Surat Mangyan

In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin. I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications.

But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan.

As I walked inside the Ayala Museum, I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided.

What I can do, however, is write my name in Mangyan script. It is quite different from the Baybayin syllaboc script that was taught to us in high school.

The exhibit about the Mangyan script brought me back to that day in school when our teacher asked us, "If our ancestors were already using their own scripts, why did they drop these and shifted to the Latin script?" Perhaps, it's a question of practicality. The arrival of traders forced our ancestors to adapt to a script that was understandable to the parties conducting business... perhaps, ancient Filipinos traded with their Indian contemporaries, explaining why Baybayin looks very similar to the script I found in road signs I noticed in Hyderabad. Lowlanders also got exposed the most to the Spaniards, who heavily promoted the use of the Latin script. 

The reason why the Mangyan script has survived throughout the centuries can thus be similarly explained: most likely, the Mangyans were mainly isolated from the rest of the world. This allowed them to continue developing their culture and to continue using their script. Hence, Surat Mangyan lives on. I hope that this ancient script will continue to thrive so that Filipinos can see how rich our indigenous heritage is.