Bamboo Whispers is an unprecedented collection of indigenous metrical poetry, or ambahan, from the Philippines. 

The Mangyan are an indigenous people's group that have lived on the island of Mindoro for centuries. Their verse is a cultural gem that has been kept hidden since antiquity, conjuring their identities, struggles, and hopes through evocative, visceral metaphors. Much like Japanese haiku or the Malaysian pantoum, ambahan is written in native pre-colonial script and heptasyllabic verse.

Inscribed with a knife on bamboo stalks, ambahan is not only unique for its structure and medium, but also for its provenance, with no individual authorship -- this art form being a communal offering to the world.

Bamboo Whispers curates the one hundred of their  most representative ambahans, in two scripts and in four languages: in the original Hanunuo Mangyan, and translated into Filipino, Spanish, and English by poets.

With these diverse languages, and archival and fine art photography that provide a window to the Mangyan soul and way of life, the book aims not only to introduce the beauty and legacy of ambahans and Mangyan culture to the modern world, but also to invest in the preservation and sustained practice of this rarefied and vanishing craft.      

What We Need & What You Get

The publication and proceeds of this book will fund the Mangyan Heritage Center's programs to teach the next generation of Mangyans to embrace their unique culture, literature, and script -- only one of three remaining in the Philippines today from over a dozen documented by a Spanish priest in the 1600s.

We need to raise $10,000 to fund the publication of the first 1,000 copies of Bamboo Whispers.

In return, you will get a copy of the book, signed by the editors, and will be invited to the public launch and reading of the books to be held in Spain, the UK, US, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

There is no better way to preserve, promote, and bring indigenous cultural treasures to their rightful place in the world and beloved land.