Manila: A Cultural Crossroad 0
The Philippines is a land of contrasts. Its cities are dull and chaotic. However, just a short trip to the north or south of the capital Manila, the traveler is soon surfeited with picture-perfect beaches, unspoiled wilderness, and awesome nature sights and experiences that amount to no less than a tropical fantasy. With a marvelous nature on one hand, and a unique culture on the other, a travel to the Philippines is a surprising discovery.
The Philippines can be whatever you want it to be. A natural paradise. Or a cultural maze with cuisines and shops catering virtually to every taste. Comprising of 7,100 islands, the archipelago is situated at the eastern edge of the Southeast Asian region along the western rim of the Pacific. Located right between two great geographical regions, the Philippine tropical climate is similarly a split between the hot seasons running from March to May, and rainy season from July to November. Truly, geography bears down on Philippine life as much as history. Like its climate, the Filipinos can be as warm and genial at once.
This makes the Philippines doubly fit for the role of a cultural crossroad. After all, a crossroad is what the Philippines has been when it first came to Western knowledge in March 1521. When the navigator Ferdinand Magellan made his landfall in the central Philippine island of Samar, the circumnavigation of the world was complete. The enigmatic Portuguese explorer, who had been stationed in Malacca a decade before, knew about the Philippines all along. The islands were his lynchpin to prove the roundness of the world—and perhaps, his intended military base to seize Moluccas from the Portuguese.
Not the prettiest of Asian countries, yet the Philippines has continued to draw all sorts of people. So does Manila, the capital and chief city of the Philippines located at the principal island of Luzon. Hugging the eastern shore of Manila Bay, the city is the country’s cosmopolitan melting pot with a 2 million population, all packed in a 38-square kilometer land area. In 1975, Manila and its 16 contiguous towns and cities were integrated into a 638.55 sq. km. administrative region known as Metropolitan Manila.
Manila started out as a Muslim settlement in the 16th century. In 1571, the Spanish conquistadores came, razed Manila’s palm huts and wooden palisades to the ground, and built on its ashes the foundations of the fortress city of Intramuros. The islands were officially named after King Philip II of Spain, the “most Catholic of sovereigns.” And Manila became the capital of the colony in 1571 with the royal title of “Distinguished and Ever Loyal City.”
The Spanish ruled the Philippines for 333 years — too long a time to plant the unshakable foundations of Roman Catholicism. The Americans came next with democratic tutelage and an era of consumerism. With this checkered history, many won’t say that three centuries of the convent and one century of Hollywood make up a damaged Philippine culture. Maybe. However, beneath the contradictions lies a unique place where the ancient meets the modern, where East meets West, creating a culture entirely of its own.
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