So about 2 years ago I made a pre-colonial Philippines reference post with links to English translated texts from Spanish written accounts of our ancestors during the early colonization, to Chinese accounts, some books and essays, videos, and posts that were already written on Pinoy-Culture.
If you remember I did do an updated list last September that I posted but on wordpress, not on Tumblr. This is when I was debating whether to have Pinoy-Culture have it’s own blog separate from Tumblr but after a couple months I preferred to leave it and stick with Tumblr for now. Sadly while transferring the domain over from the wordpress blog to here I lost all the posts I have written over there that wasn’t fully posted on here but linked, including this post. At least that is what I thought. I’ve been looking through my databases for my hosting as I am working on creating two separate sites for my aunt and a family friends business and thought what if they were stored somehow somewhere? Turns out after turning to faithful Google, I learned that you can indeed find all the posts you have written on Wordpress saved in a certain directory. And long a behold I did find it!
Thank goodness because this reference post is one of my most requested and it has more updated links than the original. So I will be posting this again and I have also added a few other links and references on here that I have personally found and read over the past few months. This post is dedicated for those of you interested in reading the material yourselves and enriching yourself with knowledge of our history and cultures. Enjoy!
I have broken it down to 4 sections.
I. Pre-colonial History & Culture Based on Primary Accounts & Dictionaries
Pretty self explanatory. This section focuses on resource on looking at our precolonial history and cultures. The links are for the most part linked to the English translations of the early Spanish accounts and other primary sources regarding our ancestors and history from nearby countries like China, Brunei, & Japan.
II. Books
Once again, pretty self explanatory. This section focuses on books regarding our history and cultures. Think of it as a list of a Pilipin@ library that you should check out and read.
III. Video Clips
Though not a lot, there are a few useful videos regarding various aspects of our history and cultures and this section will post links to those videos.
Front Page of the Boxer Codex
IV. Articles, Essays, & Online Archives
The final category, which again is pretty self explanatory.
This list will be the official reference list and will be periodically updated as I found more resources to add. If you have or find anything to add feel free to drop a comment below so I can add it to the list.
I. Pre-colonial History & Culture Based on Primary Accounts & Dictionaries
A Manila Galleon depicted in the Boxer Codex
Relation de las Yslas Filipinas in 1582 by Miguel de Loarca (scroll down a bit for the English translation)
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in 1609 by Antonio de Morga
Customs of the Tagalogs (two relations). Juan de Plasencia, O.S.F.; Manila, October 21 1589
Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Part 1) in 1604 by Father Pedro Chirino
Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Part 2) in 1604 by Father Pedro Chirino
The Muñoz text of Francisco Alcina’s History of the Bisayan Islands (1668), translation by Paul S. Lietz (note: The link only brings you to the page of the 4 volumes. However, only volume 3 is available online. I highly suggest reading all 4 volumes of Alcina’s Historia de Las Islas e Indios de Bisayas which you can find the English translation for by the Kobak and Guiterrez editions)
Relation of the Filipinas Islands 1640 by a religious who lived there for eighteen years (Most agree that the person who wrote this account was Father Diego de Bobadilla)
Native races and their customs, from Labor Evangélica, 1663 by Francisco Colin
Diccionario mitologico de Filipinas by Ferdinand Blumentritt
Relation of the Filipinas Islands and of the Character and Conditions of their Inhabitants by Miguel López de Legazpi 1569
Letter to King Felipe II by Andrés de Mirandaola (in regards to the gold mines and describes relations with trade with China and described some settlements), January 8, 1574
Undated letter to the Viceroy of New Spain by Guido de Lavezaris (Manila, 1575?) that mentions the freeing of the natives that were taken to go back to their villages, the trading between the Spanish with the Tagalogs (Moro’s) was at a standstill during this time because of an incident in which Chinese merchandise and 4 Chinese were seized and taken by a few Spaniards in which they stole the goods and those Chinese and others were sent back to China, in which the Spaniard Official (the one writing the letter) was upset about because it was a wrong doing to those who didn’t offend the Spaniards or betray them in anyway. The Tagalogs (Moro’s) distrusted the Spaniards due to this, taking back their goods because of the ill-treatment of the Spaniards. It talks about the asking of married Spaniards to come to the islands as the natives didn’t trust and feel safe toward the unmarried Spaniards but to those that had wives.
Letter from Captain Juan Pacheco Maldonado to Felipe II (Manila 1575?) He begins by narrating briefly the conquest of Luzón; then describes the island and its trade, which is carried on with both China and Japan. On account of its wealth and importance, Luzón should be thoroughly subjugated; and Maldonado enumerates the provisions that should be made for that end. Forty or fifty ecclesiastics should be sent; and to aid in their labors a prelate should be appointed, for which post the writer recommends Fray Diego de Herrera. Maldonado urges that five hundred soldiers be sent from Spain and that with these troops conquest should be made of the Liu-Kiu and Japan Islands. He asks also for artisans to build ships, suggesting for this purpose the negro slaves thus employed at Havana.
Conquest of the island of Luzon. Manila, April 20, 1572
Relation of the Philipinas Islands. Domingo de Salazar, and others; Manila, 1586–88
Boxer Codex (Pictures of the pages of the whole manuscript with no English Translation)
The Boxer Codex part 2
Description of the Philippines by Chao Ju-kua
Antonio Pifagetta – Primo viaggrio intorno al mondo 1524
Antonio Pifagetta – Primo viaggrio intorno al mondo 1524(continued)
Relation of the Filipinas Islands. Francisco de Sande; June 7,1576.
Relation and Description of the Filipinas Islands; June 7 1576
Affairs in the Filipinas Islands. Domingo de Salazar; [Manila, 1583]
Diccionario de la Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina Y Haraya de la isla de Panay by Alonso de Mentrida [1637]
History of the Bisayan People in the Philippine Islands by Francisco Ignacio Alcina, English Translation
II. Books
Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society by William Henry Scott
The Philippine Islands by Blair and Robertson
The Philippine Islands by Blair and Robertson (Digital Ebook with pictures, etc.)
Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by José Rizal translation by Harold Augenbraum
Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of Space by Rick Bonus
Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino-/American Postcolonial Psychology by E.J.R. David
The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons by Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel
Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions by Virgil Mayor Apostol
Filipino Tattoos: Ancient to Modern by Lane Wilcken
The Forgotten Children of Maui: Filipino Myths, Tattoos, and Rituals of a Demigod by Lane Wilcken
Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous by Leny Mendoza Strobel & Perla Daly
Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory by Lily Mendoza & Leny Mendoza Strobel
Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans by Leny Mendoza Strobel
Philippine Gay Culture: Binabae to Bakla, Silahis to MSM by J. Neil C. Garcia.
Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 by Stuart Creighton Miller
An Introduction to Baybayin by Kristian Kabuay
Filipino Tattoos: Ancient to Modern by Lane Wilcken
Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex, and Revolution in the Philippines by Vina A. Lanzona
History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos by Luis Francia
Philippine Society and Revolution by Amado Guerrero
The Decolonized Eye: Filipino American Art and Performance by Sarita Echavez See
Toward Filipino Self-Determination: Beyond Transnational Globalization by E. San Juan Jr.
Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition by Dylan Rodríguez
Transpacific Femininities: The Making of the Modern Filipina by Denise Cruz
Pin@y Educational Partnerships Volume I and Volume II by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice by Kevin Nadal
Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory by Melinda de Jesus
Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of An Imperial Dream 1899-1999 by Angel Velasco Shaw and Luis H. Francia
Philippine Ancestral Gold by Florina H. Capistrano-Baker
Kapwa: The Self and the Other - Worldviews and Lifestyles of Filipino Culture-Bearers by Katrin de Guia
Song of the Babaylan: Living Voices, Medicines, Spiritualities of Philippine Ritualist-Oralist Healers by Grace Nono
Collecting the People: Textualizing Epics in Philippine History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First by Brandon Joseph Reilly
III. Video Clips
Forgotten Philippines: Gold of Ancestors (With English translations) (Parts: 1, 2, 3)
Philippine Treasures Video by GMA-7 (No English Translations) (Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4)
Ayala Museum Gold Book
Philippines Treasures Documentary by GMA-7 Network
IV. Articles, Essays, & Online Archives
Articles on Pinoy-Culture.com
Bisayan Creation Myth
The Visayan’s Time Keeping in Pre-colonial Times
Traditional Musical Instruments
Traditional Clothing
Dating (not the English word dating), a Tagalog rite of passage from a young girl to womanhood.
Pre-Colonial Marriage Customs
Visayan Literature
Bakla: Pre-Colonial Views and Acceptance
The Tugruk and Sakra
10 Kickass Pilipina Warriors in History That You Probably Never Heard Of
Pre-colonial Gold Earrings
The Golden Tara of the Philippines
The Pintados, the “painted ones”, aka the Bisayans
The Angono Petroglyphs
The Manunggul Jar
The Bolinao Skull with Teeth Ornamentation (14th-15 century AD)
16th Century Hair and Hair Care in Pre-Colonial Philippines
The Hanunó’o Script of Southern Mindoro
The Baybayin Script, NOT Alibata
Illustrations depicting the early Bisayans covered in their tattoo motifs
The Philippine Golden Age: Relics of Our Precolonial Past
Rajah Sulyaman (1558-1575) - The Last Ruler of the Kingdom of Maynilad.
The B’laan teeth filing and blackening the teeth and the precolonial practices in the Philippines
Laon , Goddess of Agriculture, Harvests, & Mt. Kanlaon.
Elephants in the Philippines
Masters of Poison: a look into the lost art of the Philippines
The mummy of Apo Anno
Leona Florentino ~ The Ilokana Mother of Pilipinx Poetry
Hara Humamay, aka Queen Juana of Cebu.
Princess Urduja
The Philippine-American War: The Concentration Camps in the Philippines.
The Philippine-American War: The U.S. Imperialism and the Genocide of the Philippines.
Articles & Essays Elsewhere
Philippines Epics and Ballads Archive by Ateneo (this has some of the actual recordings of the epic chanters but some don’t have the translations in English yet, they are only translated into Tagalog, and even some aren’t translated at all, however there are brief notes on the epics in pdf format. Also you will need to register an account but its free and you don’t need to attend a school in the Philippines to access the archive, just put in your school name in the field that asks)
Any book and essay by F. Landa Jocano.
Agricultural Rituals in a Philippine Barrio
Notes on Philippine Divinities
Notes on the Sulod Concept of Death, the Soul, and the Region of the Dead
Any book and essay by E. Arsenio Manuel. Anything by Francisco Demetrio, S.J.
Towards a Classification of Bisayan Folk Beliefs and Customs
Creation Myths Among the Early Filipinos
Death: Its Origin and Related Beliefs Among the Early Filipinos
The Bukidnon Myths of Sickness, Death and Afterlife
Reading Song-Ming (records from the Chinese during this period) Records on the Pre-Colonial History of the Philippines by Wang Zhenping
Anything by Dante L. Ambrosio
Bakunawa and Laho
Balátik and Moropóro Stars of Philippine skies
‘Mamahi:’ Stars of Tawi-tawi
Balatik: Katutubong Bituin ng mga Pilipino
The Art of Puso: Palm Leaf Art in the Visayas in Vocabularios of the 16th to the 19th Centuries by Elmer I. Nocheseda
Filipino Myths of Death and Speciatlon: Content and Structure by J. Patrick Gray
Mathematical Ideas in Early Philippine Society by Ricardo Manapat
Notes on the Sugidanon Among the Bukidnon of Central Panay, Philippines by Alicia P. Magos
The Soul Boat and the Boat-Soul: An Inquiry into the Indigenous “Soul” by Maria Bernadette L. Abrera
Counting and Marking Time: From the Precolonial to the Contemporary Tagalog World by Damon L. Woods
Earth and Sky in Philippine and Indonesian Mythology by Charles Macdonald
The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: Text and Commentary by Antoon Postma
Mount Banahaw: The Power Mountain From Ritualism to Spirituality by Vitaliano R. Gorospe, S.J.
The Bago Ballad of Delnagen and Annusan Lumawig by Florentino H. Hornedo
Death and After Death: Ivatan Beliefs and Practices by Florentino H. Hornedo
Women in the Philippine Revolution by Christine Doran
Sunken Ruins in Lake Taal: An Investigation of a Legend by Thomas R. Hargrove and Isagani Medina
The Chinese at Maguindanao in the Seventeenth Century by Ruurdie Laarhoven
Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino by William Henry Scott
Hispanic Words of Indoamerican Origin in the Philippines by Paloma Albalá
Social and Spiritual Kinship in Early-Eighteenth-Century Missions on the Caraballo Mountains by Mark Dizon
Chinese-Philippine Relations in the Late Sixteenth Century to 1603 by Albert Chan
