Ramon Guillermo
Former Visiting Research Fellow,
Dept. of Filipino and Philippine Literature
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
The recent sensational discovery of two stones inscribed in the
ancient Philippine baybayin script on Ticao island in the Visayas has
generated a flurry of questions and speculations among Philippine
scholars and in the popular imagination. A major Philippine
television station has even done a few segments on the discovery and is
currently putting together a more substantial documentary. These are the
first stones inscribed with the clearly identifiable baybayin script to
have ever been found in the Philippines. One of the stones is a
roughly triangular slab measuring approximately 57 cm long, 44 cm wide
and 11 cm thick weighing around 30 kilos. The smaller stone is
oblong in shape with dimensions of 20 x 18 cm and 6 cm thick. The larger
slab has writing on both sides. The inscription on one side has 56
symbols while its opposite face has 86. The smaller stone has writing
only on one side with a total of around 16 symbols. Some parts of
the inscription on the large tablet have been damaged and it is possible
that parts of the stone may have broken off on both the left and right
sides.
The baybayin is a type of alphasyllabary or abugida writing system which ultimately traces its provenance, like the majority of Southeast Asian scripts, to Southern India. The word “baybay” for its part means “to spell” though it could also refer to “seashore.” Each symbol in the script stands for a consonant combined with a vowel with a default value of “a.” Depending on the position of a diacritical mark called “kudlit” above or below the symbol, it can be followed by an “e” or an “o.” The Tagalog baybayin has a total of 17 symbols. The first European chroniclers who arrived in the Philippines such as Pedro Chirino and Antonio de Morga recorded the popular use of this script among the inhabitants of the archipelago. Indeed, one of the first books printed in the Philippines in Tagalog, the Doctrina Christiana (1593) was printed with a xylographic press in both roman and baybayin scripts. An attempt in 1620 by the Spanish friar, Francisco Lopez, to add a cross-shaped “virama” symbol, or vowel killer, in order to facilitate the writing of independent consonants and make the reading of the script easier did not prevent the roman alphabet from eventually gaining dominance. Very few fragments, letters and signatures written on paper have survived to the present day. Philippine nationalists and revolutionaries in the 19th century evinced a fascination with these early writings systems as proof of an advanced “pre-colonial” Philippine civilization. Today, the baybayin system does not have any widespread contemporary use. Children are exposed to it only in the most perfunctory manner in schools and do not actually learn it. Perhaps its main use today is as a type of ornamental font used by various government and non-government organizations or even as logos for commercial enterprises. As part of a “cultural revivalism” of sorts in the digital domain, a “baybayin community” has sprung up in the Internet where mainly the artistic and cultural value of baybayin is celebrated by means of fonts, tattoos and other paraphernalia of interest to young Filipinos living in various parts of the world in search of their roots. Only the Mangyan and Tagbanua ethnic minorities continue to use their baybayin-type scripts as part of their persistent though increasingly endangered writing traditions.
The baybayin is a type of alphasyllabary or abugida writing system which ultimately traces its provenance, like the majority of Southeast Asian scripts, to Southern India. The word “baybay” for its part means “to spell” though it could also refer to “seashore.” Each symbol in the script stands for a consonant combined with a vowel with a default value of “a.” Depending on the position of a diacritical mark called “kudlit” above or below the symbol, it can be followed by an “e” or an “o.” The Tagalog baybayin has a total of 17 symbols. The first European chroniclers who arrived in the Philippines such as Pedro Chirino and Antonio de Morga recorded the popular use of this script among the inhabitants of the archipelago. Indeed, one of the first books printed in the Philippines in Tagalog, the Doctrina Christiana (1593) was printed with a xylographic press in both roman and baybayin scripts. An attempt in 1620 by the Spanish friar, Francisco Lopez, to add a cross-shaped “virama” symbol, or vowel killer, in order to facilitate the writing of independent consonants and make the reading of the script easier did not prevent the roman alphabet from eventually gaining dominance. Very few fragments, letters and signatures written on paper have survived to the present day. Philippine nationalists and revolutionaries in the 19th century evinced a fascination with these early writings systems as proof of an advanced “pre-colonial” Philippine civilization. Today, the baybayin system does not have any widespread contemporary use. Children are exposed to it only in the most perfunctory manner in schools and do not actually learn it. Perhaps its main use today is as a type of ornamental font used by various government and non-government organizations or even as logos for commercial enterprises. As part of a “cultural revivalism” of sorts in the digital domain, a “baybayin community” has sprung up in the Internet where mainly the artistic and cultural value of baybayin is celebrated by means of fonts, tattoos and other paraphernalia of interest to young Filipinos living in various parts of the world in search of their roots. Only the Mangyan and Tagbanua ethnic minorities continue to use their baybayin-type scripts as part of their persistent though increasingly endangered writing traditions.
The two stones had actually been dug up by elementary students within
the grounds of the Rizal Elementary School located in the municipality
of Monreal on Ticao Island, Masbate more than 10 years ago (2000).
During the intervening period, the stones had just been placed near the
entrance of a classroom and used to wipe the mud off the slippers and
shoes of the students and teachers. It was only last April of this year
that the new principal, Virgie Espares Almodal, realized the value of
the stones for the community. She realized that these could be a source
of pride among students who could be taught by means of these that their
ancestors were not illiterates but possessed their own writings. Some
grade school students were immediately put to work cleaning the stones.
However, these untrained “restorers” unfortunately used a sharp metal
implement (allegedly a nail), to make the symbols “clearer.” Almodal
then had the stones exhibited on a specially built stand in front of the
school for a few weeks. It was only after some members of the community
had voiced concerns that the stones might be stolen were these taken
down and deposited in a safer place.
Prof. Francisco Datar, a native of nearby Magallanes, Sorsogon, was
then contacted by a relative on the island who thought he might be
interested in taking a look at the stones. Prof. Datar, who teaches
at the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines
at Diliman, Quezon City, made a preliminary survey and immediately
informed the Philippine National Museum about the find. He then quickly
formed the “UP Ticao, Masbate Anthropological Project Team” consisting
mainly of his colleagues Prof. Ricardo Nolasco (Dept. of Linguistics, UP
Diliman), Arnold Azurin (UP Archeological Studies Program), Ramon
Guillermo (Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, UP-Diliman)
and Myfel Joseph Paluga (Department of Social Sciences, UP-Mindanao).
Due to the problematic circumstances of discovery, it is only right that the scientific community should be guarded about issues of authenticity surrounding the inscribed stones. However, it is still too early to make any definitive statement about these questions in either a positive or negative direction. More detailed work still has to be done in order to clarify the various mysteries clouding the provenance of the stones and the nature of the actual inscriptions themselves. Very few artifacts have been discovered in the Philippines bearing evidence of the ancient scripts which were once said to have been widely used on the islands. Indeed, the lack of reliable information about another famous artifact with baybayin writing, the so-called Calatagan pot, which was discovered in 1961, has led to perennial and unresolved questions about its authenticity. Lingering doubts about the actual origin of the so-called Laguna Copperplate, dated 900 AD, in Sanskrit and Javanese language and written in the Kawi writing system but found in Laguna Province of Luzon island, continue to persist. A more recent discovery, this time excavated in situ in an archeological site in Intramuros, Manila, is another pot with an inscription on the shoulder which seems to be in yet another still unknown script. Other objects with short fragments of text have also been found but have never been read due to the lack of knowledge about their seemingly sui generis scripts. Due to the paucity of baybayin samples from the ancient past, the field of palaeography has never been as developed in the Philippines as it has been in Indonesia which possesses a much richer store of ancient inscriptions on copper, stone and other materials.
Fieldwork on Ticao island itself was conducted by the UP team a few weeks after Prof. Datar’s announcement of the discovery. Dozens of interviews were conducted among community members in order to cross-check and verify the accounts of the individuals directly involved in the discovery of the stones. Anthropological site mapping was done by Prof. Paluga of the vicinity where the stones were said to have been found in order to look for traces of where dwellings may have existed in the past.
Due to the problematic circumstances of discovery, it is only right that the scientific community should be guarded about issues of authenticity surrounding the inscribed stones. However, it is still too early to make any definitive statement about these questions in either a positive or negative direction. More detailed work still has to be done in order to clarify the various mysteries clouding the provenance of the stones and the nature of the actual inscriptions themselves. Very few artifacts have been discovered in the Philippines bearing evidence of the ancient scripts which were once said to have been widely used on the islands. Indeed, the lack of reliable information about another famous artifact with baybayin writing, the so-called Calatagan pot, which was discovered in 1961, has led to perennial and unresolved questions about its authenticity. Lingering doubts about the actual origin of the so-called Laguna Copperplate, dated 900 AD, in Sanskrit and Javanese language and written in the Kawi writing system but found in Laguna Province of Luzon island, continue to persist. A more recent discovery, this time excavated in situ in an archeological site in Intramuros, Manila, is another pot with an inscription on the shoulder which seems to be in yet another still unknown script. Other objects with short fragments of text have also been found but have never been read due to the lack of knowledge about their seemingly sui generis scripts. Due to the paucity of baybayin samples from the ancient past, the field of palaeography has never been as developed in the Philippines as it has been in Indonesia which possesses a much richer store of ancient inscriptions on copper, stone and other materials.
Fieldwork on Ticao island itself was conducted by the UP team a few weeks after Prof. Datar’s announcement of the discovery. Dozens of interviews were conducted among community members in order to cross-check and verify the accounts of the individuals directly involved in the discovery of the stones. Anthropological site mapping was done by Prof. Paluga of the vicinity where the stones were said to have been found in order to look for traces of where dwellings may have existed in the past.
Some characteristics of the inscriptions such as the seeming presence of spaces between words, the lack of vertical bars usually separating phrases and sentences in baybayin text, and the presence of diacritical marks with an outwardly similar appearance to the cross-shaped “virama” symbol introduced during the Spanish era, seem to belie a pre-colonial origin.
However, it might still be prudent to not immediately foreclose such a possibility until the inscriptions themselves can be read and the ambiguous symbols and diacritical marks given more or less certain individual values. Several anomalous features such as the apparent lack of diacritical marks on one side of the large tablet and perceptible divergences in character sets used in the inscriptions on the opposite faces of the large tablet raise even more questions. Were the two sides of the large stone slab inscribed by different persons at different times? Is the inscription on the smaller stone contemporaneous with those on the large tablet or is it from another place and time? 20th or even 20th century dates of provenance for the inscriptions might also not be out of the question.
Though there is as yet no complete proposed reading of the stones, some word-forms have been identified which strongly indicate that the stones may be written in a Visayan language with probable traces of the local Ticaonon language. Some word-forms which seem to surface in the text are apparent borrowings from Malay and Javanese such as “bahaya” (danger) which in modern Visayan is “baya.” Other possible word-forms are “batahala” and “balahala” which are names for an ancient Visayan deity which in its original Javanese form is “barahala” but is rendered today as “bathala” in modern Visayan. Other possible word-forms in Visayan and the local language seem to point to a ritual or religious usage of the stones.
If the style of the inscriptions and some lexical traits are taken at face value, questions might be raised as to how a variant of the baybayin system very similar to the Tagalog system, with apparent spacings between words and “virama” looking diacritical marks arrived on the island of Ticao, Masbate? Moreover, how is it possible that it should contain ostensibly archaic lexical items of a seemingly non-Christian derivation (if these are indeed valid readings)? A theory which might account for these questions is a possible connection to 18th century religious revivalisms and so-called “nativist revolts” in the Visayas. However, the anthropological and historical contextual frame of such a theory still has to be constructed, and this task must necessarily be accomplished around a plausible reading of the inscriptions that can overcome and explain their purported anomalous characteristics. Other promising research directions must also be identified and pursued in a collaborative and interdisciplinary manner.
However one cannot discount the possibility that the authenticity of the “Baybayin Stones” of Ticao may never be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. These may also turn out to be of a more recent origin than may be acceptable to those who wish for an earlier date in the distant past. Whatever may be the case, this discovery may jolt the Philippine scholarly community to give more attention to developing baybayin studies with greater historical and anthropological depth. These inscribed stones may also provide certain new and exciting perspectives on the study of Visayan history. Finally, it might provide a channel through which young people and schoolchildren might learn more about their own history and culture.
The UP Ticao-Masbate Anthropological Project Team, with some other invited speakers knowledgeable on the subject, discussed their preliminary results with a conference held on August 5-6, 2011 on the island itself. The other convenors of the conference are the Department of Education (Region 5), the Local Government of Monreal, Masbate, the Masbate Provincial Government, the National Museum and 170+ Talaytayan MLE Incorporated. Another conference will also be held in Manila in the coming months.
