What’s so special about Marinduque? The answers to that question may still remain a
mystery for us for a longer time. But we have to start somewhere to find the answers, right?
Our beloved Marinduque has been called and is known as the Heart of the Philippines and the Center of the Philippines.
Over the centuries history has taught us that it was one such island coveted by pirates of the sea;
the first Jesuit martyr was even killed here, beheaded by pirates on its waters; waters all around
this island hide under till now the biggest number of galleons and ships that sank during battles with many more caused by tumultuous tropical typhoons.
Man’s insatiable greed for gold has attracted global attention on Marinduque in recent memory with catastrophes instigated by humans on two of its major tributaries, including bays here and there once teeming with marine life.
Even its forests and mountains had been denuded, beginning with the
construction in the 16th century of galleons and almirantes in local astilleros.
Marinduque, isla del paraiso, pais tropical, nature-laden culture-island, where major battles were fought by Filipino soldiers, enough for the
American invaders to apply extreme measures to the extent that they confined our noble citizens in the first concentration camps ever introduced in the country. There they were terrorized into submission.
Eminent scholars maintain that this tropical island, where rare artifacts are unearthed, is a very special one out of the more than 7,641 islands in the archipelago. For them it holds the key to an understanding of the
country’s prehistoric past.
Exquisite precolonial gold pieces uncovered here were
determined to have been produced from the 10th through
the 13th centuries, and had been put on display during our time in the finest cities
of the world.
One of the country’s declared national cultural treasures known as the rare Marinduque Celadon Jar (Yuan), was found here after centuries of being hidden in a cave, proof that a great mystery transpired here during that era - the days of Genghis Khan. (Coincidentally, he died on August 18, 1227, his death anniversary today).
The Marinduque Celadon Jar (Yuan), National Cultural Treasure
What’s so special about Marinduque really? Nobody knows, we're still searching for answers.
Even the language spoken here by native residents has been identified as the root or among the roots from which our modern forms of speech in Wikang Filipino have sprung.
Ancient Kingdom of Marinduque
Was there a kingdom that existed here in ancient days? Ruled by a wise and worldly leader? One who even had that wherewithal to send envoys to faraway shores?
Chinese annals that could now be easily accessed suggest that this, our island paradise was in fact looked upon in those years as a separate country or
state that sent envoys on trade missions!
Painting by Carlos Francisco renamed 'Filipino Struggles in History" showing a Filipino Datu with lady interacting with Arab and Chinese traders.
Was there some kind of an upheaval or two perhaps, coupled with multiple foreign intrusions by vicious men into our territory for centuries that eventually wiped out that forgotten episode showing all the glory and grandeur of the civilization that was Marinduque?
We now seem only left behind with scattered underwater and terrestrial traces of those remnants of things past. But there must be other things we could find, yeah?
What do we know so far?
Marinduque possibly during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty could already have been known as Mao-li-wu (also Ho-mao-li).
Research studies on the identity of Mao-li-wu, were
generally ambiguous at one point. The respected historian William Henry Scott surmised that it
could either be Mindoro or Marinduque. Apparently there were details from
Chinese sources conclusively identifying Mao-li-wu as Marinduque that Scott had
apparently missed and will be revealed here.
The first appearance of the Philippines in Chinese records
was in 972, during the Song dynasty when Ma-i (long believed by historians to be
Mindoro chiefly due to Scott's writings but seriously contested now), was mentioned as part of the
‘jurisdiction’ of the “superintendent of maritime trade” in Guangzhou, Hangzhou
and Mingzhou.
In 982 traders from Ma-i brought goods for sale in Guangzhou
(Canton). Goods like aromatics, coral, pearls, sea-turtle leather, tortoise
shell, sapan wood, and others. The same products that traders from Mao-li-wu
would be exporting to China.
In those days visiting rulers of foreign states
were banqueted by the emperor. For the
Chinese, Mao-Li-Wu (or Ho-mao-li), was one country separate from the other
Philippine islands big or small. Other Philippine countries recorded to have sent envoys were Lu-sung (Luzon),
Pangasinan, Sulu, Maguindanao and one called Soli (unidentified).
A desciption of Mao-li-wu appears as Appendix II in Filipinos in China before 1500. Read:
Mao-li-wu is the country of Ho-mao-li. The land is small and the soil barren; the interior of the country is full of mountains, and beyond the mountains is the open sea. The sea is full of seafood of all kinds. The people also know farming. In the third year of Yung Lo (1405) the king of the country sent the Muslim Tao-nu-ma-kao as emissary to present his credentials; he came to court and made offerings of native products. This country is neighbor to Lu-sung, so he came in company with the Lu-sung representative. Afterwards, the land gradually became fertile, and those simple people also became cultivated, therefore seafarers have a saying, “If you want wealth, be sure to go to Mao-li-wu, because it’s an excellent land for so small a country.”
There are some Wang-chin-chiao-lao (Maguindanao) people who are pirates on the seas. They travel in boats using long oars with ends like gourds cut in half. On occasion, those using these bailers get in the water to row the boat, and its speed is doubled. Seen in the distance out on the sea, they are like a few vague dots, but all of a sudden, the robbers are at hand; then scattering or hiding is of no avail, and nobody escapes. Mao-li-wu suffered many destructive raids with great loss of life, so that it has now become poor and wretched. Merchant ships going there avoid it for fear of the robbers, and set their course for other islands.
Famous sights. Mount Lo-huang: the top is white stone.
Products. Brazilwood. “Seed flowers” (?).
Commerce. When this little country sees the Chinese people’s ships, they are delighted and would never think of mistreating them, so the conduct of trade is most peaceful. What the Chiao-lao who practice piracy want is for people to visit that land, and ships that go there to trade are treated well because they secretly plan to kill them by this strategy.
Envoys at court
How then are foreign envoys received at Court? Here’s one
account from Chou Li:
“When the envoys from the four quarters arrive, if they are
great guests then they are received ceremoniously; if they are small guests
then their presents are accepted and their statements are listened to” By small
guests is meant the official envoys sent by foreign countries.
Another account on how foreign envoys are received:
“In the T’ang when foreign envoys offered tribute, the
ceremonies for their banqueting and audience had four parts: Going out to meet
and greet them; preparing them for audience; receiving the foreign envoy’s
congratulatory memorials and presents; and the Emperor’s banquet for the envoys
of foreign countries…”
William Henry Scott wrote:
“On 17 October 1405, Luzon and Mao-li-wu presented tribute
together with envoys from Java. (Mao-li-wu, also called Ho-mao-li, was on
either Mindoro or Marinduque, and its representative was a Muslim called Taonu
Makaw).“
Now, that's where the good historian was undecided (Mindoro or Marinduque), so we are attempting here to settle the Mao-li-wu identification. (Not my first time to write about it but more proof has surfaced since then strengthening that Mao-li-wu was Marinduque indeed).
It will be recalled that the first systematic archaeological excavation of Marinduque caves was done in 1881 by a French explorer who looted and brought home to his country some 40 crates of burial jars, plates, ornaments and many more artifacts with no intent to return them to our country.
Then Chinese junks coming to Marinduque shores for trade were confirmed a few decades ago with the conduct of the first
underwater archaeology in the country between the Marinduque mainland and the island of Gaspar the biggest of the Tres Reyes Islands. From that wreck were retrieved porcelain plates, dishes, saucers and bowls that dated back to the Ming dynasty.
National Museum archaeologists later claimed that the stoneware jars with dragon designs unearthed in some Marinduque caves were similar to those retrieved from the wreck.
This at least provides the archaeological evidence that we were visited by the Chinese and leaving behind proof of their journeys to our island.
But it turns out that rulers from Philippine polities did not just wait for
foreign trade visits as formerly believed but took an active role in such trade missions by sending chieftains and kings to the Chinese court. This, “as a competitive strategy for
gaining favored trade status with the Chinese state”.
Explains Lee Junker: ”The Luzon polity was considered a significant enough political tributary and trade partner by the early-fifteenth century emperor Yung-lo (1403-1424) to warrant an official visit by a Chinese ambassador in 1405 during a tour of Southeast Asian maritime-trading states and chiefdoms (Chen 1966; Wu 1959).
"This official court recognition of Luzon’s favored trade
status instigated a new round of competitive foreign trade missions in the
early 15th century by Luzon and the polities known as Pangasinan and Mao-li-wu
or Ho-mao-li." (
Now there's that polity known as Mao-li-wu or Ho-mao-li. It's another curiosity that two names are used interchangeably in reference to Marinduque. So special this island.
"Ho-mao-li: 'is a small country in the sea... It is also called Mao-li-wu. When Chinese go to this country they dare not cheat or impose themselves. Its laws governing trade are extremely equitable, so the Chinese have a saying: "If you want to get rich, you must go to Mao-li-wu"
On the Ch’ing Tributary System, JK Fairbank and SY Teng,
1941, the authors listed the names of the countries that deployed tributary missions to the Chinese court, among them
The Philippines, through Liu-sung (Luzon) presented tributes in 1372, 1405, 1576, and Marinduque (Ho-mao-li) sent tribute with Java in 1405.
The number of tributary missions from the Chinese court from various Philippine polities from 1370-1420 is illustrated below. Note that the Philippine polities during that period were only a few, namely Sulu, Pangasinan, Luzon, Maguindanao, Mao-li-wu (Marinduque), and Soli (unidentified).
Were there other motivations for the chieftains or kings to send trade missions to China?
Lee Junker in The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms illustrated how items procured through maritime trade became "key symbols of social prestige and political power for the Philippine chiefly elite".
It turns out that only a handful of leaders from the Philippine archipelago ventured to do that in those years.
Now, what other evidence exists that Mao-li-wu was Marinduque?
In Scott was cited specific books that contain "true
facts" that “are available in careful studies" like JJL Duyvendak’s
“The true dates of the Chinese maritime expeditions in the early fifteenth
century,” T’’oung Pao, Vol. 34 (1939), and J. V. G. Mills’ Ma Huan/ Ying-yai
Sheng-lan: “The overall survey of the Ocean's shores ” 1433 (Cambridge 1970).
This has led us to the last-mentioned work by Ma Huan edited
by J.V.G. Mills where we find on the page titled "China in South Asia,
1433", the following entry that specifies the latitude and longitude of what's
described as:
“Sha t’ang ch’ien San Andres islands, 13 ̊34’N, 121 ̊ 50’E,
off the north-western extremity of Mao-li-wu, Marinduque island, in the
Philippine islands (Chang Hsieh, p 123)."
From the relevant page titled, China in south Asia 1433. Latitude and longitude coordinates are specifified.
The entry is quite specific, no ambiguity at all.
We then make use of Google Earth tools to scientifically
validate the specified latitude and longitude coordinates based on centuries
old data that predates Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
And voila! “The
overall survey of the Ocean's shores" 1433 by Ma Huan was quite accurate!
(See Google Earth screenshot below). It readily points indeed to the uninhabited Sha tang ch'ien, San
Andres island off the north-western extremity of Marinduque in the Philippine
islands!
Northern side of San Andres Island with rock shelters. Photo: Eli J Obligacion
Comes the question, how were those latitude and longitude coordinates arrived at by the ancient Chinese traders? Admittedly not being familiar with astronomy and compasses, I leave the more inquisitive to the editorial notes by JVG Mills which apparently explains them all under 'Astronomy' and 'Compass'. (Below).
