around 70% of ceramic finds in the country are of Chinese origins—mostly from south China kilns believed to produce items for the international market. The quantity of these wares that are widely dispersed in the different provinces, including glazed stoneware jars which have been either retrieved from shipwrecks and archaeological sites or kept as heirlooms, indicate extensive trade and cultural contacts between China and the Philippines possibly from the 10th to 14th century. These were commonly used as storage for both food and liquids, for cooking, as vessels for important ceremonial rituals, and as indicators of wealth. In particular, Chinese jars are considered as among the most valuable properties of the Ifugao, Tagbanua, and Pala’wan, among others.  The knowledge and technology of stoneware production were also transferred by Chinese migrants to local artisans, particularly in the production of burnay in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur.

The National Museum of the Philippines is one of the institutions with the largest stoneware collection from different ethnolinguistic groups throughout the country. Through the support of the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation, Inc., the Elizabeth Y. Gokongwei Ethnographic Resource Center and Visible Storage at the 5F of the National Museum of Anthropology will soon be open to the public. This additional facility aims to provide an accessible research venue in order to encourage more students, educators and researchers to engage in documenting our ceramic traditions and gain a better understanding of both our unique and shared cultures with our neighboring countries.  

We wish everyone peace, prosperity, and good health throughout this auspicious year! Stay safe and Happy Year of the Water Tiger!

#LunarNewYear2022
#SpringFestival2022
#MuseumFromHome

Text and poster by the NMP Ethnology Division

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The #NationalMuseumPH celebrates the Chinese New Year—Year of the Tiger by featuring “Fish Forms” by National Artist (NA) for Visual Arts Ang Kiukok (1931-2005) from the National Fine Arts Collection. 

The celebration of the Chinese New Year officially starts today until February 11. It is the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival in China. During this important festivity, Fish, which symbolizes an increase in surplus and wealth, is one of the dishes served at the Chinese New Year dinner. A whole fish served on the table is also believed to bring harmony and togetherness to the family. 

This oil painting by NA Ang Kiukok, completed in 1965, features four large red fishes and a small one at the center. Registered as government property in 2011, this oil painting by the National Artist can be viewed at the Pillars of Philippine Modernism Gallery, Gallery XIX of the National Museum of Fine Arts (NMFA). 

Ang Kiukok, born in Davao, was the only son among the six children of Chinese immigrants Vicente Ang and Chin Lim. From 1952 until 1954, Kiukok took art classes at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) School of Fine Arts. Galo Ocampo, Diosdado Lorenzo and National Artists Victorio Edades and Vicente Manansala became his mentors at UST. Among these esteemed artist-educators was Manansala, with whom Kiukok was closely associated. National Artist Ang Kiukok died on May 9, 2005, in Quezon City at the age of 74.

The #NationalMuseumPH joins the Filipino-Chinese community in this important festivity. We also acknowledge their significant contribution to Philippine Art. Last year, we featured “Early Spring” (ca. 1990) in plaster of Paris and “Supine” (1995) in bronze by Filipino-Chinese Artist Ting Ping Lay (1927-2021). These were donated by Mr. Alberto Juan Evangelista Avellana and Mr. Lionel Ting, the artist’s son. We aspire to acquire more works from Filipino-Chinese artists whose works significantly boosted the national collection.

You may view this artwork and other artworks of NA Ang Kiukok by reserving a slot or by accessing the 360-Virutal Tours of select NMFA exhibition galleries at the NMFA on this website.

#ChineseNewYear

#YearOfTheTiger

#OnThisDay

#MuseumFromHome

Text by NMP FAD

Photo by Bengy Toda

© National Museum of the Philippines (2022)

Have you ever seen a rock with shiny, gold-colored minerals on it? Can it be gold? Or is it something else? In today’s #DignayanBiyernes, let us talk about Pyrite.

Pyrite, with the chemical formula FeS2, is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Its name originates from the Greek word pyr, which means “fire”, because of the sparks it generates when struck. It has a brass-yellow color and a metallic luster. Crystals of pyrite are frequently cubic, pyritohedron, or octahedron with often striated crystal faces, although they can also form as massive, granular, or nodules. Pyrite can occur as an accessory mineral in many kinds of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, forming in a wide variety of environments.

Did you know that pyrite is commonly referred to as “fool’s gold”? Inexperienced people often mistake it for gold due to its color, metallic luster, and specific gravity.

So, how do you differentiate pyrite from gold? Well, you can easily distinguish one from the other using their physical properties, namely their hardness, streak, and density.

Pyrite is brittle with a hardness of 6-6.5, while gold is soft, malleable, and ductile with a hardness of 2.5-3. Scratching pyrite on a hard surface leaves a greenish-black to brownish-black streak, while gold leaves a gold-yellow streak. Lastly, pyrite is two to three times lighter than gold.

In the Philippines, pyrite is widely distributed. It is most commonly found occurring where copper and gold deposits are found. These include the provinces of Ilocos Region, Benguet, Bicol, Cebu, Samar, Negros Region, Surigao Del Norte, and Zamboanga Peninsula, among others.

If you want to see a pyrite mineral in person, you may book a tour at the National Museum of Natural History through this website.. Try and see if you can tell the difference between pyrite and gold.

#NationalMuseumPh

#MuseumFromHome

#StaySafe

Text and image by the NMP Geology and Paleontology Division

© National Museum of the Philippines (2022)

Feature Creature from the Philippine Mammal Collections Drawer: Philippine Tree Shrews

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The #NationalMuseumPH pays tribute to Manlilikha ng Bayan Yabing Masalon Dulo.

MB Yabing Masalon Dulo, also known as Fu Yabing in the community, has left us a great legacy upon her passing. She was a master weaver known for being excellent in making the Blaan tabih (woven abaca cloth), a craft she has learned from a very young age before her death on 26 January 2021. Her exemplary skills paved the way in her receipt of the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA) in 2016, together with two other awardees from Mindanao.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) granted Fu Yabing a GAMABA Cultural Center that enabled her to teach the next generation of weavers of the Blaan community in Polomolok, South Cotabato. The transmission of such intangible knowledge through mentorship is important as it ensures the existence of a tradition. With her passing at the age of 106, Fu Yabing’s teachings continue to be carried on by her family, students, and the Blaan community in Barangay Landan in Polomolok.

Selected works of Fu Yabing are exhibited and housed at the #NationalMuseumPH. One of which is a tabih that she made when she was twelve years old and donated by Ms. Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz in February 2009 to the Filipino people. The rest of the collections under Fu Yabing’s name were gifts to the nation that were turned over to the #NationalMuseumPH through the NCCA, and are currently on display at the Manlilikha ng Bayan Hall and Hibla ng Lahing Filipino galleries at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila.

#YabingMasalonDulo

#GAMABA 

#ManlilikhaNgBayan

#MuseumFromHome

Text and poster by the NMP Ethnology Division and NCCA GAMABA Executive Council.

Photograph of Manlilikha ng Bayan Yabing Masalon Dulo courtesy of the NCCA GAMABA Executive Council

© National Museum of the Philippines 2022