The Laguna Copperplate Inscription

A Philippine Document from 900 A.D.

by Hector Santos
© 1995-96 by Hector Santos
All rights reserved.

Once in a while, an unusual artifact different from

anything else previously found in the area turns
up and baffles experts. It usually ends up in a
dusty museum shelf, waiting for the day when
somebody will study it, understand its
significance, and reveal its secrets to the world.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI)

Copperplate

A small, innocent-looking object found in 1989 on

the southeastern shore of Laguna de Ba'y was
such a find. It now threatens to upset our basic
understanding of Philippine history. The object is
a thin copperplate measuring less than 8x12
inches in size and is inscribed with small writing
that had been hammered into its surface.

The black, rolled-up piece of metal was found by

a man dredging for sand near the mouth of the
Lumbang River where it emptied into Laguna de
Ba'y. The man could just have easily thrown it
away as just another piece of junk that tended to
clog his equipment as he tried to make a living. It
was not porcelain, like those he found before and
was able to sell for good money to the antique
dealers from Manila.

Those dealers have been frequenting the area

because it was a rich source of artifacts that
were in demand among the rich in Manila. These
artifacts provided another welcome source of
income for people like this man who struggled to
provide for his family.

Fortunately, the sand man decided to keep that

piece of metal and take another look. Upon
unrolling, it turned out that there was some kind
of writing on the crumpled and blackened metal
plate. He finally sold it to one of the dealers for
almost nothing for it was unlike anything ever
found before and nobody knew what it was.

Because it was not a recognizable object, the

dealer could not find a private buyer for it. In
desperation, he offered it to the National Museum
of the Philippines, normally the buyer of last
resort for unsold objects. The copper object is
now called "Laguna Copperplate Inscription"
(LCI).

It languished at the National Museum as

supposedly qualified scholars passed up the
chance to evaluate the artifact. They were either
too busy or not interested, but perhaps
intimidated by the prospect of working on
something they had no knowledge of.

Fortunately, the ability and persistent effort of

one man paid off in unlocking the secrets of the
LCI. Antoon Postma, a Dutch national who has
lived most of his life among the Mangyans in the
Philippines and the director of the Mangyan
Assistance & Research Center in Panaytayan,
Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, was able to translate
the writing. His effort is all the more remarkable
when you consider that the text was in a
language similar to four languages (Sanskrit, Old
Tagalog, Old Javanese, and Old Malay) mixed
together.

The text was written in Kavi, a mysterious script

which does not look like the ancient Tagalog
script known as baybayin or alibata. Neither does
it look similar to other Philippine scripts still used
today by isolated ethnic minorities like the
Hanunóos and the Buhids of Mindoro, and the
Tagbanwas of Palawan. It is the first artifact of
pre-Hispanic origin found in the Philippines that
had writing on copper material.

Indeed, artifacts of pre-Hispanic writing are so

rare that only three had been previously found
and made available to researchers. They are the
14-15th century Butuan silver strip, the 10th
century Butuan ivory seal, and the 15th century
Calatagan jar. The writings on these three
previous finds have eluded attempts to decipher
them so far.
Important Date

Postma's translation provides a lot of exciting

surprises. Like most other copperplate
documents, it gives a very precise date from the
Sanskrit calendar which corresponds to 900 A.D.
in our system. It contains placenames that still
exist around the Manila area today. It also lists
the names of the chiefs of the places mentioned.

The date is important because a country's history

is considered to begin with the first dated
document recorded in it. This newly found
document pushes the "starting point" of
Philippine history all the way back to 900 A.D.,
621 years earlier than the previously accepted
date of 1521 when Antonio Pigafetta wrote his
observations during his voyage with Magellan.

Authenticity

The authenticity of the LCI was a prime concern

to all from the very beginning. Postma and the
Philippine National Museum were aware of the
many frauds that had been perpetrated on
Philippine historians in the past. Many of these
fraudulent historical documents have
unfortunately gotten into Philippine history
textbooks which are still being used today.

The most famous of these frauds is the Code of

Kalantiaw that every Filipino schoolboy knows.
The supposed text of the code was contained in
the Pavón manuscript, one of the many
fraudulent documents passed on to the Philippine
National Museum over many decades by Jose E.
Marco, a known philatelic forger. Damage caused
by frauds like this is immeasurable.

More than a quarter century after the fraud was

exposed in 1965, the average Filipino still believes
that the Code of Kalantiaw was real. This is not so
much a reflection on the average Filipino's
interest in history as it is on the Philippine
government's failure to educate the public. As a
matter of fact, President Marcos was still
inducting "deserving" justices into his Order of
Kalantiaw in the 1970's. (This was, perhaps, a
fitting way for History to get back at those who
wanted to rewrite it.)

Postma was acutely aware of what yet another

phony document would do to the community of
Philippine historians. He sought and got advice
from Dutch and Indonesian experts on the LCI's
authenticity. The experts concluded that the
specific script style used in the LCI was
consistent with its indicated date, and that the
correctness of the languages and words used
would have been very hard for a forger to have
contrived.

Although there were some differences between

the LCI and the copperplates found in Indonesia,
they were for legitimate reasons and their
consensus was that the LCI was authentic.

The text on Indonesian copperplates of the same

era was mostly in Old Javanese and, as was
customary at that time, mention the name of King
Balitung (899-910 A.D.). Unlike its Indonesian
cousins, the language of the LCI was not Old
Javanese. That the LCI did not mention the king's
name was another clue that the LCI did not come
from Indonesia.

However, the biggest difference was in the way

the copperplate was inscribed. Indonesian
copperplates were prepared by heating them until
they became soft. Then a stylus was used to
impress the letters on the soft metal, creating
smooth and continuous strokes. The Philippine
copperplate, on the other hand, was inscribed by
hammering the letters onto the metal using a
sharp instrument. The letters show closely joined
and overlapping dots from the hammering.

Philippine connection

It was left for Postma to establish the LCI's

Philippine connection. When he first saw the LCI,
he thought it may originally have come from
Indonesia but made to appear like it was found to
the Philippines so that it could be sold as a
valuable antique. The text of the LCI convinced
him of its Philippine provenance.

The LCI was an official document issued to clear

a person by the name of Namwaran, his family,
and all their descendants of a debt he had
incurred. In the old Philippines, an unpaid debt
usually resulted in slavery not only for the person
concerned but also for his family and his
descendants. The amount of debt was 1 kati and
8 suwarnas of gold (865 g. or about $12,000 at
today's prices), an unusually large amount.

The pardon was issued by the chief of Tundun,

who was of higher rank than the other chiefs who
witnessed the document and whose names and
respective areas of jurisdiction are listed. 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.

Placenames mentioned in the LCI

Placenames

The placenames mentioned prove the Philippine

connection of the LCI. The names are still
recognizable today although almost eleven
centuries have passed since the document was
issued. The placenames are Pailah (Paila),
Tundun (Tundo), Puliran (Pulilan), Binwangan
(Binwangan), Dewata (Diwata), and Medang
(Medang).

The first four places are near Manila but Dewata

and Medang pose a problem. They could have
been personal names but more likely "Dewata"
was Diwata, a town near Butuan, and "Medang,"
Medang in Old Java or Sumatra. Both these
places must have been connected politically to
Tundun and the other settlements in 900 A.D.

Diwata is important because in addition to the

silver strip mentioned earlier, there are reportedly
some other artifacts with undeciphered ancient
inscriptions that have been found in the Butuan
area. Shamefully, like many other artifacts they
are in private hands and unavailable to scholars.

Since the LCI was found in Laguna de Ba'y,

Postma first thought that Pailah was Pila, Laguna
and Pulilan was the southeastern area of the lake
because that was what the place was called in
the old days. Pila was then a part of the area
known as Pulilan. However, he opted to take
Pulilan and Paila both along the Angat River in
Bulacan as better candidates because the
document clearly referred to two separate places,
not one inside a larger jurisdiction. A look at the
map would show that his choices are correct
since they are more conveniently connected to
each other by the usual river and coastal travel
routes than if he had picked the Laguna area.

Another possible connection to this Bulacan

riverine area is the village of Gatbuca that exists
today. Bukah, son of Namwaran, is mentioned in
the document. Gat was a title used for important
persons and has found its way into many
contemporary family names (e.g., Gatbonton,
Gatmaitan, Gatdula, etc.). It is possible that the
town was named for Bukah when he rose in
position later.

Significance
Just how significant is this incomplete document
that ends in midsentence and contains only ten
lines?

It means, as we have discussed earlier, that

the edge of history has been pushed back 621
years, giving the Philippines a documented
existence among the ancient kingdoms of
Southeast Asia like Shri-Vijaya (Sumatra),
Angkor (Kampuchea), Champa (Vietnam),
Madjapahit (Java), and others that existed
before the 10th Century.
Ancient Chinese records with placenames like
P'u-li-lu, which was thought to have been
Polilio (but didn't make sense), will have to be
reevaluated. Placenames mentioned in the
LCI will have to be given more importance
when evaluating ancient records that contain
similar sounding names.
From porcelain finds, Manila was thought to
have been settled as late as 1200. It now
appears that an earlier date was more likely.
Certainly, a search for other means of dating
Manila's first settlements is needed. A search
for artifacts in the places mentioned in the
LCI might also prove fruitful.
Earlier historians thought that the Philippines
was part of Shri-Vijaya or even Madjapahit.
Their theories have been largely discredited in
recent times. It is now time to reexamine the
possible connection.
Historians believe that the Muslims who ruled
Manila were the first to establish more
sophisticated forms of government in the
area. They also believe that the Muslims
started the trade with Borneo and other points
 south. It is possible that the Hindus were in
Manila before the Muslims.
The Tagalog script is so rudimentary that it
cannot even completely record the sounds of
its own language. Three centuries before the
Tagalog script's emergence, the Manila area
used a script so rich and sophisticated that
great empires were ruled through its use. How
did this happen? How could a less
sophisticated script have supplanted a better
one?

Many interesting scenarios can be created to

explain some of the above puzzles. During the era
of the LCI it was not uncommon for settlements
to disappear. They flourished for some time, even
for centuries, but things like natural catastrophes,
epidemics, emigration, pirate raids, war, etc. made
them disappear. It is also known that Muslim
culture pushed Hindu influence in Indonesia out
of most areas, leaving Bali as the only place
where Hindu culture has survived. Any one of
these things could have caused the early
settlements around Manila to disappear.

The disappearance of the earlier people who

settled around Manila may explain why the Kavi
script was lost and a lesser one introduced later.
But how did the placenames remain? If a few
people remained to maintain a continuity of their
settlements and placenames, how did they lose
their knowledge of the Malay language and the
Kavi script?

At this time, everything is conjecture. Many more

questions will be asked, answered, and refuted;
other questions will be asked again. Little by little,
we will know more about the Philippines as it was
before the Spaniards came, thanks to a little
piece of metal dredged from the sand.
A different version of this article appeared in the September 1994 issue of Filipinas Magazine.

More on the LCI

Download LCI graphic. 6.85" wide @ 300 dpi,

67K file.
Download map showing LCI placenames. 7"
wide @ 300 dpi, 41K file.
Transliteration of the LCI text. Check this out
if you understand the Library of Congress
romanization scheme for Devanagari as
applied to Southeast Asian scripts like Kavi.
Transcription of the LCI text. It does not use
special symbols or diacritics like the above
romanization. It is more readable because
you can read and pronounce it just like
English.
Postma translation. This is Antoon Postma's
December 1992 translation.
Santos translation. This is Hector Santos's
April 1995 translation.
Ask about Sulat sa Tansô if you are interested
in digging more into the mysteries of the LCI.
It is a newsletter devoted to ancient
Philippines.
Back to A Philippine Leaf, your introductory
page to ancient Philippines.
To cite:

Santos, Hector. "The Laguna Copperplate Inscription" in A Philippine Leaf at

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/lci/lci.htm. US, October 26, 1996.

Please send me your comments. I would love to hear from you.

Hector Santos <hectorsan@bibingka.com> Los Angeles
Last modified: Wednesday, July 28, 1999