Paleographic Baybayin

Paleographic Baybayin

Bonifacio Comandante Jr PhD

Marble Hall, National Museum

November 22, 2012

Relive a part of history and antiquity to discover some old Filipino script writings engraved on stones, clay, metal and bamboo. Ancient Petroglyps showing the syllabary depicting Filipino traditions and spirituality. Clay inscriptions on how kudlits were used in the past as well as how the script related to the tradition of wine making and storage. Metal engravings that left imprints on our past association with other Austronesian speaking cultures. The 1934 Paris Bamboo Baybayin Inscriptions, part of the grand exhibition in France named “Philippines- Art of Exchange”, to run next year at the Musée du Quai Branly. A rare chance for people who doubted the Filipino script forms in these artifacts to take a second look and for Baybayin enthusiasts to celebrate more the epitome of what Filipino ancestors left for generations to come.

Power Word UHA

The pictures were lifted (and highlighted) from the 1590 Boxer Codex, the very first book about Filipinos (Pintados plates 23-24). You will find the Baybayin scripts u ha prominently marked at the legs, thigh, breasts, arms, hands and forehead. 

The word uha/panambitan means a prayer or supplication- listed in the 1613 Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala as follows: {SB 399 : llorar : panambitan pp : en copla a sus difunctos, nananambitan .3.ac. llorar ãsimemorando las cosas que con el difuncto es paso en vida, ypinananambitan .1.P. el que es llorado, sinong pinananambitan doon? A quien lloran alli? hovag cayong manambitandiyan, no lloreis ay [ahi].}

Baybayin script u ha may be seen at the Neolithic Angono Petro glyphs, Andres Bonifacio’s 1896 metal engraving in Bahay Nakpil (Manila) and healing materials (currently used by Lola Aning in her Tapal healing modality inscribed on Ikmo plant leaves (Luisiana, Laguna). Other healers use cloth and/or  paper in writing the ancient script for Tapal healing. 

According to literatures, tattooing in the Western world today has its origins in Polynesia through the discovery of tatau by eighteenth century explorers (but most of the Polynesian culture like pottery and rituals may have originated from the Philippines- Dizon 2009). The practice became popular among European sailors. As sailors travelled abroad and returned home with tattoos inscribed on their bodies, they began to show up in mainstream European and eventually North American culture.

© Comandante 2012 All Rights Reserved

Baybayin Tattoo Year 1590

The pictures were lifted (and highlighted) from the 1590 Boxer Codex, the very first book about Filipinos (Pintados plates 23-24). You will find the Baybayin scripts u ha prominently marked at the legs, thigh, breasts, arms, hands and forehead. 

The word uha/panambitan means a prayer or supplication- listed in the 1613 Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala as follows: {SB 399 : llorar : panambitan pp : en copla a sus difunctos, nananambitan .3.ac. llorar ãsimemorando las cosas que con el difuncto es paso en vida, ypinananambitan .1.P. el que es llorado, sinong pinananambitan doon? A quien lloran alli? hovag cayong manambitandiyan, no lloreis ay [ahi].}

Baybayin script u ha may be seen at the Neolithic Angono Petro glyphs, Andres Bonifacio’s 1896 metal engraving in Bahay Nakpil (Manila) and healing materials (currently used by Lola Aning in her Tapal healing modality inscribed on Ikmo plant leaves (Luisiana, Laguna). Other healers use cloth and/or  paper in writing the ancient script for Tapal healing. 

According to literatures, tattooing in the Western world today has its origins in Polynesia through the discovery of tatau by eighteenth century explorers (but most of the Polynesian culture like pottery and rituals may have originated from the Philippines- Dizon 2009). The practice became popular among European sailors. As sailors travelled abroad and returned home with tattoos inscribed on their bodies, they began to show up in mainstream European and eventually North American culture.

Oldest Baybayin Scripts on Clay Jar

People who say that the markings are just art designs should take a second look!

Extant and extinct Baybayin scripts (that may have been the precursor of geographical forms such as Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya, Bohol, Bicol, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Hinunoo, Buhid, Bangon and Tagbanua) have been found very recently to predate the birth of Christ. A lecture delivered by Comandante in UP Diliman Archaeological Studies Program presented the presence of Baybayin Scripts on the Manunggul Jar found in the same named cave that was carbon dated to 890-710 BC.

Manunggul Cave Palawan

The Tabon Cave complex, a series of about 200 caves, in Lipuun Point, Quezon, Palawan, bears witness to the earliest Philippine Paleographic Baybayin (on clay) found in the Manunggul Jar. While the Tabon man was dated to about 47,000 yrs old, the Manunggul Jar was found in the same named cave (within Tabon cave complex) dated to about 890-710 BC. (data from National Museum/Dr. Eusebio Dizon 2003).

The Tabon Cave, in fact, was populated by peoples earlier than Tabon Man, since stone tools were there again to prove this. The deepest soil deposit of the cave was dated to approximately 50,000 years old, and the youngest to about 10,000 years. This shows that the cave was used continuously for about 40,000 years by peoples that use the same kind of tools. The earliest carbon 14 date obtained for the Tabon Cave was about 30,000 years B.C. from charcoal sample, which among others suggest the earliest date for the use of fire in the Philippines. 

http://www2.baybayin360.org/

Ang Pamilangan Ng Pilipino by B. Comandante Jr.

Ang Pamilangan Ng Pilipino by Bonifacio Comandante Jr.- April 18, 2012