WALA LANG
IMPORTANT CULTURAL PROPERTIES: NCCA invitation for comments on the delisting petition.
The latest excitement in heritage circles is over a temple in Santa Ana that a Ms. Chloe Chizu Go, wants removed from the National Museum’s “Important Cultural Property” list. How she became owner of a temple is another story, but the petition must be in preparation for its demolition and replacement as another commonplace building, maybe a high rise.
There are some bright spots of course — Metropolitan Theater, China Bank Building on Juan Luna, Luneta Hotel in Ermita are their magnificent old selves, but it’s a pity how so few reminders are left of beautiful and historic Manila. The Art Deco Jai Alai building was demolished to make way for a parking lot. Torre de Manila mars the vista of Rizal Park, a fate that may soon befall gothic San Sebastian Church.
R.A. No. 10066 (National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009) defines “Important Cultural Property” as one “having exceptional cultural, artistic, and historical significance to the Philippines as shall be determined by the National Museum and/or National Historical Institute.” In turn, a “nationally significant” property is one that has “historical, aesthetic, scientific, technical, social, and/or spiritual values that unify the nation by a deep sense of pride in their various yet common identities, cultural heritage, and national patrimony.”
The structure is certainly one that embodies historical, social, and spiritual values and that relates to various common identities. It is an unusual, possibly unique blend of Taoist, Buddhist, and Catholic beliefs that has attracted generations of native Filipino and Filipino-Chinese worshippers.
The Ong Pao Hu and the Nstra. Sra. de los Desamparados chapels (photo from The Urban Roamer).
The temple has two chapels opening directly onto Lamayan Street. The one on the right is dedicated to the Taoist god Pan Ong Hu to whom people pray for justice. The other is dedicated to Santa Ana church’s patron, the Virgin Mary as Nstra. Sra. de los Desamparados (Our Lady of the Abandoned). Taoists know her as Sta. Ana Lao Ma and the goddess Mazu (Macho in Hokkien) and Buddhists, as Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy.
The connection may have begun early. Ernesto Panis of the Santa Ana Parish Heritage Group tells me of the legend that one day, a beautiful lady visited a nearby Chinese-owned textile store. She made a selection and asked that the owner meet her at the church. He went there at the appointed time but she was nowhere. Looking up, he realized that it was Our Lady who was at his store.
Google Earth view of the Santa Ana Church complex, including the Ong Pao Hu Temple.
The existing temple building itself does not look much older than a hundred years, but it could be the latest replacement of earlier structures possibly from even before 1725 when the existing Santa Ana church was completed.
Santa Ana (previously known as Sapà) was a flourishing village during pre-Hispanic times. It was the home of Panday Pira, the cannon maker summoned by the Spanish to their bidding. There was also a sacred well believed to have healing waters and protected by a diwata.
I would venture that people buried their dead as close to the sacred well as possible, in the low hill now occupied by Santa Ana church and its surroundings, including the Taoist temple’s very grounds. This is where ancient burials from the 11th to 14th centuries were excavated in the 1960s by the National Museum and by private sector groups, notably the Locsins and Paternos. Quantities of top-grade Sung Dynasty Chinese porcelain and stoneware as well as Vietnamese and Thai ceramics and local earthenware were found as grave goods. As source of precious porcelain, the Chinese would have known about Sapà’s miraculous well, raising the possibility that they have been believers since ancient times.
The Franciscans were the first religious to enter Sapà. They built their church in a now forgotten place but relocated in the 18th century to build the existing church. I have seen nothing that explains their choice of location, but it seems clear that they did so deliberately, taking into account pre-Hispanic beliefs and practices.
A Google Earth view shows how the church is oriented precisely North-South (notice the directional arrow). The façade faces due North and in a straight line leading directly South are the Sanctuary, altar and the image of Nstra. Sra. de los Desamparados (under the dome); a magnificent painted room, La Camarín de la Virgen immediately behind; the pre-Hispanic sacred well (named El Pozo de la Virgen) facing Lamayan Street; and directly across Lamayan, the rusty roof of the Taoist temple.
Various groups have been promoting Santa Ana as a Manila tourist destination. The community has designed a heritage tourism program for the district with support from groups such as Fundación Santiago. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat has announced cultural and heritage tourism as a priority. Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has said the same. Private tour groups including The Urban Roamer already have Santa Ana and the Taoist Temple in their itineraries.
Delisting the Santa Ana Catholic-Taoist-Buddhist temple and allowing a nondescript building to take its place would be a great loss to the Philippine historical memory and to reminders of Manila’s rich past.
Note: Santa Ana church is at the end of the long vista from Plaza Calderon. A high rise at the church rear would be a repeat of Torre de Manila and Rizal Park.
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected].
Photo captions: IMPORTANT CULTURAL PROPERTIES: NCCA invitation for comments on the delisting petition; the Ong Pao Hu and the Nstra. Sra. de los Desamparados chapels (photo from The Urban Roamer); and Google Earth view of the Santa Ana Church complex, including the Ong Pao Hu Temple.