"We have only belatedly realized the great cultural and artistic treasure we're sitting on, and it has to take the likes of Bea Zobel to get the renaissance movement a nudge forward."
a few days ago, i came across a coffee table book published by bea zobel that focused on vernacular houses in loay and loboc areas. the book shows artistic details of boholano houses that makes good reference material for arts and culture enthusiasts including those that are particularly interested with vernacular architecture. scanning the pages of the book does make one feel proud to be part of people with a distinct identity and makes one feel mighty proud to be a boholano. the book is called "sukaran". its price of PHP 1,200 may be a bit on the high side but it's a very good book that every proud boholano should have.
in my opinion, the next thing that people should work on toward improving cultural identity is to get all local historians together and come up with a historical account of bohol starting from the srivijayan era until contemporary times, and publish it as an official documentation of the boholano people.
next in line would be a museum. bohol has lots of historical artifacts but there is hardly any place to keep these things. the only museum we had - a display of Carlos P. Garcia memorabilia that was kept in his own house - has been closed because the property has been recalled by CPG's heirs. so for now, bohol does snot have a museum. i was quite disgusted to learn that a good number of relics that include coffins and skeletal remains of ancient boholanos that were excavated from caves in anda-mabini area had to be taken to butuan by the national historical institute (NHI) for safekeeping. indeed, bohol needs a museum.
and speaking of a place to keep heritage items such a museum, we also need a sort of art gallery that will display artistic works done by boholano artists starting from pre-hispanic period up to contemporary times. bohol is rich in terms of artistic pool and there is indeed a need to showcase what has been done by local artisans; from weavers to painters to potters to painters, sculptors.
hopefully these potential projects can be initiated and facilitated by a provincial leadership under someone (in the likes of cesar montano) who sees value in advancing arts and culture development not only to recapture the pride in being a boholano but also as a tool to achieve economic development.
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