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Luisa Brimble's avatar

KUYA WHAT THE HECK!!!!!!!! THIS IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE pre-colonial writing I have ever consumed! Thank you so very much for writing this. I JUST CANNOT! WOW WOW WOW! Maraming salamat po. If people want to read up and research pre-colonial Philippines they need to start here!

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Hi Luisa,

Thank you for reading. I am happy my post resonated with you and I hope you can use this for reference in the future. This will always be up for us to look through.

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Luisa Brimble's avatar

I'd really like to write about Kare-Kare and trace it's roots. I have a feeling that this dish is history on the plate from pre-colonial, to colonial, to now but I am yet to gather more evidence.

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Minsoo Thigpen's avatar

LUISA WRITE IT I WANT THIS !!!!

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Minsoo Thigpen's avatar

Okay I +1 Luisa on on this but what I’m also seeing is that this kind of writing I am craving specifically is by us and for us and that makes me so hopeful about this kind of community centered in intentional writing and knowledge sharing

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musiklatan's avatar

Love this post, it’s so detailed, it’s clear there’s so much love for both cultures. Would love to make a post that goes deeper in the comparison of PH and Indonesian gong cultures, it’s really fun. Your piece was so inspiring!

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Kahlil Corazo's avatar

Nice!

I wrote a paper that will be published in a couple of months that connects PH and Indonesia, but it is more on the dark side of our cultures https://docs.google.com/document/d/15x-PiQXN_DeSEntyocSgaPBTKMOFD2xHCRf4lmdE1Jc/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.3nzlsyxe197n

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Kepayang's avatar

Halo! Fabi here - I’m an Indonesian writer. I just want to say that this is an incredible piece of in-depth writing. I truly enjoyed reading it! I’ve always admired how much Indonesia and the Philippines have in common. Unfortunately, I think many people haven’t realised this yet and through writing like this, we can then nurture a stronger shared spirit between our cultures! 🇮🇩🇵🇭

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Hi Fabi,

Thank you for reading. I feel like I constantly hear a new similarity between our countries so I felt the need to write it all down. I do however, think that more and more people are realizing how similar our countries are. For instance, some Filipinos on TikTok who have been to Indonesia, even just Bali, have made videos saying how similar Indonesia is to the Philippines, and so many people in the comments were agreeing. That is just one example. I think as we interact more and more, what I have written down will become common knowledge, in due time.

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Rachielle Sheffler's avatar

Wow, this will take me a long time to digest. I picked up an Indonesian dictionary at the library, and I was amazed at how many words were common. The first one I saw was ube.

Sometimes when I’m in the car, I get text messages and Siri would say, “So and so said something in Indonesian, would you like to reply?” I laugh because the message was really in Tagalog or Ilocano.

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Yeah, it’s a ton of information but worth putting out there!

I knew that if I included more language similarities I think it’ll take too long to write so I kept it to some broad information. It’s funny how when I hear Ilocano it sounds like Indonesian. This is a good reference to always come back to, and something we should keep in mind.

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Ashleigh at Travel Bugg's avatar

Wow, this is such a well researched and enlightening piece! I have never been to the Philippines, but I recently visited Indonesia, and this shed light on some of the things I experienced there. I especially like the culture of mutual aid and gift giving (bakpia is so good, and it was fun to buy for friends). Really great article!

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Hi Ashleigh,

I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m also happy a lot of this resonated with your personal experience. I assume bakpia isn’t too different from hopia either.

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Ashleigh at Travel Bugg's avatar

Thank you, Datu, my friend who visited Yogyakarta with me (whose family is from the Philippines) said it was really similar!

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Oh yeah, I still have to visit but I’ve been to many neighboring ASEAN countries and they felt similar to the Philippines in their own ways! But so many Filipinos who have been to Indonesia say its so similar and feels familiar.

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Kiff Joshua's avatar

This is an amazing article! Reading from fellow Filipino writers is so awesome

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Glad you enjoyed it!

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Kiff Joshua's avatar

Highly underrated

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Datu Kidlat's avatar

Hopefully more Filipinos will re-connect with their ASEAN neighbors and see how much they have in common.

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