Mangyan Heritage Museum in Baco, Oriental Mindoro

The Mangyan Heritage Museum is a modest two-storey museum inside Dolce Vita di Jo Resort, just 20 minutes away from Calapan City. The ground floor displays souvenir items and arts and crafts the Mangyans themselves made, and a few anthropology books on Mangyan culture. Meanwhile, the second floor exhibits a small collection of many diverse items, from the artifacts of Mangyan culture, to underwater archaeological finds, up to the makeup of Mindoro’s underlying geological structures.

Central to the museum, of course, are the artifacts of the Mangyan heritage. These include their mode of fashion, accessories, and ornaments, their musical instruments, hunting and kitchen equipment, and most importantly, their written language. The Mayan script is etched on bamboo such as their flutes and spears. On the other hand, the archaeological artifacts include bones, shells, pottery shards predating the Spanish regime, and porcelain bowls fished from Spanish galleon wrecks in the sea of Puerto Galera.