Laguna Copperplate Inscription PDF

C A R A G A STATe U NIVeRSITy Ampayon, Butuan City 8600, Philippines URL: www.carsu.edu.ph THE LAGUNA COPPERPLATE INSCRIPTION SULAT SA TANSO A PHILIPPINE DOCUMENT FROM 900 A.D 1 The Laguna Copperplat...

C A R A G A STATe U NIVeRSITy Ampayon, Butuan City 8600, Philippines URL: www.carsu.edu.ph THE LAGUNA COPPERPLATE INSCRIPTION SULAT SA TANSO A PHILIPPINE DOCUMENT FROM 900 A.D 1 The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI)  The earliest known Philippine historical document found locally.  A declared National Cultural Treasure, the artifact was discovered in 1989 in Lumbang, Laguna.  It is now under the custody of the National Museum of the Philippines. 2  It is written in Kawi, the indigenous writing system in Java, Indonesia and predated baybayin and other related indigenous scripts of the country.  It is about the granting of the ruler of Dewata (now part of Butuan City) of perpetual freedom from debt to a certain family in Luzon, testified by the ruler of Tundun (now Tondo, Manila) and ruled by the court of the Kingdom of Mdang (now in Java, Indonesia). 3  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LCI  First of which was through the initiative of the late naturalized Filipino anthropologist Antoon Postma in the early 1990s who sought the knowledge of the Dutch paleographer J. Casparis on Kawi.  The language used in the document could be a proto-Tondo Austronesian vernacular, as it has attributes of old Tagalog and old Malay. 4  In 1989, Ernesto Legisma, a man from Lumbang Laguna found an uncovered blackened roll of metal  He offered the copperplate to one of the antique dealers in the area and the dealer eventually sold it to the Philippine National Museum for 2,000 pesos in 1990.  Postma's exposure to Dutch studies on Indonesian paleography made LCI an artifact to the National Museum 5  LOCATION OF LCI  Postma's original interpretation to the place names in the LCI was these were located along the Angat River-Pampanga River-Manila Bay complex--Pailah in the document is the Sitio Paila, San Mateo, Norzagaray, Bulacan province (part of the headwater of Angat River); Puliran is the now Pulilan, Bulacan, also along Angat River; 6  LOCATION OF LCI  Binoangan is Binuangan, Obando, Bulacan; and the ruler named Bukah in the document was likely the derivation of the place name Gatbuca, a barangay in Calumpit, Bulacan where Angat River and Pampanga River meet (gat was an ancient Tagalog- Kapampangan honorific title for noblemen). 7  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LCI  Laguna historian Jaime Tiongson introduced another interesting interpretation: the context of the complex of Laguna de Bai (Lake of Bai, from which the name of the present day province of Laguna ['lake' in Spanish] was derived). Aside from the fact that the document was found in Lumbang River, which connects Laguna de Bai to the sea, Pailah was actually the archaic name of the lake town of Pila, now part of Laguna; and Puliran was the pre-Hispanic name of Laguna de Bai. 8  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LCI  The LCI is just one of the proofs how integrated Luzon, Mindanao, Java, and India more than 600 years before the Magellan-Elcano expedition arrived to the Visayas.  Indeed, we have history before the Spaniards came. 9  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LCI  The Laguna Copperplate Inscription would be the “starting point of the Philippine history.  Way back to 900 A.D. or 621 years earlier than the previous discovery accepted date of 1521 when Antonio Pigafetta wrote his observation during his voyage with Magellan. 10  CONTENT OF LCI  The LCI seems to be a semi-official certificate of acquittal of a debt incurred by a person in high office, together with his whole family, all relatives and descendants. The debt mentioned involved a substantial amount in gold, that apparently was still unpaid. The tenth or last line of the LCI seems to be a warning to any one who might questions or doubt the truth of the document. 11  TRANSLATION OF LCI  (1) Hail! In the Saka-year 822; the month of March- April; according to the astronomer: the fourth day of the dark half of the moon; on (2) Mon- day. At that time, Lady Angkatan together with her relative, Bukah by name, (3) the child of His Honor Namwran, was given, as a special favor, a docu- ment of full acquittal, by the Chief and Commander2 of Tundun (4) repre- senting the Leader of Pailah, Jayade~a.~ This means that His Honor Namwran, through the Honorable Scribe 12  TRANSLATION OF LCI (5) was totally cleared of a sal- ary-related5 debt of 1 kati and 8 suwarna (weight of gold): in the presence of His Honor the Leader of Puliran, (6) Kasumuran; His Honor the Leader of Pailah, representing Ganasakti; (and) His Honor the Leader (7) of Bin- wangan, representing Bisruta. And, with his whole family, on orders of the Chief of Dewata (a), representing the Chief of Mdang, because of his loy- alty as a subject (slave?)' of the Chief, therefore all the descendants 13  TRANSLATION OF LCI (9) of his Honor Namwran have been cleared of the whole debt that His Honor owed the Chief of Dewata. This (document) is (issued) in case (10) there is someone, whosoever, some time in the future, who will state that the debt is not yet acquitted of His Honor...B 14  The last sentence on the copperplate is incomplete, indicating that there was at least one more page to the document. Unfortunately, none has been found so far. In the Philippines before, an unpaid debt usually resulted in slavery not only for the person concerned but also for his family and his descendants. 15  AUTHENTICITY AND SCRIPT  Fortunately, some of the foremost experts in the fields of Paleography and Old Malayan languages assured that the LCI is genuine and authentic, based on the identical script-type known to have existed during the tenth century, and the correctness of the languages employed, substantial elements that would be hard to imitate or falsify at the present time without being noticed by the experts. 16  AUTHENTICITY AND SCRIPT  They gave credence to the theories regarding the location of the toponyms or placenames mentioned in the LCI, that I thought to be situated in the Philippines.  The type of script used in the LCI belongs to the so- called Early Kawi script that was also employed in the inscriptions that were found in Indonesia during a period of almost two hundred years (about 750-925 AD 17  OTHER DISCOVERIES The 14-15th century The 10th century Butuan silver strip Butuan ivory seal 18 OTHER DISCOVERIES the 15th century Calatagan jar THANK YOU! 20  References:  Postma, Antoon. “The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: Text and Commentary.” Philippine Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 1992, pp. 183–203. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42633308.  Museo ng Muntinlupa  National Quincentennial Committee, Republic of the Philippines 21