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Lesson 5

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is the earliest known Philippine historical document, dating to 900 AD. It was discovered in 1989 in Lumbang, Laguna and is written in Kawi script. The inscription details a ruler from Dewata granting a family perpetual freedom from debt, as witnessed by rulers from Tundun and Pailah. It provides evidence of interactions between regions in the Philippines, Indonesia and India in the 10th century. Experts have verified its authenticity based on the script and language. Along with other artifacts, it pushes back the start of Philippine history prior to Spanish colonization.

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Janely Bucog
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© © All Rights Reserved
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37 views

Lesson 5

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is the earliest known Philippine historical document, dating to 900 AD. It was discovered in 1989 in Lumbang, Laguna and is written in Kawi script. The inscription details a ruler from Dewata granting a family perpetual freedom from debt, as witnessed by rulers from Tundun and Pailah. It provides evidence of interactions between regions in the Philippines, Indonesia and India in the 10th century. Experts have verified its authenticity based on the script and language. Along with other artifacts, it pushes back the start of Philippine history prior to Spanish colonization.

Uploaded by

Janely Bucog
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 21

C A R A G A STATe

Ampayon, Butuan City 8600, Philippines

U NIVeRSITy
URL: www.carsu.edu.ph

THE LAGUNA COPPERPLATE


INSCRIPTION
SULAT SA TANSO
A PHILIPPINE DOCUMENT FROM 900 A.D

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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historical document found locally.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.

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 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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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

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 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


Butuan silver strip 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

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