Mindoro
 |
Beach in Northern Mindoro |
Mindoro is the seventh-largest island in the
Philippines. It is located in southwestern
Luzon, just northeast of
Palawan. In past times, it has been called
Ma-i or
Mait by ancient
Chinese traders and, by
Spaniards, as
Mina de Oro (meaning "
gold mine") from where the island got its current name. The island was divided into its two present-day
provinces,
Occidental Mindoro and
Oriental Mindoro, in
1950. Before then, since
1921, the entire island was one province.
According to the late historian William Henry Scott in his book
Prehispanic Source Materials For The Study of Philippine History (rev. ed., 1984), an entry in the official history of the Sung Dynasty for the year 972 mentions Ma-i as a trading partner of China. Other Chinese records referring to Ma-i or Mindoro appear in the years that follow.
Prehispanic Source Materials enumerates the products that Mindoro traders exchanged with the Chinese as "beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoise shell, medicinal betelnuts and
yu-ta [jute?] cloth" for Chinese porcelain, trade gold, iron pots, lead, colored glass beads and iron needles.
The economy of Mindoro is largely based on
agriculture. Products consist of a wide variety of fruits, such as
citrus,
bananas,
lanzones,
rambutan, and
coconuts, such
cereals as
rice and
maize,
sugar cane,
peanuts, fish (
catfish,
milkfish,
tilapia),
livestock, and
poultry.
Logging and the mining of
marble and
copper also thrive.
Tourism is a lucrative business as well, with locations such as
Apo Reef National Park,
Lubang Island,
Puerto Galera,
Sabang Beach, and
Mount Halcon.
The principal language in Mindoro is
Tagalog, although in some parts it has been greatly influenced by the native
Visayan and
Mangyan languages. Mainstream
Filipino and
Taglish are, indeed, present in and around such areas as
Puerto Galera and
Calapan City. Visayan and Mangyan languages, too, are spoken on the island, as are
Ilokano and some foreign languages — e.g.,
English,
Fukien, and, to a much lesser extent,
Spanish.
The common religions on the island fall under
Christianity. The religion of the indigenous Mangyan population is
animism.
Mindoro is also home to the
Tamaraw or Mindoro dwarf buffalo (
Bubalus mindorensis), which is
endemic to the island. The Tamaraw is a
bovine related to the
water buffalo and is an endangered species.
