Chapter 5 : The Ancestral Homeland of the Polynesians and the Austronesians - the Ophir/Lakanate of Lawan in the Philippines (forebear of the Kingdom of Tondo Manila)

So human life in the Pacific Ocean side of the Philippines could be way earlier than those who migrated into the Philippines, even the dawn man of Otley Beyer. In fact, mass the migration of different sets of people to the direction of Lawan is an evidence of an existence of a civilization from where the migrants want to be part of and enjoy their prosperity. The natives of Lawan has this adage: diri makanhi kun diri nahibarui, (migrants will not go here if they have not heard about us.) The Negritoes and the ten datus from Borneo must have heard of a prosperous civilization somewhere in the Pacific Ocean so they sailed into that direction, unfortunately, they only reached Panay Islands and not the Lawan settlement in the Pacific. Same thing with the Indonesian and the Malaysians – they seem to have missed the dreamy Lawan civilization with all its tale of prosperity, gold, spices, grandeur and beautiful women. Prof. Beyer might have been historically inaccurate when he described the phenomenon as mere migration. It is historically probable that long years of intermigration has been happening in the area, driven by legends, folktales and myth revolving around a prosperous civilization somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The migration described by Beyer could be the process of going back home to the ancestral homeland. Even up to this day, the native of Samar and Leyte still talks of an imaginary hidden civilization of Araw City somewhere near the shoreline of the Pacific with prosperous, kind, good looking and enchanted people. It is in this kind of imagery confounded by exaggerated tales of seafaring Polynesians, traders, sailors, and pirates based in the Pacific Oceans that have feed the imaginations of the adventurous migrants into the direction of Lawan and ended up somewhere else. Even the Hindus attempted to get in touch with the Lawan civilization in the Pacific but they only ended up in Butuan. The western start to look for that much - talked – about- civilization in the Pacific with full of spices, gold, beautiful women, kind people, and luscious vegetation as described in the Bible as Ophir but Magellan was killed by Lapu Lapu on his process of searching. Some European and maybe Asian expeditions may have managed to find Lawan, but may have avoided confrontation with the seat of the ancient civilization. One of such instance is the following: historian William Henry Scott wrote that a Samar datu by the name of Iberein was rowed out to a Spanish vessel anchored in his harbor in 1543 by oarsmen collared in gold; while wearing on his own person earrings and chains. History would tell that the Spaniards avoided Samar maybe as a result of that incident. The Philippines hosts a bounty of natural resources, such as minerals, metals and gold. It just so happens that gold used to be so prevalent in the Philippines. Metals and other minerals were used for ornaments such as earring and necklaces, while other uses included bladed weaponry like the famous Kampilan and Kris. In addition to iron extracted from ores in our land, Chinese cauldrons were also converted to raw iron and shaped into new tools or implements. A lot of peaceful adventurers settled in Lawan, mostly Asians, Hebrews and Polynesian people, either as stop over for another destination or to raise a family. Even Batang Dula, the eldest son and heir apparent of Lakan Bunao Dula, King of the Lakanate of Tondo, entrusted his eldest son and heir apparent David Dula y Goiti to the protection of the Lakanate of Lawan. But the bad guys like pirates, and invaders prefer to avoid confrontations with the seat of Lawan. Another proof that powers tried to avoid confrontation with Lawan civilization is the “Epic of Bingi” where a ruler from Albay brought 100 ships to attack Lawan and marry Bingi but ended up going home peacefully without Bingi. In Lawan (it’s called Laoang now), one can still see what the Spaniards call as the Almuraya Fortress ruins, a cobblestone wall and a watchtower that served as a defense of the town against the moro pirates. Historians dates it as during Spanish era but the arrangement seem to have been existed during the time of pre-Hispanic Hadi (the native term for chief) of the Lawan civilization, occupied by the Spaniard during their 300 years of occupation in the country and slowly erased the traces of the ancient civilization.

The Lakanate (Kingdom) of Lawan (Ophir), an Ancient Civilization of Hebrew – blooded natives that started the Migration of the Polynesians

Well - known historians all over the world, both in the past and in the modern time prove the existence of an ancient civilization by studying their ruins, epic, artifacts, historical accounts and current articles of written in the standard history textbooks by well-known historians and archeologists. They did that for the Ancient China 2100 – 221 BC, Ancient Egypt 3150 – 31 BC, Inca Civilization 1200 – 1542 AD (Modern day Peru), Ancient Greece 800 BC – 146 BC, Maya Civilization 2000 BC – early 16th Century (Modern day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras), Osirian Civilization (Modern day Mediterranean) and, Rama Empire 10,000 – 2,500 BC (Modern day India and Pakistan). The same rigid standard was being applied in the current study of the ancient Lakanate of Lawan where its existence was recently uncovered.

Historian William Henry Scott wrote that a “Samar datu by the name of Iberein was rowed out to a Spanish vessel anchored in his harbor in 1543 by oarsmen collared in gold; while wearing on his own person earrings and chains.” In the local epic called siday entitled "Bingi of Lawan" as written in the article of Scott, Lawan is a prosperous Lakanate in Samar. Datu Hadi Iberein came from the Lakanate of Lawan. (Scott, William Henry). In the Philippines, the natives of the Lakanate of Lawan are called Waray or Waray - Waray. The Waray-Waray are often stereotyped as brave warriors, as in the popular phrase, Basta ang Waray, hindi uurong sa away, meaning "Waray never back down from a fight". They are also known as contented people, so much so that, during the Spanish era, they were often called parochial, for being contented to live in simplicity as farmers, and for making tuba palm wine from coconut nectar. The term Waray or Waray Waray came from their native dialect "Waray hadlok" (no fear in English translation, "walang takot" in Tagalog translation). They are the Vikings of the Philippines, because they sail the seas and the ocean without fear, they settle in one place without fear, and they attack settlements and kidnap people and bring them to the Lakanate of Lawan without fear. This fearless and carefree attitude of the natives of the Lakanate of Lawan made them scatter people and create settlements in different parts of the Philippines and polynesian settlements (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waray).

The Almuraya Fortress Ruins of Laoang

For 300 years, the Spaniards have been systematically marginalizing the native aristocracy of the Lakanate of Tondo and Lakanate of Lawan. Their strategy has always been the same: conquer the natives with religion. In Tondo, the seat of power of Lakan Dula was slowly erased by building the Sto. Nino Church right in his own ancestral home. The same tactics they did in Lawan. They build the church right in the seat of power of Datu Hadi Iberein and name the complex in Spanish so that the future generations will not remember it. They name it “Almuraya”. For 300 years, the Spaniards painstakingly remove all the vestiges of the ancient prosperous Hebrew lakanate. They destroyed all the structures of Almuraya by building their own structures like churches and bahay na bato houses, destroyed the secret passages from “Almuraya” to the caves of Isla de Batag and the shipping ports of Kahayagan, Kalomotan and Palapag which they converted into the ship repair station of the Galleon Trade from the Philippines to Mexico. They suppressed the siday, kandu, sorugmaton and other native folklores. They changed the surnames of the natives to Spaniards. They marginalized the native royal families who were forced to become businessmen (mostly in arastre and coconut plantations) and forget their ancient glorious past. Lawan, with its splendor as described in the “Bingi of Lawan” epic was reduced into a hispanized ruins called even today as “almuraya fortress ruins of Laoang”.

Fortunately, a small piece of the grandeur of the Lakanate of Lawan of Datu Hadi Iberein was described briefly by Fr. Ignatius Alzina in his book Historia de las Islas y Indios de Bisayas. The book said that the settlement was ruled by a monarch called Dato Karagrag, whose consort Bingi had an irresistible beauty that captivated other neighboring kings, especially the dato from Albay. (Fr. Alzina lived as missionary in Samar and Leyte for 38 years, from 1634 to 1674, working mostly in Palapag.) Describing the place of the settlement, Fr. Alzina in his visit to the place in 1640 says, “On the opposite side of Rawis, on the Lawang Island, which is a sandbar there is a solid ridge of rock. It is fashioned by nature itself and it is so steep that it looks like a façade of a wall… It was a natural fortification, due to its great height of massive rock; it was also secured as if by a moat which encircled its three sides. The fourth side was blocked by a palisade of strong logs. Then too, nature also formed on one side of this rock something like a small cove with its little beach.” It is this advanced stage of civilization, evidenced by the Dragon Jar of Laoang and many other artifacts found within the Lakanate of Lawan (Catubig-Laoang-Palapag) and their reign of influence like Albay, Surigao, Butuan, Quezon Province and Mactan, and combining the fact that the some historians are pointing to the Hebrew - influenced Lakanate of Lawan of Datu Iberein as the seat of Ophir that started the intermigration of Polynesian people in the Pacific as pointed out by an Australian study on DNA – native historians conclude that for 300 years, the Spaniards have been successful in erasing the political existence of the Lakanate of Lawan in the memory of its people and the history of the country. Fortunately, the surge of the clamor for identity of the present generation of Filipinos is paving the way for the search for the real identity of the Filipinos. One piece of artifacts that are subject to archeological analysis of some historians today is the ruins of the cobblestone watch tower of the Almuraya Fortress Ruins of Laoang. The use of cobblestone is very popular in ancient Egypt and Samaria of Israel. Is it possible that the ancient royalty of Lawan are the Hebrew – blooded people of Ophir that initiated the migration of Polynesian people into different islands in the Pacific?

The Laoang Dragon Jar, (Inalasan nga Tadyaw)

One archeological artifact that provided the conclusive evidence today of the existence of the Lakanate (a native Kingdom) of Lawan as an advanced ancient civilization in the Pacific coast is a dragon jar which is now kept by the Samar Archeological Museum in Calbayog City, Western Samar. Carl Bordeos, the curator of the museum said that the jar was found in Laoang, Northern Samar. It was carbon dated by foreign archeologists to have been used as a burial jar as early as 960 AD, as old as the Laguna Copperplate that provided the evidence for the existence of the Lakanate of Tondo. The jar is older than the coming of Islam in the Philippines. The dragon jar was discovered by a Polish Priest – historian by the name of Zdislaw Kobak. Historians said that the artifact is a secondary burial jar of a royal child, which indicate an existence of a long succession of monarch of a lakanate (a native kingdom). Historians believe that the Laoang Dragon Jar is one of the only three known dragon jars in Asia, and indication that the Lakanate of Lawan must have been a very prosperous kingdom to afford such kind of a jar for a burial of a minor member of the native royalty. Several other martabanas (burial jars), jewelries of gold and other precious stones, and some Hebrew artifacts have been excavated in an ancient burial ground in a place in Laoang now known as sawang, but they are kept by private collectors (businessmirror.com.ph). A dragon jar, also known as cloud-dragon jar, is a type of ceremonial porcelain vessel that became popular among the ruling classes of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), China and in ancient Philippine royalty based in Lawan. They are decorated with large dragons against a background of stylized clouds, painted with under glaze pigments. In addition to being a generally auspicious symbol, the dragon represented the authority and beneficence of the ruler (Philadelphia Museum of Art). In 1754, King Yòngjo decreed that iron pigments were to be used exclusively, except for jars having a dragon design (Covell, p.74). Because of the scarcity of the traditional cobalt blue pigment, which was imported from Muslim Turkestan, and was also known as “Mohammedan blue”, an under glaze brown iron oxide pigment was also used between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries (Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

Bingi of Lawan: The Origin of Maharlika

There lived in this place a chief called Karagrag, who was its lord and ruler. He was married to a lady of his rank called Bingi, a name which had been bestowed on her because of her chastity, as we shall see. (I was not able to find out if she came from the same town; most probably she was from upstream on the Catubig River, where she was the daughter of the chief there.) This lady, according to what they recount, was endowed with many fine virtues and greedy celebrated for her beauty among these natives, so much so that, moved by the fame of her beauty, the Datu, or ruler, of Albay got ready a hundred ships. This chief was called Dumaraug, which means the victor, and with all those ships he weighed anchor in his land, and within a short time came in view of the [Lawan Island] town of Makarato.

His unexpected arrival excited the town, but since it was well-fortified by its natural location and it was the season of the Vendavales (the best time for going there from Albay) when the force of the sea and its waves were strong and turbulent, he did not venture to go straight in but took shelter instead near the beach which Rawis Point makes with very fine sand and free of shoals, where, became of an islet across the entrance from the sea, the surf is less obstructive and the sea milder and calm. From there he sent a small boat with a sign of peace to announce the purpose of his coming, which was simply to carry Bingi away as his wife, the fame of whose beauty alone had left him love struck and with only this would he then return to his land without making any attack and always afterward remain their friend and protector, since he think that he is more powerful than they, he could do it to their advantage. Karagrag, rather than making reply, showed them how well prepared he was by entertaining them, and when his wife was informed of Dumaraug’s intentions, she responded at once that she was greatly surprised that for something of such little worth he: had made such a demonstration and launched so many ships, that she was content with the husband she had and did not care to exchange him for any other, even to the most powerful man in the world, and that so long as he was alive, she could not think of leaving him; and if it should be her unlucky fate to fall into his hands captive, he should understand that though he might carry her off and command her as his slave, that to make her his wife, she would never consent and was ready to give her life first. Encouraged by so bold a response, her husband Karagrag simply added that he was there waiting with his men deployed, and that although they were not many, they were very good men, and that the place where they were was very secure and their arms are advanced, and if he came to try his arms in battle, they would do their duty; and if he should defeat them, he would be lord of his wife and property, but if not, he would return to his land empty-handed, if indeed he escaped from there with his life.

With this reply, and in view of the superior strength and impregnability of the place for them, with no more arms than spears and shields or at most some arrows, the chief reconsidered and hesitated a bit but not for long, and without attempting anything more and risking his men, he returned home just as he had come, leaving both the chief and his wife Bingi happy.

This happened a few years before the Spaniards came, and is still fresh in the memory of the natives of the Lawan town, who today are their descendants. Not many years ago, I buried a chief of the said island, who was more than seventy years old, whose parent had been alive when this raid took place; and a son of his who had heard it many times, related it to me with all the aforesaid details (Alcina 1668a, 4:20-23).

A bingi or bingil was a virgin or a woman who had been faithful to one man all her life. It must therefore have been bestowed on the heroine of this romance sometime after the Albay raid, the first step in an historic event’s becoming a legend. The quotation of her and her husband’s noble words indicates that the poetic process had already had its effect by the time Father Alcina heard the story. Perhaps with retelling over the centuries and the accumulation of apocryphal embellishments, the tale might have grown into a full-fledged kandu. Indeed, had ancient Visayan culture not succumbed to colonial acculturation, some Waray bard might now be singing the Epic of Bingi (William Henry Scott).

Laoang Twilight: The Lost Garden of Glory

In the latest study published in the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers led by Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), at the University of Adelaide used ancient DNA to study the origins and dispersal of ancestral Polynesian chickens. They found that Polynesian chickens had their genetic roots in the Philippines, making that region a candidate for the homeland of the mysterious Lapita people who transported the domesticated birds to the Pacific islands. The estimated dates of the reign of the above mentioned lakans or hadis are still subject of anthropological researches. For so many thousand long years, the Lakanate of Lawan slowly initiated a slow and enduring process of what could be a series of inter migration of inhabitants or expansion of their reign into the different Polynesian islands in the pacific and inward into the Philippine archipelago that gave rise to the emergence of several prosperous settlements in most part of the country, like the Kingdom of Tondo in Manila, and into the different islands in the Pacific.

The Emergence of the Polynesian Consciousness

The Lakanate of Lawan (Ophir) in Samar (from their homeland in Samaria) is at the influence center of several prosperous settlements in the pacific side of the Philippines - from Surigao, Butuan, Mactan, Quezon Province and Albay - have created lots of legends, curiosity and attraction from as far as India, Israel, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Brunei, Spain, USA and Japan. Forces from Majapahit, Srivijaya, India, Borneo and China tried to interact with the Lakanate of Lawan (Ophir), bringing their own people and culture and ended up settling in different places near the center of the Lakanate instead. The Sanskrit - speaking people ended in Butuan, the Muslims ended in Sulu, the Bornean Datu, Indonesians and Negritoes ended in Panay, as per the theory of migration of Otley Beyer…only the people historians describes lequios – hebrews – warays - lapita managed to settle right at the heart of the Lakanate of Lawan (Ophir) as natives of the settlement and their operation base to bring gold and other items to Israel every three years. Meantime, these natives of the Lakanate which are known in some history books as the hebrew, lequios, lapita people or waray intermarried with migrants and their captives. They are known for their Viking - like characteristics: love of the seas, bravery, adventurous and loyalty to their homeland that wherever they settled – Tondo, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and other land in faraway countries, seas and ocean - they still dream of going back to the Lakanate of Lawan, a trait that even the modern day warays still carry today. Thus, the very nature of the people of Lawan (Ophir) led to the series of intermigrations and intermarriages in this part of the world – settle, go, return, settle, go, return, process - exchanging culture, ways of life, beliefs, religion, stories and writing system. Though thousands of long and arduous years, the writing system of the people of Baybay (poblacion) of Lawan (Ophir) and the native Hebrew of Israel have influenced each other as well as with the other writing systems of nearby civilizations and settlement, their bloodline have spread as well, so with their practices. Tagalog (pronounced təˈɡɑːlɒɡ in English) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV (CALABARZON and MIMAROPA) and of Metro Manila. Its standardized form, commonly called Filipino, is the national language and one of two official languages of the Philippines. It is related to—though not readily intelligible with—other Austronesian languages such as Malay, Javanese, and Hawaiian. The word Tagalog derived from tagailog, from tagá- meaning "native of" and ílog meaning "river". Thus, it means "river dweller". Very little is known about the history of the language. However, according to linguists such as Dr. David Zorc and Dr. Robert Blust, the Tagalog dialect originated, along with their Central Philippine cousins, from Northeastern Mindanao or Eastern Visayas. The Lakanate of Lawan (Ophir) is in the Eastern Visayas or Waray Region. The western writers garlanded the Philippine land with more names such as Maniolas, Ophir, Islas del Oriente, Islas del Poniente, Archipelago de San Lazaro, Islas de Luzones(Island of Mortars), Archipelago de Magallanes and Archipelago de Legaspi. The western writers and ocean navigators called the islands Ophir before the Western people arrived and renamed it as Felipinas from the name of King Felipe of Spain. When the first European historian set their foot in the land of Ophir, it was written by historian Gregorio F. Zaide in page 2 and page 24 of History of the Filipino People, that Padre Chirino an eminent Jesuit historian found in Tagalog language that “it has the Mystery and obscurities of the Hebrew language”. Since the Tagalog dialect came from ancient Waray dialect. Therefore in the islands of Ophir the people speaks Ancient-Hebrew. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/78713593/Philippines-is-Ophir, retrieved December 23, 2012). Baybay is the poblacion at the center of the Lakanate of Lawan (Ophir). Their ancient script was described in nearby Palapag by Spanish Priest Alcina in 1668 and this ancient form of Baybayin is called by Dr. Bonifacio Comandante as Surat Waray. It is so ancient that it has only 14 pelasgic scripts. Further away from the center Baybay is the same crude 14 pelasgic Baybayin scripts recorded by historian Delgado in 1751 in Guian, Eastern Samar. It is also identified by Dr. Comandante as an older version of Baybayin as Surat Waray. The expansion of the ancient Baybay 14 pelasgic Scripts was also recorded in Carigara Leyte in 1683 by Spanish historian Esguerra and Dr. Comandante also identified it as Surat Waray. The 14 crude scripts from Baybay, Ophir may have been used by the Viking – like people describe by historians interchangeably as lequios, warays, lapita or hebrews to list the names of people and materials they bring in and out of different settlements they create or invade or trade with, but in the process, different settlements kept on improving or adding extra scripts. Dr. Borrinaga said that the Baybayin in the Doctrina Cristiana is a modified form of Baybayin from a crude origin. Even today, the Warays and the Samoans have almost the same way of pronouncing their numbers from 1 to 10; the scripts of the Tagalogs of Luzon and as far as people of Java in Indonesia developed further the ancient and crude scripts of Baybay from the poblacion of Ophir.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century and in the early years of the present century, scholars, colonial administrators, missionaries and the like were genuinely concerned that Pacific islanders quite possibly faced physical extinction. The voluntary and not-so-voluntary recruitment of Melanesians to work on distant overseas plantations, the kidnapping of Polynesians to work in mines in South America, greater destructiveness of warfare due to the introduction of firearms, and especially the ravages of introduced diseases, were some of the factors behind the alarming decline of island populations in the Pacific. But with improved health care, better control of labor recruitment, the proscription of internecine warfare, and so forth, the situation was gradually reversed (Hau’ofa). Fortunately, Lawan and other polynesian settlements are so strong and cohesive that they have not encountered abuses from foreigners.