PRE-

COLONIA
1. Cultural Evolution
of the Early Filipinos
 1000 A.D- Sri vijayan merchants conducted
an extensive trade with China.
 12th century- they expanded their kingdom
in the philippines.
 Between 900 & 1200 A.D- Champan
established a trading colony with the
Baranuns of Sulu.
 Champan- an indianize kingdom in
Indochina.
 Orang Dampuans- men of champan, who
settled in tanguima (Basilan), and became
ancestors of the Yakans.
 Orang Bandjar- immigrants from
Bandjarmasin, borneo. Introduced
indian culture in sulu.
Indian influences:
 language

 literature
 customs

 religious belief- Bathala (filipino)

came from Bhattara (sanskrit)
meaning “Great Lord.”
 Filipino fables were linked to indian
literature. And also Filipino folk
literature.
 Baybayin/Alibata- a system of
syllabic writing. 3- vowels, 14-
consonants = 17 letters.
 writing system- horizontal from left
to right.
 sipol- instrument in writing
 kavi- old javanese writing system.
Found in laguna. It is a thin copper
 LCI- is a official record of debts.
 Before the coming of the Spaniards,
oral and written had flourished then.
 Customs and Traditions influenced by
Hindus are:
 mode of dressing were also influenced
by Hindus
 boat building, weaving of cotton
clothes, metal work and decorative arts
were also influenced by Hindus
 Dr. T.H Pardo de tavera- there are
more than 340 sanskrit words found in
tagalog language.
 Dr. Jose Villa Panganiban- gave a
longer list of sankrit loan word in
Filipino national language.
 982 A.D- Sino-Philippine relation
began.
 Ma-Tuan-Lin- a chinese chronicler.
 Wen Shiann Tung Kao
 Wang ta-yuan- describe P’i-she-ya
( presumably Visayas) as being
tattooed up to the neck.
 Admiral Zhenghe/ cheng ho-
china’s greatest maritime explorer.
Landed 62 ships in the Philippines in
december 1405
 china’ s influences:

Gunpowder, use of porcelain, gongs,

lead, silver etc.

 Social Customs:
 Arrangement of marriage by parents of
the boy and girl.
 honoring departed ancestors

 firecrackers in New Year’s Eve

 collection of “tong”- Percentage fee

Language:
1500 chinese loan words including the
present vocabulary word of Filipinos
like:
13th Century
• Japan have traded with the
Philippines based from the early
historical records in Ryukyu.
• Wakos sailed the Orient waters to
reach the Philippine archipelago.
• The Japanese taught our people in
manufacturing of arms and tools and
the tanning of deerskins.
• A trading post at Appari, Northern
Luzon in 1400s
14th
Century
• The Muslim traders from Malaysia
brought Islam to the Philippines and
southern parts of the Islands.
• Tuan Masha’ika brought Islamic faith
in Sulu and established the first Muslim
community in the archipelago.
• Karim ul Makhdum was mentioned in
the Tarsilas, noted as judge and
scholar from Mecca.
• After converting the sultan and the
people of Malacca, he went to Sulu for
missionary work.
• He built Mosque at Tubig-Indagan on
the Island of Simunul and won many
converts, particularly at Buansa.
• Rajah Baginda is a Muslim prince
Menangkabau, Sumatra, landed at
Buansa.
• He overpowered native resistance
because his warriors fought with
firearms, the first to be used in combat
on the Philippine soil.
• The stage of the makdhaumin, an era
of receptivity to Islam, resulted to
conversions to the Islamic faith with
the arrival of missionaries in Sulu, an
event of contemporaneous with the
work of other missionaries in Java,
Indonesia.
•In 1450A.D, Sharif ul-Hashim is an Arab
authority on Islamic religion and law arrived
in Buansa, Sulu from Johore, Malacca.
• He married Princess Paramisuli, a daughter
of Raja Baginda from Sumatra.
• He founded the Sulu sultanate in the same
year, after his father-in-law’s death.
•He organized Arabian caliphate and
promulgated the first Sulu of law.
• In the 16th century, more Muslims migrated
into the Philippines.
• Sharif Muhammad Kabungsuwan, a Johore
Muslim attributed the Islamic conquest of
Mindanao.
• Those who refused to accept the new faith
fled to the mountains.
•He also transformed the Muslim Tausugs
into a powerful army.
• He unified the coastal and the hill dwellers
of Sulu.
• Qur’an was also adapted.
• Before Magellan’s arrival in 1521,
Muslim traders from Borneo
disseminated the teachings of Islam in
Mindoro, Batangas, Pampanga and
Manila.
• Siat Sean introduced Islam in Balayan,
Batangas.
•Alawe Balpake, an Arab Sharif from
Sharawak, Borneo last recorded Muslim
missionary to bring Islamic faith.
• The spread Islam occurred in two
waves.
• The first was the expansion of Islam
out of the Arabia to the Middle East,
North Africa, Spain, Central Asia and the
latter parts of Eastern Europe.
• The second wave brought Islam
towards Sub-Saharan Africa and
Southeast Asia, thus the introduction of
Islam in the Philippines is part of the
second wave.
• Islam is monotheism or in the
belief of a single God, teaches that
Muhammad was the last and most
important in a series of prophets.
• Furthermore, it advocates that all
Muslims belong to one community,
the umma, regardless of ethnic
background.
• There are five pillars of Islam.
1. The profession of faith or shahada:
“There is no God but Allah, and
Muhammad is the Messenger of
God.” a prerequisite for membership
in the Muslim community.
• There are five pillars of Islam.
2. The ritual prayer or salat wherein
the adult Muslim has to implore the
Almight five times a day facing
Mecca.(before daybreak, at
noontime, in mid-afternoon, at
sunset, and any time after sunset,
before sleeping precede by ritual
cleaning.)
• There are five pillars of Islam.
3. The almsgiving or zakat which is
the obligatory giving of one fortieth of
one’s income to the needy or religious
cause to purify one’s wealth and attain
salvation
• There are five pillars of Islam.
4. The Pilgrimage to Mecca to Mecca or
hajj which is a mandatory once-in-a-
lifetime trip to the House of God or the
Kaaba where the title hadji shall be
given to a Muslim who has performed
this pilgrimage.
• There are five pillars of Islam.
5. Fasting or sawn which is done
during the lunar month of Ramadan or
the ninth month of the Arabic calendar.
• Ramadan commemorates the Holy
Qur’an’s revelation to Prophet
Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassalam.
• During fasting, all Muslims must refrain
form eating, drinking and sexual
intercourse from daybreak to sunset.
• Exemptions for the sick, travelers, and
menstruating women can skip fasting but
have to make up the days they skipped
at a later date.
• Eid ul-Fitr or the festival
ofBreaking the Fast s being
celebrated after the sighting of
the crescent moon at the end of
Ramadan.
• Jihad which means “to struggle” or
“to exhaust one’s effort” is
considered as sixth pillar of Islam by
some Muslims in order to please
God.
• It also refers to living virtuous life,
helping other Muslims and preaching
Islam.
• Islam influenced and had a lasting
impression on the life and culture of
Muslim Filipinos, which include the
Maranaos of Lanao, Maguindanaos
of Cotobato, Samals of Zamboanga,
Yakans of Basilan, and Tausugs of
Sulu.
• Friday is a holy day for Muslims.
• The Mosque is their special place of
worship and point of convergence for
social activity.
• The muezzin calls the faithful to public
prayer.
• Those who responded should remove
their footwear before entering the
mosque and aligned themselves in rows
and offered prayers in the direction of
Mecca.
• An imam leads the recitation in Arabic
verses from the Qur’an.
• Abu Bakr established his dynasty’s
legitimacy by claiming to be a
descendant of the Prophet
Muhammad.
• The Islamization of a number of Filipinos
led to introduction of Arabic alphabet,
Islamic Holidays, and the Arabic arts.
• Singkil originated from Lanao Del Sur.
• Okir or Okkil design is used by
Maranaos which is a curvilinear floral
design.
• Sarimanok, the indigenous bird motif, is
also said to have been developed my
Maranaos.
• The Filipino people culturally
evolved because they were able to
exchange their thoughts with others
through communication.
• The transmission of ideas and skills
was made possible through
interaction since the early Filipinos
no longer lived in complete isolation.
2. Traditional Filipino
Communities
• Early Filipino settlements varied in
population size.
• They can classified by thousands of
people while others were small,
composed only a few scattered family
members.
• Barangay is the unit of social
organization with broader political,
economic and religious features than
the family.
• Barangay is headed by the native
chieftain called datu or rajah.
• Consolidation of barangays was
formed through marriages and blood
compact, locally known as sandugu.
•Sandugu signifies that the partakers of
such rite become blood brothers,
presumably because the same blood
now flowed in their veins.
• They drew blood from their arms and
mixed it with wine, which they shared
and drank at the same time, as viewed
by witnesses.
• The social stratification system of
pre-colonial Filipino community
organization based on wealth,
political influence, and social
privileges enjoyed.
• Datu class or the ruling class,
maharlika or the aristocracy,
timagua or the common class and
alipin or dependent class.
• Datus or rajah ruled the barangay.
•Barangay came from the word
balangay , which means “boat”.
• Fr. Juan de Plasencia speculated the
role of the datu arose from the captain
of a boat migrating to the Philippines.
• Miguel de Loarca, in his Relacion de
Las Islas Filipinas (1582) said the datus
who live in the same town obey the
wealthiest among them.
• Antonio de Morga mentioned that only
the best warriors were obeyed in his
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.
• Boxer Codex mentioned that only
men were qualified for the title and
it depends upon the faithfulness of
his followers.
• Datu exercised legislative powers
and judicial powers.
• If datus would received the
agricultural producrs, he shares his
harvest as tribute from aristocracy
or the maharlika.
• Maharlikas were believed to be
the descendants of mixed
TIMAW
A
•enjoyed their rights to a portion of the
barangay land

•normal obligation: agricultural labor

•they were also called to catch fish, to

accompany expeditions or paddle boats

•they are also called for irregular services

like supporting feasts and building houses
Timawa
 ALIPIN
• Man indebted to another
• Its creditor could have been a datu, maharlika, timawa
or alipin
• A person may be born alipin, for that reason he was
called gintubo (he inherits the debt of his parents)
 
•2 kinds of alipin:
a) aliping namamahay (householder)
- alipin with land rights and he owned a house
-)he came at his master’s call to work on the fields & do
services

 b) aliping sagigilid

-gilid is the part of the house where the stove is
- were members of the master’s household who ate from
•Barangay had both oral and written laws
•Oral laws: were their customs (ugali), which had
been handed down from generation to generation
•Written laws: were promulgated by datus with
the help of the council of elders

•Cabanalan- righteousness
Banal- upright person

•After death, the soul would travel to another

world to receive due reward or punishment
•Good soul - kalwalhatian (state of bliss):
Tagalogs
- ologan: Visayans
•Bad soul - kasamaan: Tagalogs
- solad: Visayans
• Early Filipinos contacts with other Asian brought
in the belief system like the anito concept to
honor ancestors

•The Visayans called their ancestor spirits

umalagad (follower) and the notion that dwell in
nature diwata (spirits)

• The abstract idea of religion was concretely

shown in sculptured object known as licha
(larawan)

•Bul-ul was a carved anito figures, signifying

spirits & granary gods
•There are over 1, 500 gods in the Ifugao by
which sacrificial offerings were made

•Matung-ngulan- takes care of the welfare of

animals
•Pil-le-looks over the poverty
•Minnanhu- regulates welfare
•Bul-ul- guard the harvest from pest and thieves.
It is brought to share the bounty of the harvest &
to consume the non-material essence of the
sacrificial rice, chickens & pigs

•Tatooing
-It is done as a thanksgiving offering to the gods.
-It is also done to acquire protective powers from
•Tatoos were also part of the body ornaments of
the Pre- Hispanic Filipino men and women. There
were also regarded as war medals

•Minor gods & idols:

•Lakambini- god of the throat
•Bibit- god for the good health
•Lakambacod- guard of crops
•Lakapati- god of fields & had a half-woman and
half-man figure
•Major gods:
•Bathala/ Abba- supreme god of the Tagalogs.
He was said to inhabit a faraway realm of eternal
space known as kalwalhatian
•Lumawig- creator & preserver of life (Kankanays
of the Central Cordillera)
•Kabunian- highest of all their deities, dwells in
the 5th region of the universe

•Medium were called upon to communicate with

spirits who often resorted to divination to
ascertain the will of gods.
•Rituals and ceremonies:

•Patipat (tagitag) was an Ifugao ritual performed

by the menfolk of the community to drive away
bad spirits
•Baki- work service, which starts at the crack of
dawn. It was headed by the mumbaki (native
priest)
•The participants, with their bodies adorned with
leaves of the red Ti plant (dongla), beat their
wooden planks bangibang (painted w/ chicken
blood) from the terraces to the river and to their
homes

•Paniwata- frequently celebrated for

•The religous rituals were performed by mediums
& healers, which the Tagalogs called catalonan,
while the Visayans termed as babaylan/ baylan
•Mankokolam -a lower rank in the priestly caste,
which people feared because it was believed to
have a power inflict diseases

•Feasts:
•Pandot- a feast observed at night under balete
tree
•Maganito- a month-long celebration
- The prettiest girl was 1st asked to stab
offering (live pig) and the meat of the dead hog
was served
•Wine making-an age-old enterprise in many
provinces

•Wines
a. Tuba- made from the sap of coconut or nipa
palms
b. Basi- an Ilocano wine madefrom sugar cane
juice
c. Pangasi- a Visayan wine made from rice
d. Lambanog- a Tagalog wine produced by
distallation of tuba
e. Tapuy- an Igorot wine made from rice
•The early Filipinos taught their children how to endure
life’s challenges
•Father: hunting, fishing, timber cutting, boat making,
mining & agriculture
•Mother: cooking, gardening & sewing

•Bothoan- a barangay school in ancient Panay, under the

charge of an old man, acting as the teacher
•Subjects: reading, writing, arithmetic, handling of
weapons & acquring amulets (kinaadman)

• From Negritos and similar suboriginal people in the

mountains of Luzon, Panay, and other islands came
indigenous dances & music made by primitive jaw harps/
bamboos, flutes of the mountain cane & bamboo violin w/
abaca string
•Bamboo jaw harps of:
•Kalingas- olibaw
•Tagalogs- barimbaw
•Mindanao- kubing

•Musical Instruments:
a. Kudyapi- Tagalog guitars
b. Kalaleng- Tinggian nose flute
c. Babandil- Maguindanaoan gong
d. Kulintang- Muslim Xylophone
e. Tultogan- Visayan bamboo drum
f. Silbay- Ilocano reed flute
g. Suracan- Subanun cymbal
h. Tambuli- trumphet made from carabao horn
i. Bungkaka- bamboo buzzer played by striking the split
ends against one’s palm
•Ancient songs exhibited varied emotions, with
themes about thanksgiving, birth, death, love,
war, labor, religion, victory

•Songs:
a. Tagumpay- Tagalog song of victory
b. Ayeg-klu- Igorot serenade song
c. Bactal- Tagbanua death song
d. Tudob- Agusan harvest song
•Ethnic dances, which had been part of every
tribe and culture, reflected the sentiments and
artistry of the populace

•Dances:
a. Mahinhin- Tagalog courtship dance
b. Dandansoy- Visayan tuba dance
c. Sua-Sua- Sulu courtship dance
d. Paunjalay- Muslim wedding dance

•. Dances of the highlanders were more

energetic, in contrast to lowlanders that
weregenerally slow and tender
•Theater originated with the early communities
through ritual practitioners in their dance-dramas
to appease supernatural powers that were
believed to control natural forces, to ensure good
harvest and success in hunting & battles

•Kali, later called arnis

-was popular all over the islands
- It is a method of self-defense with instruments
made by rattan canes or betel nut tree trunks
- It requires basic skills for parrying, offense and
defense
•Talaro- a kind of balance with scales , for weighing
things

•Measurement for capacity:

a. Kaban- 25 gantas
b. Salop- 1 ganta
c. Kaguitna- ½ ganta
d. Gatang- 1 chupa

•. Length & width measurement

a. Dipa- length of the outstretched arms
b. Tumuro- length bet. the tip of the thumb & that of the
forefinger when extended
c. Sandamak – width of the hand with 5 fingers pressed
together
d. Sandali- width of one finger
•They also knew the art of coinage & had gold ised as
medium of exchange
•Modern numismatists call these ancient gold coins
piloncitos (little cones)
•Shells & Bronze gongs were also used as money in
exchange of other goods
•Basket was a functional household/ agricultural container
(mountain people of Cordillera)
•Light bushel was essential in carrying clothes vegetables
esp. in rugged terrain
•Tampipi- baskets for storing valuables & their clothes
(Ilocanos)
•Hanunuo of Mindoro- embellished baskets to hold betel
nut chewing ingredients, beads or money
•Mat-making was also popular in the islands

•The early natives also knew mathematics.

•They could count up to 100, 000, 000 (bahala) & could
add, subtract, multiply and divide
•Numerical terms: isa(one), puo(ten), daan(hundred),
libo(thousand), yata(one hundred thousand), angao(one
million), kati(ten million), bahala(one hundred million)

•The Ifugaos devised a calendar which contains 13 month

a year, each month having 28 days
• Tumunoh –a tribal calendar recorder, who kept 13
strings representing the 13 months of the year
•Clothes that they wear:
•Men wore collarless, short-sleeved coat called kangan
and a strip of cloth called bahag, wrapped around the
waist and between the legs
•They wore putong, a piece of cloth worn around the
head
•They wore jewels such as gold necklaces, gold armlets
called kalombigas
•The women’s upper garmet was a wide-sleeved blouse
called baro
•Their skirt was called patadyong/ saya with a strip of
cloth over it called tapis

•One personal garb in the islands was the salakot(native

hat) worn as protection from heat or sudden rain

•Generally made of anahaw ( a forest palm), the salakot

was widely used Central Luzon and the Visayas
•Ilonggots used leather (from animals they hunt) in
making shallow hats, while neighboring Bontoks used
coiled rattan
•Ifugaos wore perfectly fitted carved bowl-like hats, while
the Maranaos & Bagobos (Davao) made wooden hats
as shields for combat

•Bahay Kubo –house made of wood and bamboo, roofed

by nipa palm leaves
•Yantok (rattan), cogon grass, stone, & clay

•Parts of the BAHAY KUBO:

•Silong- space beneath the house
•Hagdan (ladder)- used to enter the nipa hut
•Tinilad na kawayan (bamboo slats)- served as the floor
of the house wre set slightly apart to induce ventilation
•Tukod (mast)- window of the house
•Parts of the BAHAY KUBO:
•Bulwagan- principal space in the bahay kubo, 10 square
meters, use for receiving guests, dining & sleeping
•Dulang- a low tables for meals
•Papag- a built-in seat
•Silid (room)- served as a dressing room & closet for
clothes, pillows and mats
•Batalan- an open porch, unroofed platform, where water
jars are placed
•Kalan (stove) or tungkong kalan (three stones) - where
cooking was done in an open hearth or clay

•The seafaring Samal built their houses over the water,

along the seashore
•The Badjao lived in houseboats
•The Bagobos of Davao del Sur & Kalinga of the
Mountain Province built houses on trees for protection
from enemies and wild animals on the ground
•THE END 