Carolina Bamboo Garden launches museum and bamboo organ
A rondalla of children in brightly colored costumes playing folk dance tunes on traditional instruments. Coffee and suman sa ibos being served to early guests. The verdant foliage and gigantic bamboo trees serenely swaying in the wind and making their own music.
The sun up in the sky and shining through the clouds to cast a gentle light on the Antipolo hills. Such was the serene pastoral setting that greeted attendees last Saturday, October 28, to the joint launch of the Carolina Bamboo Garden Museum and Bamboo Organ.
By 10 a.m., the guest of honor, Sen. Cynthia Villar, had arrived, as well as other guests that included Councilor Edward O’Hara of the Second District of Antipolo City, representing Antipolo Mayor Casimiro “Jun” Ynares III, Atty. Ed Tarriela and his wife Flor Gozon-Tarriela of the neighboring Flor’s Garden, and corporate titan Menardo “Nards” Jimenez Sr.
Sen. Villar led the ribbon-cutting ceremony that inaugurated the Museum, alongside Carolina Bamboo Garden Founder Carolina Gozon-Jimenez, her husband Nards Jimenez, and Antipolo City Councilor Edward O’Hara. After the ribbon-cutting, butterflies hatched in the Butterfly Garden were given to guests to release to the sky in a stirring ceremonial gesture.
The Carolina Bamboo Garden is a passion project of entrepreneur, educator, and bamboo advocate Carolina “Kay” Jimenez, who has been called “Bamboo Queen” for her efforts in promoting the appreciation of bamboo. The Garden brings together more than 40 species of the bamboo plant in one “bambusetum”, or bamboo garden. It has become one of the foremost centers for the research and development of bamboo, not just in the country, but in Southeast Asia.
A Bahay Kubo designed by Architect Angel Lazaro Jr. is an elegant showcase of bamboo as building material for shelter. The Bamboo Garden Museum is the newest building in the five-hectare area, described by Tita Kay in her welcome remarks as a “classroom… everywhere you go, you can learn something”. In her welcome speech, Tita Kay also spoke about the other offerings of the Garden – which include the Bamboo Treatment Plant for the treatment of bamboo poles used in the Garden, the Butterfly Garden, and the Arboretum, which grows 250 species of lower Sierra Madre native trees and will be launched in March 2024.
And now, the new Bamboo Museum – described as a “work in progress” – by Consultant Carol Pobre, known for her acclaimed work with The Mind Museum and the Bonifacio Art Foundation. The Museum currently has eye-catching displays on the historical and contemporary uses of bamboo – as weaponry, textile, design, and even as material for making bicycles and premium gin. Carol is excited with future exhibit plans for the Bamboo Museum and the Garden in general.
In her speech, Tita Kay also told of the creation of the miniature Bamboo Organ and how she was inspired by the historic and world-famous Las Piñas Bamboo Organ to create a smaller version using bamboo entirely harvested from the Bamboo Garden. She found an equally passionate collaborator in the Philippine Science Centrum, whose engineer, Jun Gando, built an all-bamboo organ with no metal parts, from scratch (and with no previous training in building one).
Carolina Bamboo Garden has become a family affair for both the Jimenez and Gozon families. Kay’s sister, Flor Gozon-Tarriela, also a prominent corporate figure and owner of the neighboring Flor’s Garden, gushed about the fine morning as a sign that God had blessed the event. She introduced the Guest of Honor, Senator Cynthia Villar, who is also known as a stalwart supporter of bamboo use and propagation. Sen. Villar has chaired the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, and the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources since 2013. In her remarks, Villar outlined her efforts on behalf of bamboo in partnership with government and private groups, in her hometown of Las Piñas and beyond. The “Number One Senator” reminisced on her long association and partnership with Kay Jimenez and Carolina Bamboo Garden.
Also sharing his good wishes for the Bamboo Garden and his own experiences in cultivating a public garden was noted lawyer Attorney Ed Tarriela of Ed Tarriela Learning Center and Farm, which provides educational and technical vocational training.
Lunch and musical entertainment were served at the Gazebo. The Care Philippines Rondalla provided the nostalgic background music. A poignant video on the history of Carolina Bamboo Garden was screened for the first time produced by grandson, Benjamin Jimenez.
Special musical performances delighted the guests. World Bamboo Ambassador Atty. Dulce Blanca Punzalan led the Kawayan Seven Modern Filipino Band – a group of talented musicians performing on bamboo instruments – in a rousing set that had the audience singing along and playing instruments themselves.
More traditional was the brother duo of pianist Dean Albert Roldan of the Charles Wesley School of Music at Wesleyan University-Philippines and violinist Isaac Roldan of the UP Symphony Orchestra, who performed heartwarming classical selections.
And then came the much-awaited finale – the debut performance of the Bamboo Garden Miniature Bamboo Organ as played by Carolina Jimenez herself, who accompanied renowned vocalist Tricia Amper-Jimenez and RB Tarriela on The Sound Of Music favorite, “Edelweiss”. Tita Kay hadn’t played the piano in some time, but she rehearsed playing the mini bamboo organ for two weeks because – as she put it – she was “very, very happy to be the first to play it.”
Kay’s love of bamboo and her dream of Carolina Bamboo Garden began when she was a girl fascinated by the music that bamboo stalks would make when they rustled against each other in the wind. Now she herself is making music on bamboo – in what is only the second bamboo organ in the country today.
Carolina Bamboo Garden is located at Sitio Tanza II in Antipolo, Rizal.
