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Balangay

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This article is about Balangay. Not to be confused with Barangay.
The balangay replica docked at CCP Harbor Manila after its South East Asian expedition.

The Balangay (formerly synonymous with Butuan boat)[1] is a plank boat adjoined by a carved-out plank edged through pins and dowels. It was first mentioned in the 16th Century in the Chronicles of Pigafetta, and is known as the oldest watercraft found in the Philippines.

The balangay was the first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia and is evidence of early Filipino craftsmanship and their seamanship skills during pre-colonial times. The Balanghai Festival is also a celebration in Butuan, Agusan del Norte to commemorate the coming of the early migrants that settled the Philippines, on board the Balangay boats.[2] When the first Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they found the Filipinos living in well-organized independent villages called barangays. The name barangay originated from balangay, the Austronesian word for "sailboat".[3][4]

The word balangay

The Balangay is thought to have travelled much of Maritime Southeast Asia.

Barangay, or Balangay, was one of the first native words the Spaniards learned in the Philippines. When Antonio Pigafetta went ashore to parley with the ruler of Limasawa, they sat together in a boat drawn up on shore which Pigafetta called a balangai. This word appears as either balangay or barangay, with the same meaning, in all the major languages of the Philippines, and the earliest Spanish dictionaries make it clear that it was pronounced "ba-lang-gay."[5]

On the other hand, when the Spaniards reached Luzon, they found this word for boat also being used for the smallest political unit of Tagalog society.[5]

This article is restricted on the terms Balangay or Barangay referring to the boat only and not the ‘barangay’ as community.

The use of the balangay

As in Northern Luzon particularly in the province of Cagayan, balangay is used as a medium in getting food for the Ibanags. The Cagayan river system and the Babuyan Channel provided the Ibanags with fish as well as avenues of trade as far as Ilocos coast, so that boats were an ordinary part of daily life. The common word for boat was barangay, a term sometimes extended to the crew. Large vessels were called Biray or Biwong.[5]

The Visayans had a different way of using balangay compared to that of the people of Northern Luzon. Large ones were used for carrying cargo and were called bidok, biroko, biray, or lapid.[5]

With the balangay’s size, it was used for cargo and raiding purposes giving proof that Butuan played a central role in trade throughout the region of the Philippine islands and with neighboring area. Today, Balanghai Festival is a celebration in Butuan, Agusan del Norte, it is to commemorate the coming of the early migrants that settled in the Philippines, on board the Balangay boats.[5]

It is also held that the balangay also helped spread the settlement of the Austronesian people around the Philippines and neighboring regions of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Americas.[6] The Tao people of Taiwan have traditionally been adept at crafting balangays, which are held as a symbol of their people.

Boat-making: Tradition and Process

The balangay was the first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia.[7] The well known barangay was an edge-pegged, plank-built boat constructed on a keel.[5]

The balangay was basically a plank boat put together by joining the carved out planks edge to edge, using pins or dowels. The planks, which were made from a hardwood called doongon in the Philippines (Heritiera littoralis), were fastened together every 12 centimetres, also by hardwood pin measuring some 19 centimetres long, which were driven into holes on the edge of each plank. On the inner side of the boat the planks were provided, at regular intervals, with raised rectangular lugs, carved from the same plank, through which holes were bored diagonally from the sides to the surface.[8]

Rib like structures made of lengths of wood were then lashed against these lugs to provide a flexible bulkhead, to reinforce and literally sew the boat together. Cordage known as cabo negro (Arenga pinnata) was used for the purpose. The hull, measuring about 15 meters long and 4 meters wide, was ordinarily semicircular in cross section and with no marked keel. Provided with huge outriggers, the boat was propelled either by a sail or by paddling.[8]

The boats were finely manufactured without any blueprints and were taught to be made from one generation to another and uses a technique still used by boat makers of Sibutu Island in the Southern Philippines.[8]

Early Boats in Butuan

Since the 10th century, Butuan appeared to have been in good relations with the Srivijaya. Being located on the coast of Mindanao, balangays were often docking at Butuan bay keeping good business between the local people of Butuan and traders from the neighboring empire and neighboring islands.[2][9] Various goods, extending to the statue of Avalokiteśvara and the Golden Tara of Butuan, were traded across Maritime Southeast Asia.

The balangay boats were discovered in the late 1970s in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte. A total of nine wooden boats were accidentally found by locals searching for alluvial gold on land near the Masao River.[10] The site was in Sitio Ambangan, Barrio Libertad within an older dried-up river channel, perhaps a former tributary of the Masao River.[11]

Three of the nine balangays discovered have been excavated by the National Museum and are currently preserved. The first balangay or Butuan Boat One, was discovered in 1976 and is now displayed in Balangay Shrine Museum in Libertad, Butuan City. It was radiocarbon tested and was dated to 320 CE. The Butuan Boat Two was dated to 1250 CE, and is now located at the Maritime Hall of the National Museum in Manila.[10] The Butuan Boat Five, excavated at Bancasi, Libertad in 1986,[12] has been dated to 1215 CE and was transferred to the Butuan Regional Museum and is undergoing preservation.[10] The six other boats, which are yet to be excavated, remain in their original waterlogged condition which is proven to be the best way to preserve the said artifacts.[9]

In 2012, National Museum archaeologists discovered what seems to be a massive balangay "mother boat", estimated to be 25 meters long, versus the average 15-meter length of the other balangays at the excavation site. The leader of the research team, Dr. Mary Jane Louise A. Bolunia, reported the treenails or wooden pegs that were used in the construction of the mother boat to be around 5 centimeters in diameter.[13] As of June 2013, excavations of the find are still ongoing.

The first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia, the balangay is only found in the Philippines where a flotilla of such prehistoric wooden boats exists.[14] Nine specimens were discovered in 1976 in Butuan, Agusan Del Norte, Mindanao, and 3 have already been excavated.

Declarations

National Cultural Treasures

The balangays of Butuan was declared by President Corazon Aquino as National Cultural Treasures by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 86 on March 9, 1987 and the vicinity of excavation as archaeological reserves.[14]

National Boat

In November 2015, the Balangay was declared as the National Boat of the Philippines by the House Committee on Revisions of Laws. The Balangay was chosen so that the "future generations of Filipinos will recognize the invaluable contribution of their forefathers in shaping the country’s maritime tradition and in passing on the values of solidarity, harmony, determination, courage and bravery.[1][15]

House Bill 6366 declares the Balangay as the National Boat of the Philippines.[16]

The Balangay Voyage

In 2009, the Kaya ng Pinoy Inc. that conquered Mt. Everest in 2006 announced plans to re-construct the Balangay boat, with the help of Badjao and other tribal members. The Balangay will be sailed, tracing the routes of the Filipino Ancestors during the waves of Austronesian settlement through Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific.[17] The special wood for construction came from the established traditional source in southern Philippines, specifically Tawi-Tawi. The team have pinpointed Badjao master boat builders, whose predecessors actually built such boats, and used traditional tools during the construction. The balangay was constructed at Manila Bay, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex.[18][19]

The Balangays, named Diwata ng Lahi, Masawa Hong Butuan, and Sama Tawi-Tawi,[20] navigated without the use of modern instruments, and only through the skills and traditional methods of the Filipino Sea Badjao people. They Journeyed from Manila Bay to the southern tip of Sulu, stopping off at numerous Philippine cities along the way to promote the project. The journey around the Philippine islands covered a distance of 2,108 nautical miles or 3,908 kilometers.[18][21]

The second leg saw the balangay navigate throughout South East Asia through to 2010, then Micronesia and Madascar the following year. The Balangay then ventured across the Pacific onward to the Atlantic and all the way around the world and back to the Philippines in 2012 to 2013.[18][21]

The balangay was navigated by the old method used by the ancient mariners – steering by the sun, the stars, the wind, cloud formations, wave patterns and bird migrations. Valdez and his team relied on the natural navigational instincts of the Badjao. Apart from the Badjao, Ivatan are also experts in using the boat.[18][21][22] The organisers say that the voyage "aims to bring us back to the greatness of our ancestors and how colonialism robbed these away from us and produced the Filipino today".[23] Their vessel, named "Ngandahig"[24] can also be compared to the Hokulea voyages, and the voyages of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Balangay declared PH National Boat".
  2. ^ a b BALANGHAI FESTIVAL - Commemorating the coming of the early settlers from Borneo and Celebes
  3. ^ Zaide, Sonia M. (1999). The Philippines: A Unique Nation. All-Nations Publishing. pp. 62, 420. ISBN 971-642-071-4. citing Plasencia, Fray Juan de (1589). Customs of the Tagalogs. Nagcarlin, Laguna.
  4. ^ Junker, Laura Lee (2000). Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms. Ateneo de Manila University Press. pp. 74, 130. ISBN 971-550-347-0.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barangay by William Henry Scott
  6. ^ Austronesia by Peter Bellwood
  7. ^ Hontiveros, G. 2014. Balangay: Re-launching an Ancient Discovery
  8. ^ a b c Hontiveros, G. 2004 Butuan of a Thousand Years.
  9. ^ a b "Replica of 'balangay' embarks on epic voyage". ABS-CBN; Agence France-Presse. 2009-09-27. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  10. ^ a b c Clark, Paul; Green, Jeremy; Santiago, Rey; Vosmer, Tom (1993). "The Butuan Two boat known as a balangay in the National Museum, Manila, Philippines" (PDF). The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  11. ^ "Butuan: The First Kingdom." Butuan City Historical and Cultural Foundation, 1990.
  12. ^ Alvares, Mauro; Clark, Paul; Green, Jeremy; Santiago, Rey; Vosmer, Tom. "Interim report on the joint Australian–Philippines Butuan boat project, October 1992" (PDF). ResearchGate. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  13. ^ Dimacali, Timothy James M. (August 9, 2013). "Massive balangay 'mother boat' unearthed in Butuan". GMA News Online. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  14. ^ a b "Agusan solon files heritage bill anew; seeks to declare Balangay as 'National Boat'". August 14, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
  15. ^ "House Committee of Laws declares Balangay as National Boat". Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  16. ^ "Committee Report 978" (PDF). Retrieved February 4, 2016.
  17. ^ The Balangay: Maritime Connectivity and Migration
  18. ^ a b c d Evangelista, Katherine (2009-09-25). "Sailing around RP in an ancient 'balangay'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  19. ^ "Brace for 'Balangay's epic voyage". Business Mirror. 2009-07-14. Archived from the original on July 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-01. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "'DIWATA NG LAHI' Finally Arrives in Butuan." City Government of Butuan. www.butuan.gov.ph. n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
  21. ^ a b c Ann Corvera (June 7, 2009). "The Voyage of the Balangay: From the Mountain to the Seas". The Philippine Star.
  22. ^ Sarmiento Jr., Juan V. (2009-09-27). "Building a Balangay". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
  23. ^ "What the voyage hopes to achieve".
  24. ^ "Balangay replica swamped by flood in Cavite". ABS-CBN News. 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2009-10-01.

Further reading

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