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National Museum Part 1: A Great Jumping Off Point
One lazy Saturday, I decided to join a tour group for the Museum of the Filipino People. To my delight and horror, this 3 hour experience taught me more than all my years studying Filipino history. (Granted, a good part of my education was not in the Philippines.) Regardless, I still believe that the museum is a great place to build a trip from. This crash course will definitely whet the appetite of Pinoys and foreigners alike.
The museum’s fifteen galleries detail the archaeological past and the anthropological present of the Philippines. Travelling through them, I kept getting goose bumps. I guess when your whole being senses something life changing, your body reacts accordingly. Something told me that I was connecting with an important side of me.
Instead of describing what I saw, I’ll just share some tidbits I picked up. Facts like- the Philippine Islands are actually a composite of lands from mainland Asia and as far away as Australia. Evidence of which are fossil remains of mammoths. It’s interesting how these unrelated pieces of lands, clumped together, and formed what would be our nation.
I also never knew that our national hero, Jose Rizal was an avid museum lover. A prolific letter writer, his shortest letter supposedly said something like, “Hi Mom and Dad, I’ve arrived safely. Now, I’m off to the museums!” He believed that a beautiful experience becomes more meaningful when shared.
The museum had a room that housed pieces from the 1904 World Fair at Saint Louis. The U.S. built a 47 acre mini-Philippines were they had an Intramuros and even representations of the different provinces. This human zoo had actual inhabitants living and working in the area. The most popular attraction was a tribe’s noontime dog eating show. That’s how Pinoys came to be known as dogeaters, even though most Pinoys are abhorred by the practice.
There is so much more I can write about, but I’ll leave the rest for you guys to discover on your own. Visit the Museum of the Filipino People. It’s the most worthwhile way to part with P700.