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