looking at the other lost moro kingdoms

Looking at the other Lost Moro Kingdoms

An Essay by Prof Yusuf Morales

Looking at Early Prehistory

The first Inhabitants of these islands.

When we discuss Philippine prehistory this would refer to periods before written history. The earliest known record of human remains in the Philippines are the fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone of three individuals discovered on 28 May 1962 by a team headed by Robert B. Fox, an American anthropologist for the Philippine National Museum. These fragments are collectively called “Ta-bon Man” after the place where they were found on the west coast of the island of Palawan.

Tabon Cave was a kind of Stone Age workshop which was Carbon-14 dated to roughly 7,000, 20,000, and 22,000 before the Christian era (BCE). The fossils found are considered to have come from a third group of inhabitants, who worked the cave between 22,000 and 20,000 BCE. An earlier cave level lies much farther below the level containing cooking fire assemblages that it is said to represent Upper Pleistocene dates of 45- or 50-thousand years ago.

Anthropologists who have examined a Tabon Man skullcap are agreed that it belonged to modern man, homo sapiens, indicating that Tabon Man belonged to a racial stock which entered Southeast Asia during the Holocene Period absorbing earlier and latter peoples (some believe including the Austronesians) that would eventually produced the modern Malay, Indonesian, Filipino, and Pacific peoples.

Changes.

There were immense changes taking hold of the Archipelago starting from Stone Age cultures in 30,000 BC to the emergence of developed maritime-based civilizations in the 4th century AD, continuing on with the gradual widening of trade until 900 AD and the first surviving written records from the archipelago.

Aside from narrations from the indegenous peoples as well as the Muslims, the presence ofWritten records signify a demarcation line that begins early Philippine history starting in 900 AD, which is roughly the date of the first surviving written record to come from the Philippines – the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. It is the Philippines’ oldest historical legal record written in Jawi (a writing system originating in Java used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia). This record was a sort of receipt acknowledging that a man named ‘Namwaran’ had been cleared of his debt to the chief of Tundo.This however does not mean that Namayan was the first civilized kingdom to exist, as most sea faring nations came from the south of the islands, however, as a part of our discussions on the lost moro kingdoms, we will tackle first the history



of Namayan.

Namayan.

Philippine History has been biased in the sense that it discusses that history in these islands originate from the Tagalogs as the first ancient Kingdom of Namayan in the Philippines (circa 800-1175 AD) – also referred as the Kingdom of Sapa, Maysapan or Nasapan after its capital, was one of three major king-doms which dominated the upper eastern side of the Pasig River running along the coast of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines.

It has been observed from records that the kings of Namayan ruled basically by organizing kinship groupings into mini-states intimately interwoven by the imperatives of blood. These political subdivisions were known by the archaic names of Meykatmon, Kalatong-dongan, Dongos, Dibag, Pinakawasan, Yamagtogon, and Meysapan. In modern times, these territories are now the cities of Makati, Pasay and Mandaluyong; the districts of Quiapo, Sampaloc, San Miguel, Sta. Mesa, Paco, Malate, and Pandacan; and the towns of San Juan del Monte and Taytay. Uni-fied, the Kingdom of Namayan was as large in area as today’s Metropolitan Manila (246.5 square miles).

There is a continuing debate that Namayan is considered to be the older of three kingdoms, pre-dating the equally old kingdoms of Tondo and May-nila. It was formed as a confederation of ‘barangays’ (i.e., an old Filipino term for village or districts) and is said to have achieved its peak in 1175.

Spanning over a number of centuries, many of the barangay settlements in the Philippines were by varying degrees under the ‘de-jure’ jurisprudence of one of several neighboring empires. Among them were the Malay Sri Vijaya (circa 7th to 13th Centu-ry AD), Javanese Majapahit (circa 1293-1527), the Bruneians and the Melakans although ‘de-facto’ states, they had established their own independent systems of rule, trade and political alliances.

A more precise description of Namayan’s administrative area was given by Spanish Franciscan scholar and missionary Friar Felix de Huerta, author of a record of the histories Catholic parishes during the Philippines’ Spanish Period. This record was used as an essential tool also to describe the local histories of Philippine municipalities during that era.

Friar Huerta also recorded the history of Namayan’s kings. It had been ruled from Sapa by Lakan Tagkan (also known as ‘Lacatagcan’ and ‘Takhan’), and Lady Buan. Their known progeny were five individuals of whom the principal is known as ‘Palaba’. Palaba sired a son by the name of ‘Laboy’ who, in turn, sired a son



named ‘Calamayin’ whose own son was christened ‘Martin’ when he converted to Catholicism in the 1600s.

Tagkan’s child by his Bornean slave-wife, however, is probably of more interest to some. The child, named ‘Pasay’ inherited territories known today as Culi-culi, Baclaran and a modern city within Metro Manila that still bears this child’s name. There is some discre-pancy as whether Pasay was a son or daughter as some historical texts refer to this indi-vidual as ‘Dayang-dayang Pasay’, or the ‘High Princess of Pasay’. There are other explan-ations to the nature of the name but the most that’s given much weight is that it was named after a princess of the Namayan Kingdom.

Focus as a major trade hub

During the period between the 7th century up until the begin-ning of the 1400s, numerous prosperous centers of trade emerged, including that of the Kingdom of Namayan. As a locus of trade, this probably explains why the site of the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nama-yan in Sapa still survives today, but in another form. It is now known as the district of Santa Ana de Sapa (founded in 1578) and where the famous Sta. Ana Church now stands.

As a confederation of barangays, local inhabitants of this Kingdom brought their products to the capital. International trading activities flourished from the 12th to the 14th centuries principally with merchants from China, the Moluccas, Java, Borneo, Sumatra, India, Siam, and Cambodia who journeyed to Namayan to exchange their goods.

Namayan’s strategic location in Southeast Asia facilitated much of the commerce between other far flung kingdoms during that period. As an entrepôt, it created much wealth for its own citizens and enriched its stature and status as an important and thriving culture prior to the colonization of the Philippines by the Iberian Spaniards in following Ferninand Magellan’s first and last visit in 1521

A look at the Rajahnate of Butuan

Much has been said about this kingdom, pitting traditional historians from Mindanao (who rely on their tarsilas) against academic historians who practice some archeology.

The name Butuan is believed to have existed before the Spanish conquistadores arrival in the Philippines.It suggests the name derives from the word ‘batuan’, a mangosteen-like fruit tree thriving in Mindanao. Whichever source it derives its name from, Butuan has been around for a very long time in the northeast part of



Mindanao.

One of the main issues is that predominantly most historians try to create the idea tha Butuan was a Hindu kingdom, and ironically, the rajah of this hindu kingdom is brother to a Muslim Sultan who happens to be a descendant of Shariffs (descedants of the Prophet Muhammad) as such we will discuss the evolution of this kingdom from a Muslim historiographers persepective, guided by the tarsilas of the brothers of the King of Butuan and other third party sources,we will attempt to reconstruct in a few details the Kingdom of Butuan.

A secret society in Bohol, known as The Eskaya narrates in their records that that their ancestors appeared one day on their island. One of the books of the Eskaya entitled ‘Unang Katawhan Sa Bohol’’ (or, First People of Bohol) relates that an ancestor named Dang-ko, his 12 children (11 boys and a girl), and several followers that included men, women and children made their landfall on the shores of Bohol in 677 A.D.

These apparent migrants-refugees originated from Sumatra-Manselis (the western side of Sumatra, Indonesia) on board a ‘Lutsa’ – a type of sailing vessel somewhat resembling a cross between a Chinese junk rig on a Portuguese (or European style) hull. Eventually, Dang-ko’s only daughter married a chieftain of Butuan. This narrative attamepts to create a relationship which tries to explain why the Eskaya were once part of the Butuan thalossocracy (a state with primarily maritime realms) and also why members of the Eskaya in Butuan maintain close contact with the Eskaya of Bohol to this day.

Only few places in the Philippines have a longer and more colorful history than Butuan. Through most part of the Middle Ages, specifically between the 5th to the 14th century AD, Butuan was a flourishing and highly-civilized community.

It rose to become an inter-national trading centre and possessed a developed political structure,cosmopolitan tastes for fine clothing and jewelry, chinaware, cosmetics, gold ornamentation and silver-smithing technology.

El Dorado in the Philippines.

Gold has always played a role in our history. Since ancient times, these islands have been an active producer of this and other precious metals. In that respect, Butuan owes its existence largely to gold mined at the headwaters of Agusan River in the Diwata mountain range. Then as now, it was known as a major source of this metal during the 11th century. Today, nearly 70% of the Central Bank of the Philippines’ prehispanic gold collection comes from Butuan and its neighboring areas. It has grown into one of the most important gold collections in Asia.



The significance of the economic influence of this ancient settlement is undeniable. It was a centre where local merchants bartered gold for foreign goods. But other goods recovered from archeological excavations in Butuan – ceramics, glass beads, bronze vessels and utensils; also highlight the extent and sophistication of Butuan culture, trade and contact with other kingdoms of the time in China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and other Asian countries.

These excavations reveal that the kingdom of Butuan possessed a much sophisticated nateure and was dealing with the Asian Powers of the Time. from the Shri Vishayan era, to the Chinese imperial fleets as documented by Chinese Imperial court historians.

During that period, the Kingdom of Butuan was a large settlement and a flourishing port with an established civil structure exercising governance over residents that included traders, craftsmen, and others who would have had religious and cultural activities as well. This explains why it emerged as an urbanized port centre and an entrepôt during the first millennium.

The Diplomacy of Flamboyance

Archival Evidence from written records reveal that the kingdom was in contact with the Song dynasty of China (960 and 1279 AD) and that from the 10th up to the 13th century AD, diplomatic and trade missions from Butuan were being received at the Imperial Court.

The Chinese annal Song Shih records the first appearance of a Butuan diplomatic mission at the Chinese Imperial Court on March 17, 1001 AD. It describes Butuan (P’u-tuan) as a country by the sea that had regular economic intercourse with Champa – a Cambodian kingdom, and intermittent contact with Imperial China under a rajah named Kiling (989-1009 AD).

In the year 1003 A.D., Rajah Kiling sent two of his emissaries – Liyihan and Jiaminan, to the Sung Court of China.But it was eight years later in 1011 AD that his successor Rajah Sri Bata Shaja (pronounced Xi-li-ba-da-sha-zhi) sent a flamboyant ambassador – Likan-hsieh, who shocked the Chinese Emperor by presenting a memorial engraved on a gold tablet, camphor, Moluccan cloves, and a South Sea slave at the eve of an important ceremonial state sacrifice. This display of wealth sparked interests from China over the king-dom and Liyu-xie obtained recognition from China equal to the status of Champa as China’s tributary.



An enlightened people

It is perhaps through ignorance that the world continues to consider China and India as countries that has an ancient tradition of writing and assumes that the Philippines owes its literacy to the West. This can be seen in the light of the light that these eastern countries use their own writing systems while today the Filipinos literacy lies in the usage of the latin script as a proof of their literacy.

Outsiders may be forgiven for such a belief, but it is ironic that many Filipinos also do not know that several writing systems exist in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Latin script introduced by the Spanish who set foot on its shores.

In most ancient cultures, the skill of literacy was reserved for the few who belonged to privileged classes. The priestly class in ancient Egyptian and Mayan civiliza-tions and its related class of scribes existed mainly to glorify and record the reign of the ruling monarch and his accomplishments. They were employed to record history, the glorious deeds of the king, and keep track of tributes and taxes that were expected from the governed.

On the other hand, there is acontrast to this in the context of the Malay kingdoms in these islands as the accounts of the use of writing in the Philippines indicate that they were not extensively used to record history and tradition of kings but simply for personal communica-tion and writing poetry. The culture that the Spaniards found in the Philippines was unique in that the art of reading and writing was in the hands of everybody. When Miguel Lopez de Legazpi came to Manila, he found that al-most everybody could read and write.

As a consequence , The Spaniards found the inhabitants in Manila and other places in the archipelago being literate.

There were two systems in place being used, the northern areas (mayi, Pulilo, Tundok, sugbu) utilized a script that was identical to the script used by the people in champa. The inhabitants in Manila and other places in the archipelago writing on bamboo and specially-prepared palm leaves using knives and styli. They used the ancient Tagalog script which had 17 basic symbols – three of which were the vowels a, i, and u. Each basic consonantal symbol had the inherent ‘a’ sound: ka, ga, nga, ta, da, na, pa, ba, ma, ya, la, wa, sa, and ha.

A diacritical mark called ‘kudlit’ modified the sound of the symbol. This mark could be a dot, a short line, or even an arrowhead. When placed above the symbol, it changed the inherent sound of the symbol from ‘a’ to ‘i’; placed below, the sound became ‘u’. Thus a ba with a kudlit placed above became a bi; if the kudlit was placed below, the symbol became a bu. It was a simple and elegant system that was called baybayin.



This system was unique as it utilized the diatrical marks that were symbolic of the arabic, pahlavi and jawi scripts (fatra, kasra, dammah) and as such there was clear evidence that there was an evolution in the script known as baybayin with the jawi script, used by the malay nobles who ruled these islands.

This prompted the Spanish Catholic friars to publish a book in the native script in 1593 but within a century of their arrival, literacy in the Tagalog script that they came upon was gone largely through forced introduction of the Spanish language. It was not, However, until the end of Spanish Period in the Philippines where it became known that remote mountain groups had maintained their literacy in scripts similar to the Tagalog script. They are still in use today.

Relationships with the other kingdoms.

The rulers of Butuan were related to the Sultan of sulu, there were references that at one time the ruler of Butuan was the younger brother of the Sultan of sulu, one strong proof was that even the language of the Butuanons themselves as well as the Suriganonon bears very strong simmilarities with the tausug dialect. Tarsilas and stories both abound from both kingdoms.

The demise of a KINGDOM

Colonization of the west has always been destructive ever since, most especially in the case of Spanish Imperialism and whenever civilizations make contact with them this leads to both civilizational and cultural demise which is a result of colonization and enforced acculturation by colonizing authorities, evidenced by the demise of the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas in Central and South America, the glory of the Rajahnate of Butuan was eventually washed away.

It was a lust for gold and spices that propelled a furious race to establish colonies around the world in the Age of Discove-ry. The intense competition between the Spaniards and Portuguese made sure of these inevitable outcomes.

Facing the same colonial forces, the Kingdom of Butuan, being harassed by the Portuguese and their Mollucan allies. Although diplomatic relations between China and the Rajahnate reached its peak during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Chinese records about the kingdom stopped after the reign of Rajah Siagu – the last independent King of

Butuan. His association with with Ferdinand Magellan in March 1521 marked the subjugation of his kingdom into the Spanish empire eventually destroyed by the influx of both the Crux and the cannon..



Looking at the Cebu Rajahnate

One Must understand that Sugbu was an island with different settlements and that each settlement was ruled by an autonomous leader, initially before the coming of islam, the people followed the Indian religions , being part of the sri vishaya and madjapahit empires, however, as the islamization of moroland took place, the other cousins in order to create a synchonous relationships with the others engaged in both conversion and intermarriages as a means of both protecting their fiefdoms and ensuring that the bloodlines are there to maintain relationships and governance.

There are several sources that we see mention of the Diraja Sugbu, some of them are the Suluk tarsilas as well as the Chronicles of Aginid (which to some skeptics view it as an attempt to downplay the pressence of Muslim rulers due to the Ilanun and Balanguinguih naval incursions during the Spanish era).

Comparing notes on the CHRONICLES OF AGINID, The ancient poem ‘Diyandi’ and the Sulu tarsilas.

Comparing and analyzing the tales of Aginid ,the ancient poem ‘Diyandi’ (in tausug and other malay languages, the word janjih, Diyanji refers to a promise, an agreement or a sacred vow)and the Sulu tarsilas and elegies to Maas Ilidji side by side would show up the following mental image.Accordingly, hundreds of years ago inhabitants in the central part of Cebu island burned down a town known as Sugbo as a way to drive away sea pirates.

Accomplishing this deed, they would then flee to adjacent mountains but later launch a counter-offensive against the demoralized and exhausted invaders. It is a stirring chronicle of the story of the rich culture and colorful history of pre-colonial Cebu in the Philippines and reveals its links to a powerful Hindu empire.

The first organized settlers who had a system of governance was notably descended from the the Cholas, a family who founded an ancient Tamil dynasty in Southeastern India were one of the longest-ruling dynasties in that part of the world.

During the period 1010–1200, its territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. They annexed parts of what is now Sri Lanka and sent an expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges where they defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra in Mahipala.



Thereafter, they success-fully invaded kingdoms of the Malay Archipelago, then occupied Sumatra and part of the island of Borneo in Indonesia installing members of their own family as rajahs (kings) to rule over the local inhabitants until the dynasty itself went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyas, who ultimately caused their downfall. The downfall of the Cholas eventually resulted to the settling down of the initial forces sent to these islands who found it a good place to avoid the conflicts in their homeland.

Eventually as the continous waves of Borneans and other sea faring Malays began to settle down in the adjacent districts and areas around the sewttlement of the descendants of the migrant cholas, a new system eventually evolved (which was common with other parts of the archipelago which was settled by the former forces sent by the Shri Vishaya, Madjapahit and Chola empires this gave way to a community wherein the predominantly migrant sea faring malays took over the whole settlements and assimilated them, as such was born the Rajahnate of Cebu, a classical state which existed in the centre of the Visayas region prior to the arrival of the Spanish, was supposedly founded by Sri Lumay or ‘Rajamuda Lumaya’ as its its first ruler.

Sources say He was either a minor but ambitious native prince from Sumatra who traced his ancestry to the Chola dynasty, or one of those who came from the lineage of Merong Mahawangsa. It is said that he was sent to the Philippines by the ruling maharajah to “es-tablish a forward base for expeditionary forces.”

The stategic position of the Southeast Asia naturally became part of the trade route of the ancient world. Agricultural products were bartered for Chinese silk cloths, bells, porcelain wares, iron tools, oil lamps, and medicinal herbs. From Japan, perfume and glass utensils were usually traded for native goods. Ivory products, leather, precious and semi-precious stones and sarkara (sugar) mostly came from the Burmese and Indian traders.

The Maharaja of Sumatra obviously wanted to extend his influence and protect his interests in all these lucrative trading activities but was thwarted when Rajamuda Lumaya took a turn of mind and rebelled by establishing his own independent state instead.

This period was the establishment of this monrachy (estimated between the 13th and 16th century CE) Sugbuwas inhabited by Hindu, Animist and Muslim tribal groups all ruled by Rajahs and Datus (chieftains).

In what remains of the folklore of the Visayan people, Rajamuda Lumaya is said to



have sired several sons and for a time established a dynasty of his own. Of these sons Sri Alho (the title ‘Sri’ was used as a title of veneration of the leaders ) ruled a land known as ‘Sialo’ which included the present-day towns of Carcar and Santander in the southern part of Cebu island.

Another son, Sri Ukob, ruled a kingdom known as ‘Nahalin’ in the north which included the present-day towns of Consolación, Liloan, Compostela, Danao, Carmen and Bantayan. Sri Ukob died in battle fighting against other seaborne Malays (ilanuns and balanguinguihs) notably from the larger island of Mindanao and Sulu .

The youngest of his sons was Sri Bantug who ruled a kingdom known as ‘Singhapala’, in a region which is today known as Cebu City. He died in an epidemic which spread in the island and was succeeded by his son Sri Hamabar, also known as Rajah Humabon.

Rajamuda Lumaya also had another son known as Sri Parang the Limp, He could not effectively gov-ern his kingdom because of his infirmity so he handed his throne to his nephew Humabon who became the Rajah of Cebu. Although a strict disciplinarian, Rajamuda Lumaya was also known to be a fair and just ruler that not a single slave ran away from him. During his reign, the Magalos (a term that literally means ‘destroyers of peace’ often used as a derrogatory term for the other Moro Corsairs) often invaded the island to loot and hunt for slaves. Each time these raiders appeared over the horizon, Rajamuda Lumaya would commandeer his followers to burn the whole town in order to drive the invaders away empty-handed.

The Rajahnate of Cebu continued to fight on for several years against the slave traders even forming an alliance with the Rajahnate of Butuan to strengthen their efforts.Rajamuda Lumaya was eventually killed in one of the battles against the Magalos and was succeeded by Sri Bantug.Bantug carried on his father’s rules throughout his reign. He organized ‘umalahukans’ (reporters) to urge people to obey his orders, especially on agri-cultural production, trade and defense.

The arrival of Maas Iliji

The arrival of Maas Ilijih Hadji Pulaku(known to Cebuano folklore as Lapu-lapu Dimantag) a sama who frequently traveled from sulu and Borneo came and asked Rajah Humabon (Sri Bantug’s son) for a place to settle. Being an ‘orang laut’ (man of the sea), Humabon offered the island of Opong but Lapu-lapu was convinced instead to settle in Mandawili (now Mandaue) and make that land productive



much as it was virtually impossible to cultivate food crops in Opong island due to its rocky terrain.

Under Lapu-lapu’s leadership, the economy of the island flourished largely because of the goods he brought from the land and sea in northern Cebu that increased trading. With his power and influence now growing, it did not take long for his relationship with Humabon to sour.

This happened when Lapu-lapu began to gain both influence and his communities grew, and being Sama, his strength comes from his allegiance to the Sulu Sultan which was protection for his lucrative activities. part of the traditional agreements of the Sama balanguinguih with the Sulu sultans was the autonomy to conduct merchant marine activities and defensive attacks against other fleets, which occassionally includes acts of piracy in high seas on ships belonging to those who pose a threat to the Sultanate of Sulu.

Bolstered by an alliance that protected his flanks, Lapu-lapu ordered his men to loot enemy ships passing through Opong Island which significantly lowered trading transactions for the Rajah of Cebu. This created tensions between Humabon and Lapu-lapu. Opong Island thus earned the ill-reputed name ‘mangatang’ which later was shortened to the word Mactan.

The Conflict of Humabon and Kaggi Pulaku and the first blood shed by the Spanish colonialists.

The phrase ‘Cata Raya Chita’,

The cebuano epic poem Aginid mentions of a warning in the Old Malay language given by a visiting merchant to Rajah Humabon, foretells what could befall the Rajahnate if care is not taken to avoid conflict with a new force looming over the horizon:

“Have good care, O king, what you do, for these men are those who have con-quered Calicut, Malacca, and all India the Greater. If you give them good reception and treat them well, it will be well for you, but if you treat them ill, so much the worse it will be for you, as they have done at Calicut and at Malacca.”

Historians have put forward the notion that if Rajah Humabon had not allowed Lapu-lapu to settle in the island of Cebu advising him instead to look elsewhere for land to settle further up north in the archipelago the course of Philippine history would be drastically different today.



Soon after, as the merchant had warned, Spanish explorers arrive on Visayan shores after a long voyage of exploration through the Pacific Ocean. While the Aginid retells the story of how Humabon befriends the travelers,converts to Christianity and, according to Italian historian Antonio Pigafetta, requests Magellan to kill Lapu-lapu, the Aginid also relates how kaggi Pulaku outplays, outlasts, outwits and eventually slays Magellan in the battle of Mactan in the month of April 1521.

Out of the five ships and more than 300 men who left on the Magellan Expedition in 1519, only one ship (the Victoria) and 18 men returned to Seville in September 1522. Juan Sebastian de Elcano, the master of one of those ships, the “Concepcion” (which sank on the return trip), took over command.

They started off through the westward route and re-turning to Spain by going east; Magellan and Elcano’s entire voyage took almost three years to complete but earned the distinction ofbeing the first to circumnavigate the world in one full journey. It proved that the world was indeed round.

After that event, the Spaniards over the next 51-years came back to the Philippines in ships of expedition.

The most notable one was commanded by Spanish-Basque explorer Miguel López de Legazpi and to begin the elimination of the Moro kingdoms north of Mindanao and begin the reign as colonial masters of the archipelago for the next 333-years (1565-1898).

The Tawalisi Kingdom and the legendary warrior princess

There are varied accounts on this kingdom, some run very different accounts, but what is famous about the Tawalisi kingdom is its legendary warrior Princess Urduja which ancient accounts say, was a 14th century woman ruler of the dynastic Kingdom of Tawalisi in Pangasinan, a vast area lying by the shores of the Lingayen Gulf and the China Sea.

Pangasinan was an important kingdom then, and the sovereign was considered to be an equal to the Emperor of China. Known far and wide, Princess Urduja was famous for leading a retinue of woman warriors who were skilled fighters and equestrians. They developed a high art of warfare to preserve their political state. "These womenfolk took to the battlefields because the male population was depleted by the series of wars which came with the Shri-Visayan Empire in the sixth to the 13th centuries," the accounts said. Strong and masculine physique, they were called kinalakian ( Amazons warriors) .



Highly exaggerated by current historians and made into movies and animated films, the most famous thrid party account comes from the Arab historian and traveller, Ibn Batuta in his book Rihla (a travelogue) .part of the story narrated that in 1347 he was a passenger on a Chinese junk, which has just come from the port of Kakula, north of Java and Sumatra and passed by Pangasinan on the way to Canton, China. Urduja, who had a particular fascination for the renowed "Pepper Country"--pepper being considered black gold then--was quoted by Batuta as saying, "I must positively go to war with that country, and get possession of it, for its great wealth and great forces attract me."

The description of Princess Urduja's gifts of rice, buffaloes, ginger, pepper, lemons, mangoes, and salt fits Pangasinan perfectly because of the abundance of those products in Pangasinan. The closely related Ibaloi people have an oral tradition of a woman named Udayan who ruled an ancient alliance of lowland and highland settlements in Pangasinan and the neighboring province of Benguet. Ibn Battuta also mentioned that Urduja had some knowledge of Turkish. During the time of Ibn Battuta period, the influence of the Turkish Ottoman Empire was on the rise.

Ibn Batutta's travel account suggests that he also saw elephants in the land ruled by Urduja. Elephants can still be found in Borneo, and may have been gifts or traded in Pangasinan in earlier times. Ancient Malayo-Polynesian sailing vessels, like the ones used by the ancient Bugis and those depicted in the Borobudur bas-reliefs, were capable of transporting heavy cargoes, including elephants. There are depictions of such ancient ships in maritime Southeast Asia transporting several elephants for trade.

In Pangasinan, Urduja has been depicted as the only daughter of a Rajah whose sons lost their lives defending their agricultural settlements in the Agno River valley and sea trade routes to their Srivijaya and Champa allies. Urduja was trained in the art of war since she was a child, and she became an expert with the kampilan and a skilled navigator. She commanded a fleet of proas to protect their maritime trade networks against pirates and threats from Mongol ruled China. With her beauty, she attracted many suitors.

Biased historiography from the academe

One of the problems encountered by local historians was the effort of feminists who tried to revive the Urduja story but were discouraged to learn that Batuta's account of the voyage to Tawalisi was labeled as either an intrigue or a fantasy. as a result some scholars, have considering the story absurd, declared Urduja a



myth. This however comes from a strong bias against arab historiographers who they claim to have exaggerated accounts of the places they visit, forgetting that Marco Polo himself was describing exaggerated things to people of his time.

Dr. Jose Rizal, in Dr. Austin Craig's 1916 paper "Particulars of the Philippines' Pre-Spanish Past" was quoted as saying in one of his letters: "While I may have doubts regarding the accuracy of Ibn Batuta's details, I still beleive in the voyage to Tawalisi". He went as far as to calculate the distance and time of travel from the port of Kakula. Rizal's commentary was triggered by a scholar, Sir Henry Yule, who wrote in his time that: "Tawalisi may be found only in a Gulliver geography."

Ironically, tarsilas in sulu, Brunei and maguidanao all point to a muslim enclave that is farther north of Manila bay, and that this is believed by Muslims in the south, and one would be surprised among the highlanders that Urduja's name still has great resonance among the Ibaloi, one of the major ethnolinguistic tribes in the Cordillera region.

Dr. Morr Tadeo Pungayan, a respected scholar of Ibaloi culture and professor at the St. Louis University of Baguio City, said, "Linguistically, Urduja is Deboxah (pronounced Debuca) in Ibaloi. We've always had a woman named Deboxah from time immemorial among the genrations of Ibaloi. The name usually describes a woman of strong quality and character who's nobly descended. That name is an Ibaloi name. That's why Ibaloi trace their ancestry from Urduja".

The Cordillera tribes, also known collectively as Igorots, pride themselves as being the only ethnic group that doesn't talk about the origin of man according to Spanish chronicles. Among the tribes, genealogy and family history are orally passed history. The Ibaloi, just like other highland tribes, could easily trace their ancestry. This is ensured by their custom of naming newborns after ancestors to help keep their memory alive and evoke affection and protection.

"No Ibaloi will bear the name of an ancestor unless she's related," Dr. Pungayan explained. While the Bontoc tribe bestows the name of an ancestor to a grandchild, the Ibaloi style is namesaking the great-grandchild, he added.

A book on the history of Benguet province, written by Anavic Bagamasbad and Zenaida Hamada-Pawid, shows the Benguet genealogy tracing tribal family lines from the year 1380 to 1899. The book says, "The extent of inter-settlement alliances is climaxed in the memory of Tublay informants with the reign of Deboxah, Princess Urduja, in Pinga. She's acknowledged as the granddaughter of Udayan, an outstanding warrior of Darew. Her death signaled continuous decline



of kinship and alliance between highland and lowland settlements."

The Darew mountain range is remembered as the earliest settlement in the mining town of Tublay. The close relations between the Cordilleras and Lingayen are well-accounted for in Batuta's chronicle. It said that the Kingdom of Tawalisi was very extensive, including the vast areas up to the fringes of the Benguet mountains and the Cordillera ranges in the east of Luzon.

Th ruler, Batuta further said,"possesses numerous junks with which he makes war upon the Chinese until they sue for peace and consent to grant him certain concessions."

Despite recent research, however, most luzon based academicians remain cold to oral history, saying that such accounts still have to pass through stringent rigors of scholarship.

Today, some historians consider the issue of Urduja's historicity as closed. Compounding the issue is the lack of archaelogical evidence on the existence of the Shri-Visayan Empire, but strong evidence on the presence of Muslim rajahships throughout the archipelago, which compounds their inability to address the isse that Urduja as in fact a Muslim Dayang Dayang (female Royalty).

In fact, due to the coldness of Manila-based historians to these issues, other aspects of Philippine history as a result are being doubted,too, especially since the late William Henry Scott, an American historian in the Cordillera, proved that the so-called pre-Hispanic laws--the Kalantiaw and Maragtas Codes--were faked or invented by psuedo historians who only wanted fame or riches for themselves.

Dr. Jaime Veneracion, the University of the Philippines head of history department, said that the old Chinese scripts which may have chronicled Urduja's kingdom have remained inaccessible for their archaic language and calligraphy.

Rajahship of Tundok:

The Indo-Malay Kingdom of Tundo

Tondo, was known and referred to many names such as ‘Tundo’, ‘Tundun’ and ‘Tundok’. It was a fortified Philippine kingdom whose capital was located north of the Pasig river which flows into the Manila Bay on the archipelago’s largest island of Lu siong (Luzon).



It is one of the older settlements mentioned in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription which dates back to 900 AD.

Due to the formerly being a part of the Shri Vishaya and madjapahit empires, Tondo was an ‘Indianized’ kingdom in the 10th century. It was based essentially on Hindu and Buddhist cultural and economic influences that permeated most of Southeast Asia at the time. Despite being culturally akin to Hindu cultures, kingdoms like Tondo eventually became autyonomous and upon the fall of the earlier empires of India they nevertheless enthusiastically adopted elements of ‘raja-dharma’ (Hindu and Bud-dhist beliefs, codes and court practices) to legitimate their own rule and constructed cities.

As with other Indo-malay kingdoms in Southeast Asia they have developed a close affinity with other kingdoms both by internalizing the nomenclature of religious,cultural and economic practices through both intermarriages and trading with each other and established relationships with each other, this being a distinct charactherized that may be ascribed from Indian rulers of the sub-continent themselves.

A present-day example of an Indianized culture that has survived is that now found on the island of Bali in Indonesia. Balinese are people of Malay stock whose majority practice the Hindu religion in a somewhat familiar but localised form – one amidst a modern nation which is otherwise dominated by Islamic religious beliefs.

An obvious attribute of the cultural links between Southeast Asia and the Indian subcon-tinent is the spread and absorption of ancient Indian Vedic/Hindu and Buddhist philoso-phies and culture into present-day nation states such as Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia. Indian scripts are also found in Southeast Asian islands ranging from Sumatra, Java, Bali, south Sulawesi and most of the Philippine Archipelago.

Regional strategic location.

What is now known about the Kingdom of Tondo is that it initiated diplomatic ties with China during the Ming Dynasty which ruled China from 1368 to 1644 AD, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming Annals record the arrival of an envoy from Luzon in 1373 AD. From these records, it is apparent that the rulers of Tondo were acknowledged not as mere chieftains, but as kings. This reference places Tondo into the larger context of Chinese trade with the peoples of the Philippine archipelago and explains why it was considered a dominant force



in regional trade.

Eventually Tondo thus became a centre from which Chinese goods were traded all across Southeast Asia. Chinese trade was so strict that Luzon traders car-rying these goods were considered “Chinese” by the people they encountered.

Cultural links between what are now China and the Philippines date back to the peopling of these lands. But the earliest archeological evidence of trade between the Philippines and China takes the form of pottery and porcelain pieces dated to the Tang (618-907 AD) and Song (960-1279 AD) Dynasties.

Tondo’s existence has already beenestablished and the archeological evidence indicates that both it and the older Namayan Kingdom in Luzon were part of this trade.

The rise of the Ming dynasty also witnessed the arrival of the first Chinese settlers in the Philippines. They were wellcomed and settled in harmony with the existing local population eventually intermarrying with them such that today, numerous Philippine people have Chinese blood running in their veins.

Dealing with the Brunei sultanate.

As with the rajahnate of Cebu which had Maas Ilidji who was connected with the Sulu Sultanate settle and establish his community in Cebu, so did the kingdom of Tundok had a run in with the Sultanate of Brunei, which eventually led to Tondo’s regional prominence in trade thru the alliance with Bruneiś Sultan (1485 AD-1524 AD), which led to its peak age as a maritime trading force even as relations between them date farther back in history.

The political, economic, religious as well as socio-cultural relations between these two countries have existed for more than five centuries and especially during the period when the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Dutch were contesting supremacy over territories comprising the Malay Peninsula and large swaths of Southeast Asia.

In that aspect, a more important relationship had been cemented through a stronger bond of blood-based affinities between the Bruneian royal families with members of the Filipino nobility of the 15th century.

The Kingdom of Tondo became so prosperous that around the year 1500 AD, Sultan Bol-kiah (an ancestor of the present ruling Sultan Bolkiah Hassanal)



‘merged’ with it by a royal marriage of Gat Lontok, who later became Rajah (Lord) of Namayan, and Dayang Kalangitan (or ‘Princess of the Heavens’) to establish a city with the Malay name of Seludong (later on to become the city of Maynila) situated on the opposite bank of the Pasig River.

The traditional rulers of Tondo – the Lakandula (literally, the “Lords of the Palace’), retained their titles and property but the real political power now resided in the House of So-liman, the Rajahs of Maynila whose line eventually formed the Tagalog ‘Maginoo’ ruling caste of Tondo.

Years after Magellan’s death in 1521 at the hand of a Datu known as maas Ilidji ( Lapu-lapu) , the Spanish belatedly returned in force 50-years later and defeated the local rulers whose dominions surrounded the Manila Bay by 1591.

Spanish records mention three rulers who played significant roles after the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi y Gurruchátegui (1502-1572AD) on the island of Cebu in the Visayas region of the Philippines to-wards the latter part of 1570 but more particularly related to his two much younger Lieutenant-commanders –Martín de Goiti and Juan de Salcedo both who, pursuant to the orders of King Philip of Spain to colonize the Philippines, ex-plored the northern region of Luzon where the Kingdoms of Tondo, Namayan and Maynila were all situated.

The Filipino rulers at that time were Rajah Matanda – referred to as El Viego (the ‘Old Man’),and also known as Ache; Rajah Lakan Dula; and, their nephew Rajah Sulayman III – referred to as Rajah Mura or the ‘Young Rajah’. Rajah Matanda and Rajah Sulayman III were joint- rulers of the Malay-speaking Moslem Kingdom of Maynila, while Rajah Lakan Dula ruled over.

The dissolution of the Tundo Kingdom

The Spanish conquest of Luzon culminated in the Battle of Bankusay which occurred on 03 June 1571. After that episode, the area comprising the Kingdoms of Tondo and Namayan also came under the administration of Spanish Manila dissolving their existence as independent states. Under Spain, the City of Manila became the colonial entrepôt in the Far East. Tondo asa place today continues to exist as a district of the city of Manila, which is part of the larger Metro Manila.



The front base of Brunei: Kota seludong

The Brunei Sultan and Kota Seludong

The basis for the creation of the Kingdom of Maynila is actually said to be the result of both political need and economic positioning by the sultan of Brunei named Bolkiah who, in order not to accomplish his objectives militarily, found another far more effective approach that neutralised the Kingdom of Tondo’s monopoly on trade with China.

He achieved this simply by arranging a royal marriage between a Royal Prince of Brunei with a High Princess of Tondo’s ruling dynasty. Instead of spilling more blood, the Sultan found it more convenient to mix it through marriage.

As part of the Princess’ dowry, the King of Tondo agreed to the establishment of a new city called Kota Seludong located in the river Pasig across from his capital. For the Sultan of Brunei, this location was a perfect site for his Prince’s so-called ‘retinue’ to establish direct trading activities with the China traders who weighed anchor at the mouth of the river in the Bay of Manila. Bolkiah regarded Seludong as a highly-prized ‘Bruneian’ satellite and, for as long as the marriage lasted and produced children and heirs; he considered it a perfect match of interests, mostly to his favour economically as many students of history of that period now believe.

The names ‘Seludong’, ‘Saludong’ or ‘Selurong’ are all interchangeably used to denote an area where the Kingdom of May-nila was later established prior to the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the Philippines in the 16th century. Itwas the last of three major city-states in the island of Luzon which dominated the area surrounding the upper portion of the generally placid Pasig River.

Immediate expansion and power

The ruling class of this new kingdom in a short period of time established a number of trade agreements with other Asian neighbors as well as with the Hindu empires of Java and Sumatra creating an extended network of commercial interests they controlled.

The name of the early settlement in malay, hindu and chinese documents is recorded as ‘Saludung’. It is also narrated through the Tausug and Malay ro-yal histories. Over time and because of the prevalent presence of water-borne plants called “nilad” (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea), the emerging city-state was known as “May-nila” or simply Maynila,which transliterates as “There is nila (here)”.

Maynila is also sometimes called ‘Maynilad’ because the term ‘nila’ is generally (but mistakenly) referred to as ‘nilad’by non-local people unfamiliar with the plant.



Adding to the confusion, when the Spaniards returned to colonize the Philippines they shortened ‘Maynila’ to ‘Manila’. Since then, it has been more widely known by that name for those who refer to it as the national capital of present-day Philippines. Even then, locals still use the archaic form ‘Maynila’whether referring to it in the past or present tense even up to this day.

JEWEL OF THE FAR EAST

Under the Malay aristocrats who were the rulers of that time, the city-state established as Seludong was also the same name given for the general region of southwestern Luzon. It was also known as Gintu or “The Land of Gold” and “Suvarnadvipa” by its regional neighbors. That term simply acknowledged its strong trade ties with China which were quite extensive, even eclipsing levels enjoyed by the adjacent King-doms of Tondo and Namayan. Contacts with Arabs merchants also developed to be another profitable trading activity.

When the party of Ferdinand Ma-gellan first arrived in 1521, they certainly took no-tice of it which adds to the reasons why the Spaniards returned half a century later as the lure of the ‘Jewel of the Far East’ could not be ignored much longer.

Before the return of the Hispanics to the Philippines, however, the rajahs of the House of Soliman – Sulayman III and Matanda, who ruled the Moslem communities south of the Pasig River, unified to become the Kingdom of Maynila.

The Spaniards in Cebu, upon knowing of the existence of a prosperous kingdom in Luzon, the leader of the returning Spanish expedition, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi sent a reconnaissance mission under Marshal Martin de Goiti and Captain Juan de Salcedo to discover its location and potentials. De Goiti anchored in the area of Cavite, a fishing en-clave on the mouth of Manila Bay. It is said that he tried to impose his authority peacefully by sending a message of friendship to the rulers of Maynilad.

Rajah Sulayman III, was willing to accept an offer of friendship without conditions and not especially one that involves submission of its sovereignty to Spain. One misunderstanding led to another and fighting broke out between them. As a retaliatory measure, De Goiti and his small army attacked Maynilad in June 1570, captured and looted the city before returning to the island of Panay in the central part of the Philippine Archipelago where the Spanish had established their base. This was just the first salvo.

The demise of the LUZON RAJAHNATES



In 1571, the unity of the Luzon Empire was already being threatened by irreconcilable differences on how to handle the Spanish. Those differences strained an already uneasy alliance between Rajah Matanda of Sapa, Lakan Dula of Tondo and Rajah Sulayman III, the rajah muda or “crown prince” of May-nila. To compound the growing strains between them, conflicts arose from other local rulers from the neighbouring region of Pampanga in Central Luzon became bold enough to challenge the traditional leadership of the Kingdoms of Tondo and Maynila due to the point they were hesitant to fight the spaniards.

About the same year, the Spaniards returned. This time, they were led by López de Legaz-pi himself who brought along a force consisting of some 280 fully-armored Spaniards and 600 local warriors conscripted from allies established the year before from the islands of Cebu and Panay. Sulayman III and his forces confronted the Spaniards in the sea channel called Bankusay but after losing that skirmish and seeing the Legazpi-led force approach further with much speed, his defenders set ablaze the ancient cities of Tondo and Maynilad along with all the neighbouring towns and then repaired to the hinterlands.

It was a terrible battle as the Macabebe leader Tarik Sulayman, whose armorer was Panday Pirak (silver smith?) of Apalit, was the only Luzon datu who stood up against the might of the Spanish conquistadores and their Visayan allies in their 1571 invasion of Manila.

Lakandula merely watched as the Macabebe datu rowed down the waterways from Macabebe and Hagonoy to Tundo with several hundred warriors on board 20 or 30 paraos. Refusing the deceptive offer of peace and friendship, the datu fought valiantly against the Spaniards in the waters of Bangkusay in Tondo. The great Macabebe datu and hundreds of his Kapampangan host died in the battle that would start Spain's 333-year colonization of the Philippines.

Nevertheless, the Spanish-led force occupied the ruins of Maynilad and eventually estab-lished a fortified settlement there which became the title city of the new Spanish colony in the Philippines. It was administered by a Governor-General who ruled from Manila but was subordinate to the Viceroy of New Spain in Mexico City.

After neutralizing the Solimans of macabebe and kota seludong, Rajah Lakandula coopted with the Spanish Invaders to pretect his interests and rulership which was undermined by the entry ot the Bruneian princes intermarrying in Manila and Macabebe.



QUEEN CITY OF THE PACFIC

As the conquest of Manila bay became complete by the defeat of the SUlayman datus and the conversion of the Lakandula clans, the communities evenatually burned and a new fortress was established by the Spaniards. a new entrepot was established replacing the older one based on trade with China to one that would involve an even more lucrative Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade route between the Philippines and Mexico.

That new trade alignment flourished from 1571 until 1815. From the Jewel of the Far East under the rajahnates, Maynila was transformed into the ‘Queen City of the Pacific’ under the Spaniards’ Manila due to trade with Acapulco, one which transported goods westward from Europe and parts of the Middle East to Mexico and then all the way around the Pacific Ocean to Southeast Asia. On their return trips, the galleons sailing back to Mexico and thence Spain were laden with a rich bounty of commodities from all over Asia.

This period era of Philippine history marks the end of the long-established Moro kingdoms on the island of Luzon and the beginning of 333-years of the Europeanization of the psyche of the Filipinos.

looking at the other lost moro kingdoms

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