Filipinas

Filipines
Located in southeastern Asia, the Philippines is an archipelago comprising 7,107 islands with a land area of 300,000 square kilometers. Its coastline of more than 34 400 km is the fifthlargest in the world. Its territorial waters cover 212 million hectares.

The islands are divided into three main groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. With 38 provinces, Luzon is the largest island inthe north where the capital, Manila. Visayas, with 16 provinces, the group of islands in the central and southern Mindanao's 25 provinces.
The country has approximately 80 million inhabitants. Morethan half the population lives in Luzon and the rest live almost equally between the Visayas and Mindanao.

Art, music, writing, painting and esculture:
The Filipinos were exposed to the arts andEuropean music with the introduction of the violin, piano, harp, guitar and other instruments of rondalla. The bamboo organ of Las Piñas, built in 1818, is part of Filipino music legacy of thecolonial era. Mexican folk dances as the polka, quadrille Jack and influenced the native Filipino dance.
The arts and music were part of life in pre-Hispanic Philippines. Musical instruments like the fluteand guitar from bamboo, and gong, were used in times dating back to 500. There were also Indian songs for the different stages of life - birth, childhood, courtship, marriage and death. The painting,in particular on the human body, was also practiced. The first people encountered by Magellan and his crew were Indians called painted with tattoos.

First Philippine Massler early explorers and theSpanish chroniclers were surprised when they learned that writing was already developed in many parts of the archipelago and that many Indians were literate. The first writings were probably made ofperishable materials such as leaves and bark of trees so the researchers and anthropologists could not determine exactly when the first writings were made in the country. They believe that writing...