Celebrating "Buwan ng Wika": Let's Learn about Baybayin!!

- August 24, 2013, Saturday.

- I decided the last minute to attend a four-part workshop organized by Sanghabi, a newly-formed organization that aims to promote the Philippine indigenous cultures. The four-part workshop was entitled "Baybayin: Karunungan ng Bayan" ("Baybayin: Knowledge of the Community,") and was held in one of Quiapo's heritage sites, the Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, located at A. Bautista Street, near Hidalgo Street.

- I have never been inside the Bahay Nakpil before, although I've seen the facade many times before. The facade of the house was already something to marvel at; a typical Spanish-Filipino wooden house, with some restorations made. Inside, the Spanish-influenced three-story house had some memorabilia of Gregoria de Jesus, who was married to Andres Bonifacio before being married to Julio Nakpil.

- The event started at around 2pm, and was well-attended mostly by students and young adult culture enthusiasts. I met my graduate school schoolmates Wayne, Ann, and Sha. The event began with a song composed by Julio Nakpil, and then the national anthem with a banduria accompaniment.

- The first part of the workshop was led by Mr. Leo Emmanuel Castro, a scholar/researcher on Filipino culture. He talked about the history of the world's scripts, and theories about the origins of the baybayin, also known as the alibata, the traditional Philippine written script. (I still am a firm believer that the baybayin was developed through a Southeast Asian migration of the Indian culture, stemming from the ancient South Indian Chola or Pallava Dynasties.)

My favorite historical item: the Laguna copper plate.

- The second part of the workshop was facilitated by Dr. Tess Obusan, who took her PhD in Philippine Studies in the UP Asian Center (where my friends and I are right now for our MAs.) She discussed the relationship of the baybayin and femininity through the character that represented the "ba" syllable. The syllable "ba" is represented by an inverted heart, which has roots and similarities to other symbols for femininity (i.e. the genitalia,) like the Indian subcontinent's yoni symbol. Other words like "bahay" (house,) "bayan" (town/community,) "baybayin" (the alibata) are all related to "babae" (woman.)

The yoni with the erect lingam.

The inverted heart as the "ba" syllable.

- The next part of the workshop was done by Mr. Reimon Cosare, a specialist on Philippine psychology, and a baybayin expert. He taught all of us how to spell using the baybayin, and the modern developments of baybayin awareness, such as manga/anime comics being written using the baybayin script. We all had fun spelling our names in baybayin. It was quite confusing especially for those not familiar with the baybayin. Even for people like me, who're more or less familiar with it, spelling words using the alibata/baybayin can be confusing, also depending on whether we'd like to spell words using the pre-colonial way (without stand-alone consonant sounds,) or the Spanish-devised/colonial way (with stand-alone consonants, via the cross diacritical mark invented by the Spanish.)

Wayne enjoying himself with alibata.

Alibata manga?!?! Wow. Haha.

An important syllable in the Philippine languages.

- The last, and honestly was my most-awaited segment, the pangalay workshop led by Mr. Orlando de Guzman Jr., an enthusiast on pangalay, taichi, and qigong. The "pangalay" is a dance from the Tausug ethnic group from Mindanao, and has Indian roots; the name itself is of Sanskrit origin. The movements resembled the wavy lines of the alibata, which is why it was still relevant to the baybayin workshop. The rhythm of the pangalay depended on the dancer's breathing, and the dance goes slower as the music goes faster. The footworks resembled other dances from Southeast Asia, and the hands, although did not have different mudras (hand gestures/forms,) the wrist movements seemed to be influenced by other Southeast Asian, even South Asian dances. Dancers of pangalay usually stood on bamboo poles, so footworks are quite restricted. Forward, backward, and sidewards are the directions mostly done by pangalay dancers, although sidewards movements that ultimately form a ring/circle were also developed. I was very happy to have experienced this, because one of my life's goals is to learn a Philippine dance, even if it would just be a one-time thing like this.

Playing traditional instruments.

Footwork practice.

Hand movements.

Wayne: "Yo dawg."

Hip positions.

The pangalay is also called the fingernail dance, as dancers usually placed golden claws while dancing.

- After the workshop, we had some snacks, and did some networking with the organization, since Sanglahi's goals and activities were very relevant to the UP Asian Center. We also took the opportunity to take some "period-themed" and "culture-themed" photos around Bahay Nakpil.

Behind the scenes. Haha.

My masterpiece.

Visit to the Globo de Oro (Golden Mosque.)

- Wayne, Ann, and I went ahead, and had a brief side trip to the Golden Mosque, which was a short five-minute walk from Bahay Nakpil. We decided to go home just as the rain got heavier and heavier; I wasn't dressed for the rain since the sun was happily shining throughout the day. Even so, I had no regrets signing up for the baybayin workshop, and I learned a lot more than I expected. The best thing? The workshop was free.