Mention the Philippines and most people think of weird food (fertilized duck egg, anyone?) and beautiful beaches. But stick around long enough, and you’ll find that (sometimes literally) beneath the country’s modern malls runs a deeper mythological tradition so rich, it has migrated from the forest to the cities, morphing from myths to urban legends, […]
October 5 being Teacher’s Day, I would like to pay tribute to the very first teacher I ever knew – my mom, Flora. (I only saw this picture of hers for the first time – after she had passed away last Oct. 1 – when my younger sister was going through some old pictures of […]
In the previous article, I discussed the first nine food that can help you lose weight. These are vegetables and salads, grapefruit, apples, pears, bananas, eggs, beans, vinegar and tofu. Here are the remaining nine healthy food on our list: 10. Green tea. Green tea contains an antioxidant called catechins, which may help you lose […]
Achi was busy chatting on the internet with classmates one long weekend. She was asking her classmates what they put in their booklets. Their homework for the long weekend was to finish reading Adventures of a Child of War by Lin Acacio-Flores published by Anvil. They were supposed to put words they do not understand […]
The Kagyur (Tibetan: “words, speeches;” a collection of canonic works attributed to Buddha) and Tengyur (Tibetan: “translation of teachings;” Tibetan collection of commentaries on Buddhist teachings) are the combined legacy of all Buddhists who have lived from the time of the Buddha until the present. Also known as the Canon, they are two voluminous collections […]
The girls’ school moved to a new campus in Fairview, Quezon City. With a bigger campus, there is now a canteen selling food and drink. Even when the girls bring snacks to last the day, they still want to buy yummy-looking snacks like turon, fries, corn, brownies from the canteen that don’t look like their […]
MigmarTsering, 25, is from the remote province of Nubri, Nepal. He sports an afro hairstyle, a swag beard and a charming smile, and an earring on his left ear. He carries a chic, leather backpack. When I first spotted him, he was bowing full-length on a plyboard, in front of three Buddha statues. He has […]
The Department of Health states that around 300 to 600 Filipinos die from rabies per year. More than half of the victims are children between five to 14 years of age. According to the World Health Organization, the Philippines ranks among the highest in the world in terms of rabies prevalence. Rabies is a deadly […]
That’s the mantra of tour operators and tour guides to visitors who go to either of the Unesco World Heritage sites. Indeed, with over 3,000 limestone outcroppings spread over an area of 4,810 hectares, Zhangjiajie in Hunan province in China is a mystical glimpse into times long past. Looking down into the tangled spaces between […]
During ancient times, letter writers were called scribes. Nowadays, with improved literacy, it’s hard to imagine why letter writers were necessary a century ago. My first encounter with the profession was at the Bahay Tsinoy, a museum of Chinese in Philippine life. One prominent life-sized figure depicted a late Spanish or early American era man […]