Back online: epics.ateneo.edu - A Multimedia Archive of Philippine Epics and Ballads

After several years of quiet, epics.ateneo.edu, the Multimedia Collection of Philippine Epics and Ballads has returned. Access is free. You may register using your Google account at epics.ateneo.edu.

Ateneo de Manila University is pleased to announce the relaunch of epics.ateneo.edu, a website devoted to the Multimedia Collection of Philippine Epics and Ballads.

The site spans more than five decades of field work across 16 cultural communities. What began in the Palawan highlands in 1970—when Dr Nicole Revel first heard the tultul of Kudaman—grew into a UNESCO-affiliated conservation program that documented epic chants, photographs, essays, and recordings from communities across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

With the backing of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique/French National Centre for Scientific Research), and the Ateneo’s Rizal Library, the archive was digitized and first launched in 2011. It has now been carefully restored and upgraded for a new generation of students, researchers, and cultural workers. It houses over 8,500 pages of transcriptions and translations, 2,000 photographs, and more than 200 recordings—organized by cultural group, each with its own map, overview, videos, and scholarly resources.

The epics site uses Google accounts to make access safe and secure. You may register using a Google or Gmail account. We process registrations on weekdays. Once Lina Trinidad, our Registration Officer, grants access, a registered user will have free and direct access to the website. For inquiries, email epics.rl.ls@ateneo.edu.