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.
http://www.bibingka.baybayin.com/dahon/lci/lci.htm

Antoon Postma's Translation

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

Antoon Postma, a Dutch national who has lived among the

Mangyans of Mindoro for most of his life, made the
breakthrough translation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription
in 1990. He has made three more since then, each one a little
different from the previous translation. The one presented here is
his latest, the one he presented at a conference in Amsterdam,
The Netherlands in December 1992.
He follows the traditional method used by Indonesian experts,
i.e., translating the text line by line.
Line 1:
Hail! In the Saka-year 822; the month of March-April;
according to the astronomer: the 4th day of the dark half of the
moon; on
Line 2:
Monday. At that time, Lady Angkatan together with her relative,
Bukah by name,
Line 3:
the child of His Honor Namwran, was given, as a special favor,
a document of full acquittal, by the Chief and Commander of
Tundun,
Line 4:
the former Leader of Pailah, Jayadewah. To the effect that His
Honor Namwran, through the Honorable Scribe
Line 5:
was totally cleared of a debt to the amount of 1 kati and 8
suwarna (weight of gold), in the presence of His Honor the
Leader of Puliran,
Line 6:
Kasumuran; His Honor the Leader of Pailah, namely: Ganasakti;
(and) His Honor the Leader
Line 7:
of Binwangan, namely: Bisruta. And (His Honor Namwran)
with his whole family, on orders by the Chief of Dewata,
Line 8:
representing the Chief of Mdang, because of his loyalty as a
subject (slave?) of the Chief, therefore all the descendants
Line 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
Line 10:
there is someone, whosoever, some time in the future, who will
state that the debt is not yet acquitted of His Honor...
http://www.bibingka.baybayin.com/dahon/lci/postmatr.htm
Hector Santos's Translation
by Hector Santos
© 1995-96 by Hector Santos
All rights reserved.

Since I first started studying this document in 1994, I have

developed some ideas that are different from those first reported
by Antoon Postma. Of course, my conclusions were only made
possible by his pioneering work, the initial breakthrough in our
understanding of the LCI.
Unlike traditional scholars, I divided the text into phrases, not
lines, as indicated by the stop marks, large dots used by the
ancients like our comma and period of today. (See LCI graphic.)
I tried to make each phrase a logical division of the structure,
able to stand apart from the others.
The three major differences from Postma's translation derive
from my following conclusions:
1. I believe that anakda dang hwan namwaran refers to both
Angkatan and Bukah, i.e. they are children of Namwaran.
The phrase lawan denganña sanak barngaran si bukah can
be literally translated as "together with her counterpart
relative named Bukah." If Angkatan were Namwaran's
wife, the important relationship would certainly have been
made clear in the document as is customary. In the
absence of such a mention, anak should be taken as a
plural (same form as singular) and therefore applies to
both Angkatan and Bukah.
2. I am convinced that ganashakti and bishruta are not
proper names as Postma believes. If they were, they
 would either be directly preceded by personal markers
such as si or pu, or by titles. Instead, they are preceded by
a verb which indicates that their literal meanings should
be used in the translation.
3. I think barjadi simply represents the verb "to be." Postma
struggled with this word in his early translations, switching
from "representing" to "represented by" and back again.
There are problems with "representing" that has
something to do with correct hierarchies of the officials.
Since we are not showing his early translations here, we
will not discuss it further. In his latest December 1992
translation, he gives inconsistent meanings to barjadi.
Literal Translation
We begin with a literal translation which attempts to maintain
the same word order while trying to make the English text still
readable.

Phrase 1:
Blessings, Shaka-related year 822, Waisakha month, by
astronomy.
Phrase 2:
Fourth day of dark half of the moon, Monday, there at that time
Lady Angkatan together with her relative named Bukah,
children of the honorable Namwaran are given a wish, a gift of
full clearance document by the chief, commander-in-chief at
Tundun, who is the honorable minister lord Pailah, Jayadewa.
Phrase 3:
By order, the honorable Namwaran through the scribe is cleared
and forgiven of his debt and his arrears of 1 kati and 8 suwarnas
in front of the honorable minister lord Puliran, Ka Sumuran.
Phrase 4:
The honorable minister lord Pailah is source of authority.
Phrase 5:
The honorable minister lord Binwangan, who is famous, looked
attentively at all his (Namwaran's) living relatives all gotten by
chief Dewata, who is chief Medang, on account of his devotion
as subject of the chief.
Phrase 6:
Yes, therefore all living descendants of the honorable
Namwaran are cleared, yes, of all debts of the honorable
Namwaran to the chief Dewata.
Phrase 7:
This, in case who will say in future day, sometime, there will
perhaps be a man who says not yet cleared is debt of the
honorable ...
Free Translation
This is easier to understand because it freely translates the
original text, making it more readable in English.

Phrase 1:
Greetings! Shaka year 822, month of Waisakha, according to the
stars.
Phrase 2:
On the fourth day of the waning moon, Monday, Lady Angkatan
and her brother Bukah, children of the Honorable Namwaran,
were given a gift of their wish, this document of full forgiveness
by the Commander-in-Chief of Tundun, represented by the
Honorable Lord Minister of Pailah, Jayadewa.
Phrase 3:
By this order through the scribe, the Honorable Namwaran is
cleared and forgiven of his debt and his arrears of 1 kati and 8
suwarnas as witnessed by the Honorable Lord Minister of
Puliran, Ka Sumuran.
Phrase 4:
The Honorable Lord Minister of Pailah was the source of
authority.
Phrase 5:
On account of Namwaran's devotion as a subject of the chief,
the Honorable Lord Minister of Binwangan, who is known in
many places, identified all of Namwaran's living relatives who
were taken by the Chief of Dewata, represented by the Chief of
Medang.
Phrase 6:
As a consequence, all living descendants of the Honorable
Namwaran are also cleared of all debts that the Honorable
Namwaran owed the Chief of Dewata.
Phrase 7:
This document is issued in case there is someone in the future
who will allege that the debt has not been cleared yet by the
Honorable
http://www.bibingka.baybayin.com/dahon/lci/santostr.htm
THE BEGINNING OF PHILIPPINE HISTORY:

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, The Beginning of Filipino History.

MONDAY, APRIL 21, 900 C.E.

THE LAGUNA COPPERPLATE INSCRIPTION

By Paul Morrow ©

NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS BASED ON EARLY RESEARCH INTO THE LCI. FOR UP-TO-
DATE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.BAYANGPINAGPALA.ORG

Very little of what we know about the Philippines before the Spanish invasion came from written
records. Aside from some documents in China that refer to the islands, there have only been a few
artefacts found in the Philippines that actually have writing on them.

There was a clay pot found in Calatagan, Batangas, a small strip of silver and an ivory seal, both found in
Butuan, Agusan del Norte, but until now, the writing on these objects has not been reliably deciphered.
There have also been several forged documents over the years that have been exposed as fakes. And
even though Filipinos were writing with their own baybayin script when the Spaniards arrived, no
baybayin documents have survived from before the Spanish era.

Photo of the inscription from the National Museum of the Philippines.

So, until recently, we have never had the chance to read the actual words and thoughts of an ancient
Filipino without the obscuring effects of foreign interpretations, centuries of unreliable hearsay and
even outright lies and fabrications. That is, until a document was found in 1989 that was written in a
much older and more complex writing system than the baybayin.

On that day in 1989, a man in the concrete business was dredging sand at the mouth of the Lumbang
River near Laguna de Ba’y when he uncovered a blackened roll of metal. Usually he would just throw
away such junk, as it tended to get jammed in his equipment, but when he unfurled the roll he saw that
it was a sheet of copper with strange writing on it, about the size of a magazine.

He offered the copper sheet to one of the antiques dealers in the area who bought it for next to nothing.
The dealer, in turn, tried to sell it for a profit but when he found no buyers, he eventually sold it to the
Philippine National Museum for just 2000 pesos.
Click here to see how Filipinos spoke in the year 900.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription

Click on the picture for a modern transcription

and see how Filipinos spoke in the year 900.

In 1990, Antoon Postma, a Dutch expert in ancient Philippine scripts and Mangyan writing, and a long-
time resident of the Philippines, translated the document that came to be known as the Laguna
Copperplate Inscription (LCI). When he saw that the writing looked similar to the ancient Indonesian
script called Kavi, and that the document bore a date from the ancient Sanskrit calendar, he enlisted the
help of fellow Dutchman, Dr. Johann de Casparis, whose area of expertise was ancient Indonesia.

Casparis confirmed that the script and the words used in the Laguna document were exactly the same as
those that were used on the island Java at the time stated in the document, which was the year 822, in
the old Hindu calendar or the year 900 C.E. (Common Era) on our calendar.

In 1996, a Filipino history buff in California, Hector Santos, precisely converted the Sanskrit date over to
our calendar by using astronomical software and some historical detective work. He determined that the
Sanskrit date written on the plate was exactly Monday, April 21, 900 C.E.

In spite of the similarities to Javanese documents, the copper plate had some peculiarities that led
scholars to believe that it was not from the island of Java. First: the LCI did not mention the king of Java
at that time, King Balitung. It was the custom at that time to always mention the name of the king in
official documents. Second: the language used in the document was not only Sanskrit. It was a mixture
of Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Old Malay and Old Tagalog. And third: the method of writing was different. At
that time in Java the characters were impressed into heated copper, but the characters on the Laguna
plate seemed to have been hammered into cold copper.
In his examination, Postma learned that the inscription was a pardon from the Chief of Tondo that
erased the debt of a man named Namwaran. His debt was one kati and eight suwarna, or about 926.4
grams of gold. Today in 2006, this is equal to about $18,600 Canadian.

The document mentioned a few towns that still exist today: Tundun, which is now Tondo in Metro
Manila and three towns in Bulakan; Pailah or Paila, Puliran or Pulilan, and Binwangan. A town in Agusan
del Norte on Mindanao called Dewata or Diwata also appears in the text. Diwata is near Butuan, which
has been a rich source of ancient artefacts. A place called Medang was mentioned, too, which is possibly
Medan in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, the name of Namwaran’s son was given as Bukah, a name that may
have some relation to the town of Gatbuka in Bulakan. Gat is a title similar to “Sir” for a knight.

Map of towns mentioned in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription

Places Mentioned in the L.C.I.

So, because of the places mentioned in the text and because of the plate’s differences to typical
Indonesian documents, it was Postma’s opinion that it was an inhabitant of the ancient Philippines who
made the LCI and that it was most likely not the work of a hoaxer.

As is often the case, though, this discovery has raised more questions than answers.

It is only one document but it seems to have revealed a widespread culture with Hindu influences in the
Philippines before the arrival of the Spaniards and even before the Muslims. Did ordinary Filipinos share
this culture or were the people mentioned in the document just members of a small ruling class of
foreigners? Was their culture pushed out of the islands when the Muslims arrived in the 12th or 13th
century?

Did Filipinos once speak Sanskrit or was it reserved for important documents written by an elite
minority? There are certainly some Sanskrit influences in Philippine languages but nobody was speaking
it by the time the Spaniards arrived.
And what happened to this Kavi style of writing? It was a far more advanced and accurate way to write
than the baybayin script that Filipinos were using 500 years later. Perhaps only that elite minority used it
and so it disappeared with them.

Whatever the answers, it hints at some exciting discoveries to come in the future.

Paul Morrow

The LCI in English

In 1994 Hector Santos asked me to write a Filipino translation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. I
wrote two. The first was based on his English translation. The second was based on his glossary, called
the LCI Dictionary, and on my own research. It closely followed the word order of the original document.
My latest translation (which can be seen in the Filipino version this article) changed the sentence
structure to make it more readable. Here is my rough English translation of that Filipino version.

Long Live! Year of Siyaka 822, month of Waisaka, according to astronomy. The fourth day of the waning
moon, Monday. On this occasion, Lady Angkatan, and her brother whose name is Buka, the children of
the Honourable Namwaran, were awarded a document of complete pardon from the Commander in
Chief of Tundun, represented by the Lord Minister of Pailah, Jayadewa.

By this order, through the scribe, the Honourable Namwaran has been forgiven of all and is released
from his debts and arrears of 1 katî and 8 suwarna before the Honourable Lord Minister of Puliran, Ka
Sumuran by the authority of the Lord Minister of Pailah.

Because of his faithful service as a subject of the Chief, the Honourable and widely renowned Lord
Minister of Binwangan recognized all the living relatives of Namwaran who were claimed by the Chief of
Dewata, represented by the Chief of Medang.

Yes, therefore the living descendants of the Honourable Namwaran are forgiven, indeed, of any and all
debts of the Honourable Namwaran to the Chief of Dewata.
This, in any case, shall declare to whomever henceforth that on some future day should there be a man
who claims that no release from the debt of the Honourable...

http://paulmorrow.ca/lcieng.htm