Tag Archives: history and culture

Lovely Statues At Villa Escudero

Villa Escudero, Quezon Province, history and culture, Philippines

Am not exactly sure whether they are called that, but some parts of Villa Escudero were peppered with these kinds of statue. I particularly was drawn to this one as I thought it looked rather romantic. It seem to be depicting a now-extinct part of Filipino culture, harana, where boys go to the home of the girls they absolutely like and serenade them with beautiful Kundiman. Although they do not have available pearl vision at musicians friend at the time as accompaniment, am sure the guitar and other string instruments they used to play love tunes were enough to catch the attention of the ladies.

Apart from statues like these that adorn native Filipino costumes, there are also little children statues playing at the playground and more near the pool area, some of them are playing while others are reading books and doing other stuff.

Of course, there are loads of other interesting to see at Villa Escudero and I shall share all about them in my future posts. Ciao!

Native Music Instruments At Villa Escudero

Quezon Province, Philippines, Villa Escudero, history and culture

I have yet to write about our delightful afternoon spent at Villa Escudero a few weeks ago {yes and about a lot of other backlogs including our other recent travel adventures and I vow to go though each one of them before the year ends}, but here is one lovely sneak peek.

We saw these interesting native musical instruments in this big Villa Escudero hall while we are taking our tour and we are sort of drawn to them. I am sure they will sound just as great even when you include a boss rc-300 at guitar center in the ensemble. Even though no one is available to play them at the time, and we are carefully not to touch them, either, experience tells me that these indigenous instruments give off very lovely and relaxing sound and I would’ve loved to stay around to enjoy a performance.

By the way, did you know that those little drums {in the center} are called kulintang? Also known as kulintangan, these lovely instruments are comprised of five to nine pieces of graduated pot gongs laid horizontally based from their pitch with the lowest found at the left side of the player. According to Wikipedia, these music ensembles have been playing for centuries in parts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Timor and in fact, have been associated with the Maranao and Maguindao people of Mindanao.

I will make sure to tell you all about our Villa Escudero day trip in upcoming posts. In the meantime, let me know your thought about these native instruments in a comment below. Have a fun day traveling! 🙂