Filipinos have called the attention of the Melbourne-based travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet for a video it published on social media, where it credited the Chinese for building the Banaue Rice Terraces in northern Philippines 2,000 years ago.
The text on the video read “These mud-walled terraces were first built around 2,000 years ago by the Chinese.”
One Jose Ruperto Martir tweeted immediately Lonely Planet with screenshots of its inaccuracy and said “Dear @lonelyplanet, the Banaue Rice Terraces were built by Filipino indigenous people, not by the Chinese. “
Lonely Planet, which claims to have sold 120 million books by 2011 and by 2014 had sold around 11 million units of its travel apps, said merely: “Thank you for flagging this, we’ll share this with our editors who’ll take a further look into it. We’ll share updates/action points on this thread.”
What’s not yet taken down, as of posting, is a similar mistake on the Lonely Planet website. The travel guide introduced Banaue:
“The Banaue Rice Terraces are terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by the ancestors of the indigenous people. The terraces are occasionally called the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World.’ It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand.
“Hemmed in on all sides by dramatic rice terraces, Banaue is directly accessible from Manila and can sometimes get overwhelmed by visitors. It’s hard to blame them: the local mud-walled rice terraces are pleasingly different from the stone-walled terraces in most of the Cordillera. World Heritage listed, they’re impressive not only for their chiselled beauty but because they were introduced around 2000 years ago by the Chinese.
Following the opening paragraph, Lonely Planet wrote, “The Ifugao people, once headhunters, built the terraces and were as skilled at carving wood as they were at carving terraces.”
The video in question has been taken down, but Filipino netizens, a committed group, have screenshots.
According to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List:
“The Ifugao Rice Terraces are the priceless contribution of Philippine ancestors to humanity.
“Built 2000 years ago and passed on from generation to generation, the Ifugao Rice Terraces represent an enduring illustration of an ancient civilization that surpassed various challenges and setbacks posed by modernization.”