“Kadayaw ngada han Pagsidlit han Adlaw” (Full Moon to Sunrise), a two-panel sculpture by Francisco “Archie” Zabala of Palo, Leyte, serves as the door welcoming visitors to the Leyte Samar Heritage Center of UP Tacloban. Carved out of an acacia trunk, the door features the unique flora and fauna, history, and cultural objects and practices in Eastern Visayas.

At the center, a young couple dances the kuratsa, a local dance, with an elderly couple behind them playing ancient musical instruments, the kudlong and kudyapi. The figures are surrounded by images of the lush vegetation ― gabi, pako, kalipayan, and kilala ― and wildlife ― the tarsier, flying lemur, kalaw or hornbill, and balanak fish ― endemic to Leyte, Samar, and Biliran islands. Enlarged rice grains below the elderly musicians represent one of the crops planted in fertile lowland and upland areas across the region. The feet of the dancing couple rest on a mat, signifying the traditional art of weaving mats made of ticog grass. The lower section of the door depicts the warriors of Samar disguised as women, their sundang or machetes deflecting the superior weapons of American invaders during the 1901 Balangiga uprising. At bottom left can be seen hands grabbing a pot, symbolizing how the islands’ rich natural and cultural treasures were commandeered by the foreign invaders. Also at the bottom section are flames that remind viewers of how the American forces retaliated by turning Samar into a “howling wilderness,” burning villages and killing the islanders.

The “heritage door” (as it is sometimes called) of the Leyte Samar Heritage Center or LSHC also serves as a metaphor for UP Tacloban’s goal of contributing to the preservation, conservation, and popularization of the historical, artistic, and natural and cultural heritage of Eastern Visayas. The LSHC was established on 24 October 1995 as a research and extension unit of UP Tacloban to conduct studies on various aspects of Leyte-Samar culture and environment. Under the leadership of its directors ― from founding director Prof. Joycie Dorado-Alegre to the succeeding directors Dr. Margarita de la Cruz, Dr. Marieta Sumagaysay, and Dr. Stephen Lagarde to the current director Prof. Antonino Salvador S. De Veyra, the LSHC has worked to develop a deep appreciation of the tangible and intangible heritage of Eastern Visayas through research presentations, academic conferences, cultural performances, and art and natural history exhibitions.

Through the years, the Center has opened its doors to diverse audiences in order to promote the region’s rich linguistic and literary traditions. It has hosted book launches, author’s talks, and book fairs highlighting the works of local writers as well as books on Eastern Visayas. Recent examples include the book launch of Dr. Stephen Lagarde’s Kanta Binisaya, a collection of choral arrangements of Eastern Visayas folk songs; the book launch and author’s talk on the literary translation of An Ditoy na Prinsipe, Northern Samar writer Jerry Gracio’s translation of The Little Prince; the launch of Dinah Roma’s Weaving Basey: A Poet’s History of Home and the author’s talk on literary and historical writing; and the launch of Tigom: Collected Poems and author’s talk on creative writing in Eastern Visayas by UP Tacloban’s Professor Emeritus Merlie Alunan.

From October 2023 to January 2024, the LSHC held an interactive exhibit on the Waray language titled “Waray Pag-ultan han Pinulungan: Mulay-mulay ha Binisaya” (Waray without Borders: Playing with Words), which highlighted how Eastern Visayas heritage is embedded and embodied in the Binisaya or Waray language. The exhibit, which was mounted in celebration of Museums and Galleries Month and the LSHC’s 28th anniversary, came after a long-running interactive exhibit organized by the LSHC titled “Pagsalud han Dan-ag han Adlaw / Cupping the Flow of Sunlight (Gleanings from the Natural and Cultural Heritage of Eastern Visayas)” in celebration of UP Tacloban’s 50th founding anniversary in 2023.

The Pagsalud exhibit, which opened at a shopping mall in Tacloban City on 23 January 2023 and continued at the LSHC main gallery until early October of that year, featured paintings, photographs, specimens, maps, performances, lectures, workshops, book launches, and multimedia productions drawn from some of the research and creative work undertaken by UP Tacloban scholars. The displays, interconnected by a mangrove motif, showcased the rich biodiversity, culture, and traditions of the region, as well as the resilience of Eastern Visayas communities in the face of various natural calamities and social upheavals. The centerpiece of the exhibit was a full-size replica of the UP Oblation by UP Artist and Professor Emeritus Grace Javier Alfonso. Beyond showcasing UP Tacloban’s institutional research, creative work, and other forms of knowledge production, the exhibit sought to engage the public, and students in particular, in environmental and biodiversity conservation, cultural heritage preservation and promotion, and sustainable development.

In 2021, the LSHC marked its 26th founding anniversary with a multimedia presentation and artist talk on “Kadayaw ngada han Pagsidlit han Adlaw.” The theme of the anniversary celebration was “Pórta: Pathways to Promoting Cultural, Historical, and Environmental Awareness in Eastern Visayas.” Indeed, the Center’s iconic heritage door symbolizes the LSHC’s mandate to build pathways, establish continuities, and open up opportunities in the collective work of preserving the rich natural and cultural heritage of Eastern Visayas. #