Banaue Rice Terraces Postcard

The postcard shows the Banaue Rice Terraces or the Ifugao Rice Terraces which epitomize the absolute blending of the physical, socio-cultural, economic, religious, and political environment. Indeed, it is a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty.

Banaue Rice Terraces Postcard

UNESCO World Heritage Statement of Significance:

Criterion (iii): The rice terraces are a dramatic testimony to a community’s sustainable and primarily communal system of rice production, based on harvesting water from the forest clad mountain tops and creating stone terraces and ponds, a system that has survived for two millennia.

Criterion (iv): The rice terraces are a memorial to the history and labour of more than a thousand generations of small-scale farmers who, working together as a community, have created a landscape based on a delicate and sustainable use of natural resources.

Criterion (v): The rice terraces are an outstanding example of land-use resulting from a harmonious interaction between people and their environment which has produced a steep terraced landscape of great aesthetic beauty, now vulnerable to social and economic changes.

RELATED ENTRY:Banaue Rice Terraces Postcards

SOURCE:
UNESCO World Heritage: Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras

Painting Postcard

The postcard shows another painting by Lourdes Oben Santos. The painting in the postcard is entitled St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Companion Martyrs. The back of the postcard mentions some information about the painting, but not if it's in a private collection or museum:

1981
Oil on canvas

St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Companion Martyrs Postcard

The postcard shows the kneeling Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, Dominican Catholic priests and Japanese Catholics. At the top left part of the painting is the tsurushi.

Lorenzo Ruiz, who was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard, sought asylum on board a ship that left for Japan. The boat landed at Okinawa and the group was arrest and persecuted because of their Christian religion, and were brought to Nagasaki. On September 27, 1637, Ruiz and his companions were taken to the "Mountain of Martyrs", where they were hung upside down into a pit known as horca y hoya, or tsurushi (hence it can be seen on the postcard). Two days after, Ruiz died from hemorrhage and suffocation. His body was cremated and his ashes were thrown into the sea.

Lorenzo Ruiz was beatified in Manila on February 18, 1981 by Pope John Paul II during his Papal visit to Manila. San Lorenzo Ruiz was elevated to Sainthood and canonized by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City, Rome on October 18, 1987 making him the first Filipino saint and the first Filipino martyr.

SOURCES:
Lorenzo Ruiz Wikipedia Entry

Painting Postcard

The postcard shows a painting by Lourdes Oben Santos entitled Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise. I was not able to find a biography or other works of the painter. The back of the postcard mentions some information about the painting, but not if it's in a private collection or museum:

2002
Acrylic on canvass

Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise Postcard

The painting title is actually one of the sayings of Jesus on the cross (second saying to be exact):
(2) Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43)

SOURCE:
Sayings of Jesus on the cross Wikipedia Entry

UPDATE: Paniqui Church

In my blog entry on June 5, 2008 I mistakenly named the church in the postcard as the Paniqui Church of Nazarene. The church in the postcard is actually the St. Rose of Lima Church.

St. Rose of Lima Church Postcard

The St. Rose of Lima Church was built in 1686 by the Dominican friars in honor of the first Catholic saint of the Americas. Its first parish priest was Rev. Fr. Gregorio Echevarria.

RELATED ENTRY:
Paniqui Church of the Nazarene Postcard

Manila City Hall Postcards

The postcards show the Manila City Hall and its clock tower. The original Manila City Hall was built during the early days of American occupation. A new city hall was constructed in 1937, with then Manila Mayor Juan Posadas, Jr., lobbying for a new City Hall. The building had an initial appropriation of Php500,000. Building plans were prepared by Architect Antonio Toledo of the Bureau of Public Works. In 1939, with only a major southern portion of the complex was built, Mayor Posadas died.

Manila City Hall Postcard 1

The edifice is a four-level floor with the clock tower located five levels higher on the north side, and with a garden at the center of the complex. The present city hall is a restoration after it was partially destroyed during World War II. The building proper, if seen from above, resembles a coffin with the clock tower as its candle.

Manila City Hall Postcard 2

The clock tower became a distinctive trademark of the city and the city hall. The clock tower is part of the 5000 square meter Manila City Hall building bounded by Taft Avenue on the West side, Concepcion Road on the north and Arroceros Street on the east. It took about four years to complete the whole complex with the signature clock tower in its northern portion. It was patterned after the famous "Big Ben" clock tower in London.

Manila City Hall Postcard 3

In November 1998, the clock tower (three meters in circumference) was restored to its original state, with the four faces synchronized.

Manila City Hall Postcard 4

SOURCES:Senor Enrique's Blog Entry on Manila City Hall
Manila City Hall Wikipedia Entry

City Hall Clock Tower: On time, same time by Remia Bibit-Eugenio
Cruising Magazine Vol. VI No. 4 September 2004 page29