The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is the earliest known written document

found in the Philippines. The plate was found in 1989 by a labourer near
the mouth of the Lumbang River in Barangay Wawa, Lumban, Laguna. The
inscription on the plate was first deciphered by Dutch anthropologist
Antoon Postma.
The discovery of the plate is cited as evidence of cultural links between the
Classical Tagalog people and the various contemporary Asian civilizations,
most notably the Javanese Medang Kingdom, the Srivijaya Empire, and the
Middle kingdoms of India.
Inscribed on it is year 822 of the Saka Era, the month of Waisaka, and the
fourth day of the waning moon, which corresponds to Monday, 21 April
900 CE in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.The writing system used is the
Kawi script, while the language is a variety of Old Malay, and contains
numerous loanwords from Sanskrit and a few non-Malay vocabulary
elements whose origin may be Old Javanese. Some contend it is between
Old Tagalog and Old Javanese. The document states that it releases its
bearers, the children of Namwaran, from a debt in gold amounting to 1 kati
and 8 suwarnas (865 grams).

Antoon Postma (28 March 1929 – 22 October 2016) was a Dutch

anthropologist who married into and lived among the Hanunuo, a Mangyan
sub-tribe in southeastern Mindoro, Philippines. He is best known for being
the first to decipher the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, and for
documenting the Hanun

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