Pre-colonial Culture, System of Education and Religious Belief

During the early period thousand years ago, the early Filipinos were composed of different groups that came from different part of Asia. With different groups they form their own community, system of education and religious belief.

They group into different communities composed of 50 to 2,000 individuals and they construct their shelters in different areas according to their lifestyle and source of living. Usually they were situated along the seashores, streams, rivers, forests, fertile land areas and even in caves.

In water areas they look for fish, shells and pearls as their source of living. They also used boat and craft as there means of transportation for an easier travel and carrying their goods for trade from one place to another. For those people located in land areas they cultivate the land and plant rice, bananas and crops. After the harvest they no longer use the area indeed they just move to another place with less grass and fine soil and abundant of trees where they can start farming again. Perhaps this gives an idea that the Philippines is very rich of resources for a bountiful living.

At that early period a system of education already exists which accounted by the so-called Alibata- the early Filipino form of writing. This is according to Fr. Pedro Chirino, one of the first Spanish missionaries arrived in the Philippines.

The early Filipinos also believed that there is a connection of spirit to the daily life of a person. If one their love ones or family member get sick or died they believe that the spirit of nature get angry and they are force to burn and leave their place.