This book presents a sixteenth-century Philippine ethnography based on contemporaneous sources. It does not attempt to reconstruct that society by consideration of present Philippine societies, or of features believed to be common to all Austronesian peoples. Nor does it seek similarities with neighboring cultures in Southeast Asia, though the raw data presented should be of use to scholars who might wish to do so. Rather, it seeks to answer the question: What did the Spaniards actually say about the Filipino people when they first met them? It is hoped that the answer to that question will permit Filipino readers today to pay a vicarious visit to the land of their ancestors four centuries ago.

Part 1 describes Visayan culture in eight chapters on physical appearance, food and farming, trades and commerce, religion, literature and entertainment, natural science, social organization, and warfare. Part 2 surveys the rest of the archipelago from south to north.

No review of mine would do justice to this groundbreaking book.

The author, Dr. William Henry Scott, taught my Asian Civilizations class decades ago. In his lifetime as a former Episcopalian missionary turned historian whose immersion in all things Filipino put the native-born to shame, he systematically chipped away at the misguided, knee-jerk notions and outright lies about Philippine history with an unprecedented scholarly approach that was informed by archaeology, linguistics and other disciplines.

I remember how roundly Prof. Scott criticized Zaide for the fake Code of Kalantiao the latter felt he needed to invent. The truth is much more fascinating, as the book shows, based as it is on a lifetime of painstaking research and work.

For a learned book, Barangay is an easy, entertaining read (for me, anyway) and should be required reading for all people of Filipino descent. It both informs and (even if Scott didn't set out to do so) empowers the Filipino, especially those among us who are tired of being beaten down by the prejudice and racism of the ignorant.

For someone who originally came to the Philippines ostensibly to convert people to his beliefs, Scott ended up offering a labor of love to his adopted people that celebrated who they truly are.

Now expanded and completely updated, this best-selling two-way dictionary is designed for students of the Tagalog language and native Tagalog speakers in need of a bilingual dictionary. It includes a grammatical introduction to the language, a vocabulary appendix with numbers and menu terms. And over 20,000 total dictionary entries, with idiomatic expressions, slang, loan words and derivations. Tagalog, also known as Pilipino, is the national language of the Philippines and has over 17 million speakers world-wide.

Dr. Carl Rubino initiated the Philippine programme at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he taught both Tagalog and Ilocano. With a background in typology, he has lectured on Philippine linguistics on four continents. He currently lives in Washington D.C. where he is a computational linguist specialising in natural language processing and machine translation.

This is less a simple dictionary and more an inclusive book of Tagalog that also happens to be a first class dictionary. What I mean by that is this: as well as the dictionary (more heavily-weighted towards Tagalog-English than English-Tagalog, but that's great for my purposes), this work also contains a nicely detailed section on Tagalog grammar. It has a coda that includes songs and poems in Tagalog, and a section on Tagalog morphology, which is, of course, famously complex. On top of that, there is even a brief outline of Baybayin, the pre-Hispanic Tagalog writing system. What more could you ask for?

There are very few flaws, if any, although occasionally looking up the odd Tagalog word has been problematic, due to the obvious morphological issues. My purpose in buying this text, and in learning Tagalog, is this: I speak quite reasonable Indonesian/Malay, and I find it a wonderfully simple and interesting language. It is quite closely related to Tagalog, and to the Philippine languages. Although it displays a much reduced grammatical complexity as compared to Tagalog, Indonesian also has a relatively large number of verbal affixes, some of which are potentially unnecessary. My question when learning Indonesian was, where did these affixes come from, and why are they there, when the vast majority of the meaning is in the root of the verb? To find the answer, I decided to look a more morphologically complex language where the affixes add a large degree of meaning - in terms of mood, number and so on. So far, it's been an interesting academic voyage through the Austronesian languages, and using this dictionary, with primary texts, has brought me a very large step closer to my aim.

I am also very interested in the aboriginal languages of Taiwan, and when I was living there, I picked up a number of books on two native languages (Seediq and Paiwan), the books being in Chinese. My Chinese is quite good, but trying to understand the western Austronesian focus system (unique in the world's languages) is difficult even in English, and it is exceedingly hard to find English language materials dealing with the particular languages I wanted to learn. In order to gain a good working understanding of the Austronesian system, if not the particulars of the Formosan languages, I thought Tagalog would be a good idea, and so it is proving to be. The grammar section of this dictionary is good enough for this purpose, and that should tell you how good it is generally.

And of course, Tagalog is a useful language by itself, and another aim of mine is to be able to read newspapers, encyclopedias or novels in it. This is why I say that this is more like a handbook of Tagalog than a simple dictionary: if you had only the aim of studying Tagalog for a job, or to go on holiday, then you'd get a lot out of this book. It's very useful.

It's also printed very nicely, with high quality bindings. Aesthetically and academically, it can hardly be faulted. I therefore recommend it highly.

This is THE most comprehensive two-way Tagalog & English dictionary I've seen! Not only does provide the equivalent of a word in one language, but it also gives the origin; whether it's from Chinese, Spanish, English, etc. The dictionary also has a brief section about pronunciation and grammar. There's even an Alibata (pre-hispanic syllabary) chart! I highly recommend this book to anyone.

This is a really great dictionary...most of all it has the proper pronunciations with accent marks written. All the accent marks are explained with examples. The first 10 or so pages is a concise and excellent exposition of the grammar rules of this great language. The dictionary portions are great too, but just remember K comes after B in Tagalog and NG comes after N! hehe

Then there are lists of useful words at the end of the book, Numbers, Colors, Calendar Terms, a list of Antonyms, Foods, Names for Family members, and Philippino proverbs/sayings.

Really a great book for anyone who is truly trying to learn Tagalog, not just get a couple phrases. Learn the language!

This book completely changes the established and conventional view of prehistory by relocating the Lost Eden—the world's first civilisation—to Southeast Asia. At the end of the Ice Age, Southeast Asia formed a continent twice the size of India, which included Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Borneo. In Eden in the East, Stephen Oppenheimer puts forward the astonishing argument that here in southeast Asia—rather than in Mesopotamia where it is usually placed—was the lost civilization that fertilized the Great cultures of the Middle East 6,000 years ago. He produces evidence from ethnography, archaeology, oceanography, creation stories, myths, linguistics, and DNA analysis to argue that this founding civilization was destroyed by a catastrophic flood, caused by a rapid rise in the sea level at the end of the last ice age.

In an exhaustively researched and creatively argued reassessment of mankind's origins, British physician Oppenheimer, an expert in tropical pediatrics, contends that the now-submerged area of Southeast Asia was the cradle of ancient civilization. From time to time, scholars from various disciplines have argued for the existence of a vastly old ``founder civilization.'' Among the most famous was Charles Hapgood, who based his theory of a lost seafaring civilization on his analysis of the famous 16th-century ``Piri Re'is'' maps of the Antarctic land mass. In this tradition, Oppenheimer blends evidence from geology, genetics, linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology to argue persuasively that such a civilization existed on a submerged land mass in Southeast Asia, which geologists call the Sunda shelf. Pointing to geological evidence for the submersion of the shelf by abrupt rises in the sea level about 8,000 years ago, Oppenheimer contends that the coastal cultures of Southeast Asia were drowned by a great flood, reflected in flood mythologies scattered from the ancient Middle East (such as the biblical story of Noah) to Australia and the Americas. According to the author, tantalizing archaeological evidence exists of settlements under a ``silt curtain'' left by the sea floods in drowned coastal regions from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, while linguistic markers indicate that languages spread from Southeast Asia to Australia and the Pacific. The shared flood story is one striking example of similar Eurasian myths according to the author; the ancient Middle East and Asia share other myth typologies, conspicuously including creation and Cain and Abel myths, which point to common origins in a progenitor culture. Absorbing, meticulously researched, limpidly written, and authoritative: should be regarded as a groundbreaking study of the remote past of Southeast Asia, and of civilization itself. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The central theme of "Eden in the East" is derived from the fact that island southeast Asia, or more correctly the now mostly submerged Sunda shelf, was actually an extensive subcontinent, comparable in size to India, during the last Ice Age. Oppenheimer summarizes one current understanding of how the Ice Age ended--that is, not slowly, but in three quite dramatic and rapid melts that resulted in severe flooding and perhaps even substantial seismic activity and tsunamis. Thus, the Sunda subcontinent was subjected to a series of horrendous cataclysms, the last one occurring circa 8000-7000 B.C. After this introduction to the climatic facts of the case, the first half of the book is devoted to an examination of genetic and linguistic evidence, or rather to Oppenheimer's own re-examination of this evidence, with the conclusion that Ice Age Sundaland harbored a thriving neolithic culture that dispersed throughout the Pacific and into most of Eurasia subsequent to its flooding, and thus that much of Western civilization can be expected to be derived, or at least influenced, by this antediluvian culture. The second half of the book is entirely concerned with a comparative analysis of several myths that exist in recognizable forms throughout most of the world, including Noah's flood, creation myths, Cain and Abel, and the dying god who is resurrected. Again, Oppenheimer argues that the evidence indicates an origin for each of these basic myths in neolithic southeast Asia.

I am not really qualified to argue with Oppenheimer's analyses; then again, the author is himself a pediatrician with no apparent formal training in linguistics, genetics, or anthropology. Be that as it may, I found his ideas highly intriguing, and a reading of this book reveals him to be completely unlike most of the recent spate of speculative (and very silly) pseudoarchaeologists, concerned as they are with finding Atlantis or some other vision of a long-lost but highly advanced ancient civilization. Unlike the "work" of Rand Flem-Ath or Graham Hancock, what is presented here at least seems reasonable and worthy of intelligent debate. Not the least of the reasons for this is the fact that Oppenheimer is arguing for the existence of an influential neolithic culture, not an enlightened antediluvian civilization. Much of what he argues could still be wrong, and probably is, but at least something interesting might come of the discussion.

The drawbacks of this book are mostly editorial: Oppenheimer is not a gifted writer, and the prose is sometimes tortured enough to give pause. Additionally, the book as a whole, especially the second half dealing with comparative mythology, is entirely too long. I found myself nearly nodding off during the recitations of various "dying-and-rising-tree-god" myths from around the islands of southeast Asia. Beyond this, little attention seems to be paid to the provenance of the many myths recounted in this book; one wonders if the "warring brothers" (Cain and Abel) or Adam and Eve stories in southeast Asia could not have been introduced by Christian missionaries, despite Oppenheimer's protestations. Overall, though, this is a book worth reading, or at least skimming.

The beginning of human civilization as you learned it in school goes like this:

Human beings (homo sapiens) have been around for some 100,000 years, give or take. Until about six or seven thousand years ago, after the end of the most recent ice age, humans were a bunch of wandering hunter-gatherers. They made some great cave paintings, but other than that and a few gnawed bones, they made nothing and left nothing behind. Then, when the ice age ended, they spontaneously dropped their fur cloaks, stopped hunting woolly mammoths and invented agriculture, the wheel, cuneiform, beer, and everything else that makes up civilization.

The problem with this picture, of course, is that the ice age didn't cover the entire earth with ice -- just some of the parts we live on now. And because there was so much more ice, there was less water, and sea levels were some 100-odd meters lower than at present.

So all the best land, the fertile, coastal land, during the ice age -- the era immediately preceeding the first great civilizations of the near easy -- is now underwater.

In _Eden in the East_, Oppenheimer focuses on the great Sunda Shelf in southeast Asia, which in the last ice age was a continent-sized land mass (now sometimes called "Sundaland"). His thesis is that the great civilizations of the near east did not spring whole cloth from the soil, but were founded, or informed, or guided, by refugees from the east, refugees fleeing the great destruction of their homeland with the submergence of the Sunda Shelf.

He argues for his thesis on the basis of genetic, linguistic and mythological studies, all appearing to show a diffusion of culture and people from some prehistoric Sundaland home. The arguments are varied and interesting, maybe even compelling. Certainly they are worth reading.

But they are also very difficult to read. This is a dense book, almost five hundred pages in the edition I have and written in a fairly dry, scholarly tone. So read it, but be warned.

If you're interested in the argument that human prehistory is to be sought in the lands that sank beneath the waves at the end of the last ice age, check out Graham Hancock's book _Underworld_ (already published here in the UK and coming to America soon). Hancock does not focus exclusively on Sundaland, but his arguments and evidences are complementary to those adduced by Oppenheimer. Hancock is less scholarly and more chronological in his approach; _Underworld_ is all first person and very readable.

I loved this book! It clearly and concisely cites evidence for the origin of civilization in the now flooded lowlands of Southeast Asia under the South China Sea. The types of evidence considered are: geological evidence of great floods, linguistic and genetic evidence of dispersion, and mythological evidence of floods and dispersion. I thoroughly enjoyed the sections on geological, linguistic and genetic evidence. The mythological section was long, complicated and labored; and there was almost no summary and conclusion. Hence my four-star rating. This is the only book I know of on the subject and I highly recommend it.

The book badly needed additional chapters reinterpreting world history in light of the evidence that civilization began in Southeast Asia, and spread outward along equatorial sealanes driven by the monsoons. I would have enjoyed a chapter closely comparing Plato's discription of Atlantis with the archeological and other evidence of early SE Asian civilization. Perhaps Doctor Oppenheimer could write a follow on volume to cover these points.

Thanks!

I've been looking for some good books for a long time!


EDIT:
Ordered the first one

We already have a Tagalog-English dictionary.

The third one is 40 dollars cheapest one I can find online. I may just go to a library for that one.

If it's too expensive, I buy the 2nd hand instead. I have a Tagalog -English dictionary as well but it's hard to find good Tagalog dictionaries so I bought this version above, but I'll probably get it on March, I'm having my package sent over via Balikbayan box to save shipping cost.

There are others I'd like to recommend but I'll leave it as is for some posters to contribute. Have you read Rizal's work? There are various versions, I'd like to know which is the best. The newest english version was released by Penguin classics. Both Noli & Fili were required readings in school but I passed by schoolworkd via reading the comic version instead, lol! I'd recommend the komiks too, especially for the kids if you want to get them interested in Filipino history. Anyway, if we had someone here who has read various versions of both Noli & Fili, perhaps they could recommend which is the best one to have (except the original Spanish version that is).

... a book by Stephen Oppenheimer titled Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia

Author Paul Kekai Manansala has researched ancient and medieval history for decades traveling to far corners of the world for clues about little-known ancient maritime voyaging and oceanic trade networks. He has collaborated and corresponded with recognized experts like Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer, author of Eden in the East and archaeologist Wilhelm Solheim in developing this ground-breaking study.

Manansala's book Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan explores the history of an ancient maritime trade thalassocracy founded by peoples called Nusantao.

The Nusantao were intrepid seafaring people who learned to master celestial navigation in very early times. These oceanic adventurers interacted with other peoples included the Neolithic Yayoi who the author suggests used Nusantao trade routes in migrating to Japan.
Catastrophic events like sea flooding and volcanoes stimulated Nusantao exploration and migration further and further abroad. In the course of these wide-ranging travels, Manansala suggests that these sea explorers altered history in wide-ranging areas in ways never before explored.

For example, he claims that the legendary king Prester John of the Indies was an historical and not-so-legendary Nusantao king. Also he provides evidence that the Holy Grail, which most medieval texts claim came from, and returned to the Indies, was related to Nusantao spiritual culture.

Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan has one-of-a-kind insights that you will not find any other history book!

One of the many insulting epithets thrown at AIT disbelievers is that they are no better than "Atlantis freaks". Actually, this is not entirely untrue. Some AIT skeptics who have applied their minds to reconstructing ancient history, have indeed thought of centres of human habitation in locations now well below sea-level. When Proto-Indo-European was spoken, the sea level was still recovering from the low point it had reached during the Ice Age, about 100 metres lower than the present level. It was in the period of roughly twelve to seven thousand years ago that the icecaps melted and replenished the seas, so that numerous low-lying villages had to be abandoned.

After all, it is a safe bet that more than half of mankind lived in the zone of less than 100 m above sea level. In the context of the present debate on global warming, it is said that a rise in sea level of just one metre would be an immense catastrophe for countries like Bangla Desh or the Netherlands. The Maledives would completely disappear with a rise of only a few metres. But more importantly, most big population centres today are located just above sea level: Tokyo, Shanghai, Kolkata, Mumbai, London, New York, Los Angeles etc. If the sea level would rise 100 m, most population centres including entire countries would become a sunken continent, a very real Atlantis. Consequently, there is nothing far-fetched in assuming the existence of population centres and cultures, 10 or 15 thousand years ago, in what are now submarine locations on the continental shelf outside our coastlines.

In a recent book, Eden in the East: the Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia (Phoenix paperback, London 1999 (1998)), Stephen Oppenheimer has focused on one such part of the continental shelf: the region between Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Taiwan, which was largely inhabitable during the Ice Age. Thinking that this was then the most advanced centre of civilization, he calls it Eden, the Biblical name of Paradise (from Sumerian edin, "alluvial plain"), because West-Asian sources including the Bible do locate the origin of mankind or at least of civilization in the East. In some cases, as in Sumerian references, this "East" is clearly the pre-Harappan and Harappan culture, but even more easterly countries seem to be involved.

Oppenheimer is a medical doctor who has lived in Southeast Asia for decades. He is clearly influenced by Marxism, e.g. where he dismisses religion as a means to "control other people's labour", with explicit reference to Karl Marx's Das Kapital (p.483). His book is based on solid scientific research (genetic, anthropological, linguistic and archaeological), and is in that respect very different from the numerous Atlantis books which draw on "revelations" and "channeling".

The most airy type of evidence, in its massiveness nonetheless quite compelling, is comparative mythology: numerous cultures, and especialy those in the Asia-Pacific zone, have highly parallel myths of one or more floods. These are not opaque allusions to Freudian events in the subconscious but plainly historical references to the catastrophic moments in the otherwise long-drawn-out rise of the sea level after the Ice Age. For, indeed, this rise was not a continuous process but took place with occasional spurts, wiping out entire tribes living near the coast. The last such sudden rise took place ca. 5500 BC, after which the sea level fell back a few metres to the present level.

According to Oppenheimer, the Southeast-Asian Atlantis, provisionally called Sundaland because it now is the Sunda shelf, was the world leader in the Neolithic Revolution (start of agriculture), using stones for grinding wild grains as early as 24,000 ago, more than ten thousand years older than in Egypt or Palestine. Before and especially during the gradual flooding of their lowland, the Sundalanders spread out to neighbouring lands: the Asian mainland including China, India and Mesopotamia, and the island world from Madagascar to the Philippines and New Guinea, whence they later colonized Polynesia as far as Easter Island, Hawaii and New Zealand.

Oppenheimer aligns with the archaeologists against the linguists in the controversy about the homeland of the Austronesian language family (Malay, Tagalog, Maori, Malgasy etc.): he locates it in Sundaland and its upper regions which now make up the coasts of the Southeast-Asian countries, whereas most linguists maintain that southern China was the land of origin. Part of the argument concerns chronology: Oppenheimer proposes a higher chronology than Peter Bellwood and other out-of-China theorists. My experience with IE studies makes me favour a higher chronology, for new findings (e.g. that "pre-IE" peoples like the Pelasgians and the Etruscans, not to speak of the Harappans, turn out to have been earlier "Aryan" settlers) have consistently been pushing the date of the fragmentation of PIE back into the past.

Another reason for not relying too much on the theories of the linguists is that Austronesian linguistics is a very demanding field, comprising the study of hundreds of small languages most of which have no literature, so the number of genuine experts is far smaller than in the case of IE, and even in the latter case linguists are nowhere near a consensus on the homeland question. Linguistic evidence is very soft evidence, and usually the data admit of more than one historical reconstruction, so I don't think there is any compelling evidence against a Sundaland homeland hypothesis. Conversely, archaeological and genetic evidence in favour of the spread of the Austronesian-speaking populations from Sundaland seems to be sufficient.

It is quite certain that some of these Austronesians must have landed in India, some on their way to Madagascar, some to stay and mix with the natives. Hence the presence of some Austronesian words in Indian languages of all families, most prominently ayi/bayi, "mother" (as in the Marathi girls' names Tarabai, Lakshmi-bai etc.), or words for "bamboo", "fruit", "honey". More spectacularly, linguists like Isidore Dyen have discerned a considerable common vocabulary in the core lexicon of Austronesian and Indo-European, including pronouns, numerals (e.g. Malay dva, "two") and terms for the elements. Oppenheimer doesn't go into this question, but diehard invasionists might use his findings to suggest an Aryan invasion into India not from the northwest, but from the southeast.

But he does mention the legend of Manu Vaivasvata saving his company from the flood and sailing up the rivers of India to settle high and dry in Saptasindhu. Clearly, the origins of Vedic civilization are related to the post-Glacial flood, probably the single biggest migration trigger in human history.

The Tamils have a tradition that their poets' academy or Sangam existed for ten thousand years, and that its seat (along with the entire Tamil capital) had to be moved thrice because of the rising sea level. They also believe that their country once stretched far to the south, including Sri Lanka and the Maledives, a lost Tamil continent called Kumarikhandam. If these legends turn out to match the geological evidence quite neatly, our academics would be wrong to dismiss them as figments of the imagination. But the Indian or Kumarikhandam counterpart to Oppenheimer's book on Sundaland has yet to be written. This indeed is probably the most important practical conclusion to be drawn from this book: extend India's history by thousands of years with the exploration of now-submarine population centres.

Another language family originating in some part of Sundaland was Austro-Asiatic, which includes the Mon-Khmer languages in Indochina (its demographic point of gravity being Vietnam) but also Nicobarese and the Munda languages of Chotanagpur, at one time possibly spoken throughout the Ganga basin. It is the Mundas who brought rice cultivation from Southeast Asia to the Ganga basin, whence it reached the Indus Valley towards the end of the Harappan age (ca. 2300 BC). In this connection, it is worth noting that Oppenheimer confirms that "barley cultivation was developed in the Indus Valley" (p.19), barley being the favourite crop of the Vedic Aryans (yava). Unlike the Mundas who brought rice cultivation from eastern India and ultimately from Southeast Asia to northwestern India, and unlike the Indo-European Kurgan people whose invasion into Europe can be followed by means of traces of the crops they imported (esp. millet), the Vedic Aryans simply used the native produce. This doesn't prove but certainly supports the suspicion that the Aryans were native to the Indus Valley.

Concerning the political polemic, the usual claim that the caste system with its sharp discrimination was instituted by the invading Aryans to entrench their supremacy is countered by the finding that even the most isolated tribes on India's hills turn out to have strict endogamy rules, often guarded with more severe punishments for inter-tribal love affairs than exist in Sanskritic-Hindu society. Here, Oppenheimer confirms that in the Austro-Asiatic and Austrone-sian tribal societies, where many of India's tribals originate, inequality is deeply entrenched: "Yet the class structure which cripples Britain more than any other European state, is as nothing compared with the stratified hierarchies in Austronesian traditional societies from Madagascar through Bali to Samoa. (...) This consciousness of rank is thus clearly not something that was only picked up by Austronesian societies from later Indian influence." (p.484) Social hierarchy is not a racialist imposition by the Aryans, but a near-universal phenomenon especially pronounced among Indo-Pacific societies including most non-Aryan populations.

Stephen Oppenheimer makes a very detailed and very strong case for the importance of the culture of sunken Sundaland for the later cultures in the wide surroundings. India too certainly benefited of certain achievements imported from there. What is yet missing is a similar study for the equally important and likewise neglected culture of the sunken lands outside India's coast.

I agree that Willian Henry Scot's books are a MUST READ. Him and Pol kekai manansala as one of the starting points that I got interested in Prehispanic Philippines, that I learned about the Tome Pires' account about the people of Luzon trading and holding important positions in Malacca, etc.


Along the same lines are the books by Pol Kekai manansala...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-h...aul%20Manansala


Btw a very good review of the Oppenheimer's book...
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/reviews/atlantis.html

I read Noli Me Tangere a few years back. I have yet to read Fili. Lol! They have comic versions? I never knew that. I might have to get those for my nephews and nieces for their birthdays! I used to do that too as a kid, watch the movie instead of reading the book.

One book I was recommended and read in high school was "Dogeaters" by Jessica Hagedom. It was a good book, but it didn't live up to the "life changing" recommendation it got from our Asian/Pacific Islander after school club teacher. Some of the characters (Joey Sands) and events seemed a little surreal. A lot of people I've met said they really enjoyed it also though.

Jessica Hagedorn has transformed her bestselling novel about the Philippines during the reign of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos into an equally powerful theatrical piece that is a multi-layered tour de force. As Harold Bloom writes, "Hagedorn expresses the conflicts experienced by Asian immigrants caught between cultures . . . she takes aim at racism in the U.S. and develops in her dramas the themes of displacement and the search for belonging."

Jessica Hagedorn is a performance artist, poet, novelist and playwright, born and raised in the Philippines. Her novels include Dogeaters (Penguin 1990) which was nominated for a National Book Award and The Gangster of Love (Penguin 1996); a short story collection, Danger and Beauty (City Lights 2002).

From Publishers Weekly
This novel, set in the politically volatile Philippines of the recent past, offers the diverse impressions of a well-to-do Manilan schoolgirl, a DJ/male prostitute and the Philippines's candid First Lady, among others. "Although in many respects a thinly disguised roman a clef, the book succeeds on the strength of its characterization," said PW. "Hagedorn's unflinching view of Manila . . . is leavened by ironic, often humorous observations."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


From Library Journal
This jazzy, sardonic novel depicts the nightmare world that was the Philippines of the Marcoses. Its terrain is familiar to us from the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Manuel Puig: a lush, fantastical, overheated landscape, where the fractured lives of the poor are rendered palatable solely by dreams. Rich and poor, everyone sells something here; everyone has a price. The common dream of a myriad group of characters--bored teenagers, timid shop girls, male prostitutes on the make--is that hollowest of all modern apotheoses, "stardom." A visiting filmmaker, a German degenerate, buys the services of a pretty boy, who soliloquizes: "I'll have it all worked out, soon. I know I will. I have to. I'll hit the jackpot with one of these guys. Leave town. Get lucky . . . . Soon." This is a novel about the death of the good life of the soul: of all virtue, meaning, and hope. Exceptionally well written and emotionally wrenching. Recommended.
- David Keymer, SUNY Inst. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Uri ng Nobela:
Ang Maganda Pa Ang daigdig ay isang uri ng Nobelang Historikal.isang uri ng nobelang humango ng materyal sa mga pangyayaring naganap sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas. Ito ay pumapaksa sa mga aktwal na pangyayari o kaya’y mga sitwasyong nahahawig sa mga aktwal na kalagayang umiral sa kasyasayan ng bansa.

Maaari din itong maging isang uri ng Nobela ng Romansa. Dahil pumapaksa din ito sa pag-big. Pag-ibig sa bayan, sa Diyos, sa kapwa, magulang, kasintahan, at ipa pang uri ng pag-ibig.

Maari din maging Nobela ng Pagbabago. Na naglalayong magtaguyod ng pagbabago sa lipunan at pamahalan.

Dekada '70 is the story of a family caught in the middle of the tumultuous decade of the 1970's. It details how a middle class family struggled with and faced the new changes that empowered Filipinos to rise against the Marcos government. These series of events all happened after the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the proclamation of Martial Law, the bombing of Plaza Miranda, the random arrests of political prisoners. The oppressiveness of the Marcos regime made people become more radical. This shaping of the decade are all witnessed by the female character, Amanda Bartolome, a mother of five boys. While Amanda's sons grow, form individual beliefs and lead different lives, Amanda awakens her identity to state her stand as a Filipino citizen, mother and woman. Dekada '70 introduces the new generations of Filipino readers to a story and a family of a particular time in Philippine history. Its appeal lies in the evolution of its characters that embody the new generation of Filipinos.It is the story about a mother and her family, and the society around them that affects them. It is a tale of how a mother becomes torn between the letter of the law and her responsibilities as a mother.

A defining but not subversive Filipino novel, Dekada '70 was one of the two grand prize winners for the 1983 Palanca Awards for the novel.[2] It was adapted into a film by Star Cinema in 2003, starring Christopher de Leon and Vilma Santos.

MASS is the story of the illegitimate son of Antonio Samson, the major protagonist in Sionil Jose's novel, THE PRETENDERS. Now grown-u p, Pepe Samson escapes from his village of Cabugawan to live in Manila's sprawling slum--Tondo. MASS is the story of his journey from one swampland to another; it is also the story of thousands of young Filipinos who have finally found meaning in their lives. But more than a story of discovery, it is an affirmation of faith in the future as envisioned by the dedicated Filipino youth today. Written in Paris in 1976, it appreared first in translation in 1982 in Holland where it became a best seller. MASS is also the last, in terms of chronology of the author's five Rosales novels.

The most modern story in the Rosales series, Mass takes place in the 1970's following the life of the illegitimate son of the now dead main character of Pretenders. Shockingly honest yet selfish, the main character, Pepe, is easy to identify with and fun to cheer for. Though he makes many morally questionable decisions and he is generally lazy, Pepe honestly cares for people and he is a very loyal friend. I found the story very interesting, probably more interesting than the other Rosales novels but this novel included many of the same things that the other novels emphasized. More political than the other novels, this book stands out on a limb a bit trying to make political statements. But like the other novels, this book breathes and sweats Filipino. Culture is rich, and this refers not only to material culture (food, clothing, landscape, etc.) but it also reflects very accurately the underlying motives of the Filipino that are culturally distinct to the Filipino people. The loyalty to family, the superficial importance of religion, the beliefs about money, the constant worry of shame and embarrassment, and the love and prominence of food are all social level culture areas that Sionil Jose weaves beautifully into this story. I am still amazed at the way that Jose (a Filipino) can write in English. The average Filipino (in the area I live in) cannot really speak English. They understand a lot of English and they can string together some basic sentences, but generally the level of English is not as high as most Filipinos believe it is. Even Filipino newspapers written in English are littered with errors and are usually written in very bland, simple English. Yet Jose writes beautifully, with complete command over the English language.

Narrative communicates much more than just stories and plots. Often narrative communicates much more (as the Bible does through the narrative genre). I believe this book and the entire Rosales series is an excellent Filipino culture study, maybe even more valuable and educational than the average culture book written for Westerners. I would recommend this book to anyone involved with Filipinos or the Philippines.

The film is based on a story written by Edgardo Reyes and serialized in Liwayway Magazine from 1966 to 1967. For each episode or installment, Reyes provides enough incidents - bringing the end of the installment to enough of a conclusion - to satisfy the reader, at the same time keeping enough elements unresolved to entice him back for more. After twenty or more installments full of subplots and side characters exiting or dying or having climactic fits, the reader notices several advantages and disadvantages.

I agree that Willian Henry Scot's books are a MUST READ. Him and Pol kekai manansala as one of the starting points that I got interested in Prehispanic Philippines, that I learned about the Tome Pires' account about the people of Luzon trading and holding important positions in Malacca, etc.


Along the same lines are the books by Pol Kekai manansala...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-h...aul%20Manansala


Btw a very good review of the Oppenheimer's book...
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/reviews/atlantis.html

Yeah I've read that one, even more evidence of ISEA being "Eden" as well as the dispersal point of Y-DNA K carriers to settle throughout the world.

Did you already do a thread on ISEA being Eden? I could have sworn I saw a specific thread on it here but now I can't find it... I ask because I'm trying to convince a friend of mine who was skeptic of this that it's not as far fetched as most would assume. So I'm trying to compile a lot of easy to digest but still convincing evidence I can show him next time I see him.

You know, I have found that when introducing a new concept, you have to be careful not to overwhelm a person, especially if they are biased against it. Try introducing it little by little, do it 1st by showing him, not in a pushy way, that there was more to Prehispanic Philippines than meets the eye. Get him the Barangay book. Then if he becomes more open after reading it, buy him a fancy traditional sungka (with 7 small slots, not 6 ha!), compile articles in prehispanic Filipino counting, & print the pdf of the article on sungka calculator, all in 1 compiled book. This would make him think that Filipino counting was highly visual-spatial, very advanced form of calculating IMO. But do it little by little & be patient, don't push him. Introduce him to more superior Filipino Klasik films. If he doesn't speak nor understand Filipino, show him this documentary on baybayin:

baybayin barong & iphone
baybayin tattoos

Then show him this to shame him, in a subtle way that foreigners are learning the language & writing, when many ethnic Filipinos don't care nor are even aware of them: Amerikanong Dayuhan nagtuturo ng Baybayin

But IMO, I don't think you can really learn how to write in baybayin if you don't know any Filipino languages, because baybayin depends on abakada system that they wouldn't be aware of if they didn't know Filipino.

Very true. That's why I was looking for things that are short, easy to read and very convincing. It's not like he's totally against it, he's just skeptical like I was at first.

For sure, I'll let him borrow both books after I read them.

I understand AK, I'm also looking for easy mass consumption books on prehispanic Philippines. Barangay is a good book, I wish there was more out there that was easily digestible. LOL! My whole strategy with introducing people into new things, that's all thanks to Star Trek! I'm a huge ST fan & the grandness of the show can be intimidating & overwhelming so I have these little strategies kung baga!

Yeah, I'm also a Star Trek fan and huge undercover Star Wars fan.

Right? you can't put too much on it. I've been accused of being "crazy" before, so I try and take it easy.

I think I might buy a comic version of both! Awesome that they thought to put those into print!

You know, I never understood this ST vs SW in America, what gives? Why can't you like both scifi serials? I like SW too though am more attached to ST since I grew up watching that show. It was almost like a 2nd parent!

I'm happy they have the comic versions too! I hope it makes Philippine literature & the Filipino language more accessible to people.

Me either it's a stupid rivalry IMO. I think most fans do actually like both but would never admit it.

Star Trek night with the family was a big deal growing up as a kid. One thing I always loved about Star Trek was that there was so much material with the shows and movies. For Star Trek you have 3 (good) movies and after that mostly novels and video games.

Yeah man, I'm actually going to order those comics for my godson! Thanks again.

Hey.....!!!!! ST6 was actually my favorite ST movie, I thought that the TOS movies were better than the latter movies & I actually liked ST5, not ST1 though, so I thought the OST ST had 4-5 good movies while I liked First Contact in the latter movies. Insurrection was good also I thought. The new one was ok, it gets better the 2nd time you watch it. I hope the new ones get even better. I don't read the novels or play video games though.

DESIGNING

FILIPINO
THE ARCHITECTURE OF
FRANCISCO
MAÑOSA
Published by: Tukod Foundation

DESIGNING FILIPINO: The Architecture of Francisco Mañosa, showcase, for the first time, tropical and contemporary Filipino architecture as depicted through the eyes of Francisco " Bobby" Mañosa. He has been described as the most out spoken champion of an indigenous Filipino architecture. He has consistently explored new expressions of traditional vernacular forms many of which, apply new technology to familiar native material such as bamboo, "nipa", rattan and coconut. It reveals how the simplest indigenous materials can be transformed into distinctive exteriors and elegant interiors that nurture a contemporary Filipino lifestyle.


Francisco "Bobby" Mañosa distinctive designs for family residences, resorts, and institution structures have been described as "neo-vernacular". The architect himself simply says: " I design Filipino." His forms reveal deep roots in the past: The "bahay kubo", the peasant's simple thatch hut and the "bahay na bato", the colonial ancestral home, provide a springboard for new ideas. but Mañosa designs are built for present needs and reach into the future, expressing universal human and aesthetic values that underly the particularities of time and place.

Ten residentials projects, five Churches, four commemorative structures, 5 hotel/resort projects, five institutional projects, four international expositions and various industrial designed projects are featured under the following chapters:

I. Houses
II. Churches
III. Commemorative Designs
IV. Resort/Hotels
V. Institutions
VI. International Expositions
VII. Industrial Designs
VIII. The Design Firm

Each project is deeply explored with full colored photography through the eyes of renowned photographers, namely Chester Ong and Jonh Chua and Dic Baldovino and eloquently drawn plans taken fro the architecture archives of Francisco Mañosa & Partners.

DESIGNING FILIPINO: The Architecture of Francisco Mañosa, is a bold attempt at defining what is contemporary Filipino architecture. This book is an important addition to general, special and university libraries. It will also appeal to architectural students, professionals and anyone who is interested in contemporary Filipino design.


The book's specifications are as follows:

Size: 9 1/2" x 12". 256 pages with over 265 colored photographs and over 40 images of plans, elevations, sections, and perspectives.

BOOK ORDERS

For local orders, books are available at all "National Bookstore" and "Powerbooks" branches. You may also call us at (632) 842-7499; (632) 807-6916or email us at mail@manosa.com for a signed copy.

For international orders, Please email us at mail@manosa.com for payment information.

I really liked the new Star Trek movie and supposedly the upcoming one is shaping up to be even better! I was really into the Next Generation era movies. I haven't seen all of the Shatner movies but I enjoyed "Wrath of Khan".

I've read a few Star Wars novels and some of the comic books. It's really insane how obsessed with Star Wars some people are though.
http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/ob/usethefarce2.jpg

I grew up watching TNG & had very fond memories of it but a few years ago, my brother & I tried to rewatch it after ENT & we were very disappointed. It's like one of those memories you had in your childhood of a fun great movie, ie. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but watching it again, it becomes a disappointment because it did not age well. My favorite ST show is DS9. I really recommend you try to do a ST marathon of the original movies, starting from 2/3, whichever you prefer (though if you rewatch ST2, I recommend you Watch Amok Time from the Original Star Trek, it's just 1 episode but very good & sets up TWOK).

Do you read manga as well?

I've recently watched ST2, would be great to get the family together and do a marathon during the week. Yeah, I get what you mean about certain movies/shows not aging well. I remember loving "Thundercats" especially as a kid, but I tried to watch the original series now and was extremely disappointed. The new version started out strong, but gradually weakened. What's funny is my little nieces and nephews still loved the Ninja Turtles movies, besides the third one.

I watch anime, but I haven't read many mangas. The only one I read was "Berserk" because they were never going to make an OVA.

Star Trek is great fun! ST was like a 3rd parent for me, lol! I felt bad when ST officially went off the air after ENT was cancelled!

My brother & I used to watch Thundercats, He-man, She-ra, Bravestar, TMNT, Tiny Toons, & X-men. While most of my classmates watched freakin Carebears & those blue little elves, lol! We also watched Daimos & the 2 versions of Voltes V! I haven't seen them since then, I wonder how some of them will hold up.

I watch some anime but read only a few mangas, my classmate introduced them to me a few years ago. I tried watching Berserk but I couldn't get into it tbh. People have been comparing Berserk though to HBO's Game of Thrones!

Finding good, accurate, & dependable books on Filipino culture is difficult to come by because unlike English books where you can find a wealth of reviews & information on the internet, Filipino books are rare & usually unseen, even within Philippine society. So let's all help make each others lives easier by listing the books we all would recommend & why, & where to find them if possible.

So here is a a thread in which everyone can share Filipino books they would like to recommend, as well as post some summary & reviews to help all of us sift through & spread knowledge on Filipino culture. For the New Year, I have made a resolution: to spread Filipino knowledge via gift giving, & these gifts would all represent Filipino culture in 1 way or another, with each gift suitable for the individual recipient.

Also, don't forget to state if it's in English or Filipino, & for literature like Rizal, state which version is the best.


The very 1st book I would like to recommend is William Henry Scott's BARANGAY

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Golden age of Filipino literature was in the early 1900s and most of the books, poems and plays were written in Spanish. So a Spanish- tagalog dictionary is necessary!

This book is essential as it's well researched, & easy to digest, in other words, it's for mass-consumption. It's primary focus are the Bisayans, followed by both the Tagalogs & the Mindanaoans.

Here is 1 review of Scott's book:



I cannot stress how vital this book is, every Filipino household should have this, for both parents & children alike. It is time for us to be aware of our roots & time for all of us to be a little more pro-active in spreading knowledge & genuine love for Filipino history & culture. How can you say that you love being Filipino when you have no drive or incentive to know more about yourself, your culture, your ancestors, & your neighbors?

I was a fanatic of Thundercats, He-man, TMNT (especially), X-men as well! Most of my classmates knew about X-men and TMNT but that's it.

I have to check out Game of Thrones then!

Yeah, Berserk was cool when I was like 15-16. Even when I tried to rewatch it a few years back, it doesn't hold up. I can recommend Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Sword of The Stranger (movie), Code Geass off the top of my head for a crowd 21+

I used to have a classmate who was so obsessed with TMNT, he would always bring goo to class! You really should check out Game of Thrones, it's my favorite serial, the only one that has ever topped DS9 IMO. I'm reading the books at the moment & even ordered the bluray, but it has a long waiting list & it won't be available until March or so! So it has a huge demand! Season 2 starts this April so I recommend you gobble it down before season 2 starts! It's not a family type of film though, my father hated it, found it kinda perverted while my mom loves the show! I have seen 1st season of Code Geass, I'll have to watch the 2nd season! Thanks for the other recommendations, I have heard of Cowboy Bebop!

I was a Ninja Turtle at least 3 Halloweens!

I have to watch Deep Space 9. I just checked right now and they're available to stream on netflix! Gonna start watching them tonight after work

Might read the books for Game of Thrones first, I was talking to my dad and he has some of them!

Also, you should check out "Akira". If you haven't already, you probably have though. First anime I ever watched and got me hooked when I was a kid, next was Ronin Warriors, DBZ etc.

ather Leo James English, C.Ss.R. (August 1907 – 1997) was the Australian compiler and editor of two of among the first most widely used bilingual dictionaries in the Philippines. He was the author of the two companion dictionaries namely, the English–Tagalog Dictionary (1965) and the Tagalog–English Dictionary (1986). English saw the successful completion of his dictionaries that were carried out in the course of his 51 years of religious service in the Philippines. He was a member of the Redemptorists or the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a religious order that has been engaged in preaching missions using the vernacular language in the Philippines for more than seventy years.

The Tagalog–English dictionary contains about 16,000 Tagalog main words, 21,000 derivatives and 30,000 translated sentences that illustrate the use of the words. For some entries, synonyms and explanatory notes are added.[2] The English–Tagalog dictionary contains more than 14,000 main English entries and an addition of 40,000 nuances, each both defined in English and translated into Tagalog, as well as 30,000 exemplifying sentences.[1] Together, they are one of the most exhaustive published collections of the Tagalog language.

The dual dictionaries of English pioneered the launching of many bilingual dictionaries and thesauruses in the Philippines including those authored by the Filipino compiler, Vito C. Santos, namely the Vicassan's Pilipino–English Dictionary and the New Vicassan's English–Pilipino Dictionary (1995). Fr. James English acknowledged consulting Vito Santos’s Pilipino–English Dictionary for reference while completing his Tagalog–English Dictionary. Vito C. Santos once worked with Father English.[1][2]

English's dictionaries had been influential in the development and propagation of the Filipino language in the Philippines and abroad.

Hands down this is the best Tagalog dictionary available. For each root word it gives all the different uses, the accent marks, different example sentences, and synonyms. There really is no other dictionary that even compares to this one so if you're looking to get serious about your Tagalog study this is the dictionary you need to pick up. Also check out the English - Tagalog Dictionary by the same author.

This is a Tagalog-English Dictionary compiled by Father Leo James English, C.Ss.R and his assistants. The work took almost eighteen years. It now becomes the companion volume to his English-Tagalog Dictionary compiled several years ago. The content of this dictionary are approximately as follows: Main words 16,000; derivatives 21,000; Tagalog sentences 30,000; English translations of these sentences 30, 000. Total number of all entries 97,000. Therefore, this Tagalog-English Dictionary should be of great value to teachers and students throughout the Philippines. It should also be of considerable help in improving the standard of English of both students and teachers besides helping them in the study of their own language.

Ah. So gusto mo pala maging suplado.

Being Suplado is an art and a science. You have to be smart enough and suave enough to pull it off. As the Senpai of Supladoness, I, Stanley Chi, shall aim to teach everyone who is interested about the Art of Being Suplado.

For those who want to join the Suplado Society of the Philippines (SSP), simply comment or like my status on my Facebook fan page AND use the logo of SSP as your profile picture on Facebook:



When I see that your profile picture carries the SSP logo, I know you deserve my attention – pero di ko muna kayo papansinin kasi nga suplado ako.

I will make a list of everyone who will follow the above instructions. They shall be included in the the esteemed list of members of the Suplado Society of the Philippines! New Year, new society, new suplado you! See below for the official members of SSP!

Feel free to comment through this Suplado Page. Or kung ayaw niyo, di ko na problema yan, I’m too suplado to care! SUPLADO is the NEW SEXY – and don’t you forget it!