Note: Ethnobotanical Garden at Butuan Museum

I posted a picture of a biasong tree at the Museum garden a couple of days ago. It occurs to me that the museum's arboretum is in severe need. I should write about this in depth, but don't have time. I saw biasong in the markets yesterday, among only three citrus---calamansi, biasong, and a large pumelo.

Informative signs at the museum's garden describe the historical interest and cultural interest of the trees; however these signs have deteriorated to the point of being unreadable. At least two notable trees have died.

Here is a fantastic idea, just begging for someone to jump in with fuel (energy and money) and go with it. One of the biggest problems facing this excellent museum is money. The employees are grossly underpaid. This is a 3rd world facility. Technicians or maintainance/custodial staff were observed at lunch time in 2004 shooting fish in the fish pond with air rifles equipped with clever spears, barbed at the tip, with a retrieval line attached. Because that's how they can eat.

So it's deplorable that the museum garden would degenerate to that point; but understandable. Who would support this kind of a facility? It needs energetic young scholars of ethnology, botany, and horticulture, and to these, what an opportunity!

What can we do even to begin to document these issues in an 8 day period? We have checked out and are mobile.

more images

We leave Butuan today. I have some images saved up on this computer that I have been using at Balanghai Hotel, so I'll post them now and sort them out later.

Internet Cafe's and etc.: I haven't found one single good keyboard on any computer in the PI. Everyone uses Yahoo. Windows in ubiquitous, shockingly so. Firefox isn't on the computers I have been using, except a few around Manila. Most of the computers have old versions of IE, with no tab browsing. Oh, well.

Nuf sed about that. We'll be on Sulpicio Lines tonight, then Wednesday to Dumaguete. Sadly, this will be a short visit, even though our intention had been to spend most of our trip there.

So long.

Butuan and History




We purchased a book from Greg Hontiveros, president of the Butuan Historical and Cultural Preservation Society, Butuan of 1000 years. It is a well written compilation of researches about Butuan's rich history. We found it at the vastly improved Butuan City Library, in the Butuan study room. Butuan was chronicled in Chinese texts from the Sung Dynasty, documenting trade between the Champa Empire and Butuan. Butuan is well known for gold work, dating perhaps to 1000BC. A second historical landmark, a source of pride for Butuanons, is Mazawa, the putative site of Magellan's first mass on Philippine soil. Well, there is another camp supporting Limasawa Island, but this is currently a hot issue for Butuanons, who claim research lately provides increasing support for the Mazawa site. We visited Mazawa on our last trip, but mainly to visit shrimp pond.

Mangrove devastation since 1950s

Shrimp farming has experienced a decline since our last visit in 2004: a bacterial infection has resulted in closing of at least some ponds. I have learned of a Butuanon mangrove expert who is recommending the replanting of mangroves, on the basis of the position that shrimp ponds where mangroves have been left significantly intact nearby have been producing better in Asia than those, like the ones here in Butuan, where Mangroves were cleared. Maps from 1959 or so show extensive mangroves near Mazawa, where we saw only shrimp and fish farms. I noted a massive patch of rectangles (farms/ponds) when I landed in Butuan in 2004, leading to our exploration of the coast. Hopefully the replaning efforts will bring back some of the mangrove functions.

I remember, however, that mangrove peat can be hundreds or thousands of years in development, and I wonder how one might expect replanted trees to generate a fully functioning mangrove community. Mangrove trees, at least of some species, are notoriously difficult to extablish by replanting, as demonstrated in Fiji some years ago. However, I hope that recently such efforts have been more successful, for the sake of the Butuan and other Philippine mangrove replanting projects.

At the fruit market

Near Otis Market in Butuan City, fruit vendors hawk their wares. I dared to photograph them, but I admit to having sampled some of them as well.

Chica.

Extremely sweet; like a coarse ripe pear in texture; taste almost like darkened brown sugar.

The ubiquitous Mango of the Philippines.

Rambutan.

Langka: Jackfruit wrapped in cellophane.

Santol

Masterwork of a baker's art. There's no corn in this bread, and it's actually rather bland, like perhaps a baking powder bread; a little sweet. I still like to eat it!

So ends yesterday's market day. Tomorrow there's another fruit market I hope to visit, with dozens of fruits and vegetables displayed.

Caraga Guitar made of bamboo

I had seen this in a published lecture from 1931 about Philippino musical instruments and "airs." Here's a picture from the Museum, of an example I saw today:

I was told that these instruments are still found today during festivals, and that when the festivities are over, they are thrown away. Holes are found at the ends and under the two strings, in what would be a sounding board. The following picture shows the holes at the end, and the binding around the instrument, the "nut" holding the bamboo fiber strip in tension and in position. The end with a hole is beaten with the open hand, like a drum, while at the same time the strings are plucked. This example is behind glass.

Caraga is the district including most of Northern Mindanao. The exhibit did not label this at all.

Some Environmental Issues in Northern Mindanao

• Mining

Nickel mining in Tubay. Coincidentally, a major fish preserve is located along this coast.






A news article for reference from the Cagayan de Oro newspaper:
October 2006: coalition.calls.closure.of.town.mining.operation

• Marine Conservation: Amag in Medina, Misamis Orientale.

Linricon Absuelo tells of the unidentified fish amag, in Medina. This fish is a few inches long, and has bioluminescent organs scattered on the body. The eye area may also bioluminesce. These fish were common in Medina, where they schooled at night, and were scoop netted by fishermen. Sounds like easy prey. According to Linricon, these fish have not been seen in Medina for approximately ten (10) years. Nuf sed.

Balangai Boats, searching markets for fruits.

We went to the Balanghai Boat archaeological site today.

Took some pics of fruits. Will try to upload a couple of them soon.

Three issues that need to be discussed in depth:

1. Mining and its ecological, environmental, sociological, and economic consequences. The Gov wants Mindanao to be a model mining area. Nickel is being mined up North at one of our favorite sites, near Tubai. I heard today of mining up toward Davao that has disastrous consequences on local people's lives. An entire mountain was razed near Butuan for some purpose, the top sheared off. With the push from the gov, the situation may get quite grave.
2. In Caraga, the region in which Butuan is located, logging has been rampant and uncontrolled for many years. Mountains are denuded, the threat is severe of flooding in these lowlands with the watersheds of the great Agusan River having been cleared of mahogany forests. It appears that although a ban on logging has been made, Caraga has been exempted due to supposed "good conditions for growth of trees." Sadly, the mining industry and logging industry are controlled by the two competing political families of Caraga.
3. I asked Concon Absuelo what spices might be of note in Butuan. He told me that the Mindanao cinnamon tree produced a good grade of cinnamon, but has become mainly an herbal cure for old people today. The one tree we saw at the arboretum at the Butuan National Museum has died since 2004.
4. The Butuan City Library has been vastly improved over the past three years. A new library has been built, and a Butuan Heritage Collection and an Environment and natural history room have been set aside. The situation is far better than three years ago.
5. The arguement about the first mass said by Magellan in the PI between Mazawa, here in Butuan, and Limasawa Island, near Leyte, has heated up. In the aforementioned Butuan Heritage Room are found a number of materials, including Pigafetta's works. People here are convinced that the arguement has gone well for Butuan.

I was not all0wed to photograph the Balanghai Boats. William was intrigued by the carved woodem coffins and remains that date, I believe, from the 13th Century, dug up nearby.

The Hydrology and Geology of Butuan are quite interesting, a target for further learning.

Who is Jaime Valles?

In the waywayback time, Peter Van Dyke and I were living on the beach at Ke'ei Beach, in Kona, on the Big Island (no, the island, not the continent!) We befriended Jaime Valles, at that time (in the 70s) quite aged, a retired sugar cane chopper, brought over with a whole bunch of them in about 1915, I think (please correct this if you can). Jaime lived on the beach with 13 white dogs. He said he wanted white dogs, because Filipinos like to eat black dogs and not white ones. His camp consited mostly of two cars, his white dogs, a table, I think, and a fire. He cooked "sabaw" for him and his dogs everyday. Our part in all this was to drive him to town (some of the time in his car), so he could shop for groceries, and so could we. And we got some beer out of it too. I remember him fondly, but know too little about him, now I am in the PI, to trace his roots.

I did find this link about Sakadas.

He was born in the year either before or after my grandmother Davis. I think he was born in 1897. Last time I saw him, he was living at a new government retirement home in Kona. He mentioned visayan and he mentioned ilocano. So there is a chance he was from the south (Visayas), the language community of Fe. I am interested, but don't remember clearly.