MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Embassy in New Delhi recently taught young Indian learners how to write "Baybayin," one of the Philippines' ancient writing systems.
The embassy highlighted Baybayin's "visual similarities and historical connection with Devanagari, the writing system used for Sanskrit, Hindi and many other languages in India."
The embassy conducted the workshop during its participation in the Vega Schools Gurgaon's Literacy Week activities.
Third Secretary Ronn Bautista and the embassy's cultural team taught about 100 students from classes 2 to 5 how to write Baybayin's basic characters.
"Students wrote their names in Baybayin, discovering firsthand the beauty of this ancient Philippine writing tradition," the embassy posted on Facebook.
Baybayin was widely used by communities in Luzon, the Philippines' largest island, before the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the 16th century, who initially modified it, before propagating the use of the Latin script, it added.
Baybayin is believed to trace its origins to the ancient Brahmi script that developed in India around the 3rd century BCE, the embassy said.
