Thursday, February 05, 2009

Statue: The UP Oblation


Oble - UP Oblation


The statue dearest to my heart is called the "The Oblation".

The Oblation is the symbol of the University of the Philippines, the university I went to for my Engineering degree. I have so many wonderful memories of UP. It was where I met my girlfriend of course. Haha.


Described by the sculptor himself, Guillermo E. Tolentino:
"The completely nude figure of a young man with outstretched arms and open hands, with tilted head, closed eyes and parted lips murmuring a prayer, with breast forward in the act of offering himself, is my interpretation of that sublime stanza..."

The statue used to be completely nude, but was modified and covered the genital area with a fig leaf.

I am Oble


Here's a photo of me in my Barong Tagalog after my Graduation back in 2006. :D Oh the memories!


To commemorate the centennial year of the University of the Philippines last year (2008), 100 students dressed (or undressed) as Oblations and posed for pictures like the one below.




100 Oblations Photo from:
Aleli in Wonderland



A Theme Thursday Post


17 comments:

  1. very cool statue...even with the fig leaf....love the last shot of the reenactment of a statue....something very surreal there.....

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  2. How wonderful to have such a personal link with a statue- that it can evoke happy memories for you:)

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  3. Nice post and am glad you had your clothes on for this post ; )

    Thanks 4 joining in and it's always interesting to see how others live their lives, so different than ours!

    Cheers!

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  4. oh my! those college boys are sooooo brave to wear just a fig leaf!

    And yes, college memories are such a treasure!

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  5. So did you do the pose like those fellows there?

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  6. Thanks for the visit everyone!
    Kris, nope I didn't have the chance to because I was at work. :p Hehehe.

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  7. Hi -- thanks for visiting my blog just now, & TEASING ME! Actually, the Philippines and Viet Nam were first & second on my list (*long ago*) of places where I'd love to have a penpal, and now I have THREE lovely friends - 2 in Viet Nam, one in the Philippines, who help me with my questions and converse with me via email. I'm at work right now so will have to come visit your blog again, when I have the time to do more than leave a comment! Have a great day!

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  8. everybody has statues. i like your human statue people.

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  9. Just for info (in case you haven’t read about it yet). A specimen of above picture - ‘those 100 students dressed (or undressed) as Oblations’ – was posted in one of Washington DC’s publication, ‘The Express” last December 2008. This information was by-and-for credited to my blogger-friend and former UP schoolmate, Kayni, from one of her blogposts at: www.kayniscornercafe.blogspot.com

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  10. Great site. Came in through another blog. The fig photos are cool.

    Auntie: We are all brave when we are in our college years. Way too many of us lose that state of mind. I think we should all backtrack and find it again.

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  11. Very good Theme Thursday post! People posing like the statue itself - I believe that's about as statue oriented as you could get!

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  12. @ Toni - hope to see you around then! friends from all over the world are awesome. :D

    @ edward - haha. yep, they're copying the real statue!

    @ tony - if only he could!

    @ fren - yeah! i found that blog and left some comments! :D

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  13. @ Patty - ur right. i was really brave in college. too brave. lol!

    @ A.Decker - haha. right on. :D

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  14. thanks f0r my answer my 
    Activity 

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  15. thanks for this one. i can answer my assignment now. keke

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