Subject: timawa warrior
Culture: Visayan
Setting: Visayas 16thc
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p40
"Tienen de ordinario entre si los bisayas muchas guerras y diferencias, mayormente antes que viniesen españoles a su tierra, que apenas había pueblo que tuviese paz con sus vecinos, matándose y robándose unos sa otros con mucha crueldad, haciéndose mil traiciones, que de esto son grandes maestros, tomándose unos a otros por esclavos, no guardando la palabra que daban y prometían."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p41
"Ordinarily among the Bisayans there were many wars and major differences before the arrival of the Spaniards in their land. There were hardly any towns, nor peaceful relations with their neighbors, as they were often engaged in killing and robbing one another with much cruelty, committing a thousand betrayals. In this they were great masters, enslaving one another, and not keeping their word or promises."
* Sinaunang Panahon 2025-04-24 online
"Life in the pre-colonial Philippines was characterized by intricate networks of kinship, trade, and, frequently, conflict. Warfare was endemic, driven by various factors: resource competition, alliance building, vengeance, and the acquisition of captives (Alipin, or slaves/dependents) who provided labor and enhanced a Datu’s prestige. Raids (pangangayaw or mangangayaw), particularly naval raids, were a common feature, especially among coastal groups like the Visayan warriors. These weren’t necessarily aimed at conquest and occupation in the modern sense but often focused on seizing goods, capturing people, and demonstrating martial strength. Alliances were fluid, shifting based on strategic advantage and personal relationships between leaders. Weapons were essential tools in navigating these complex inter-community dynamics, serving as instruments of power projection, defense, and negotiation."
* Selected readings from the works of Jose Maria Sison 2021 p6-7 (writing in 1969 October)
"Before the coming of the Spanish colonialists, the people of the Philippine archipelago had already attained a semi-communal and semi-slave social system in many parts and also a feudal system in certain parts ....
"The barangay was the typical community in the whole archipelago. It was the basic political and economic unit independent of similar others. Each embraced a few hundreds of people and a small territory. Each was headed by a chieftain called the rajah or datu.
"The social structure comprised a petty nobility, the ruling class which had started to accumulate land that it owned privately or administered in the name of the clan or community: an intermediate class of freemen called the maharlikas who had enough land for their livelihood or who rendered special service to the rulers and who did not have to work in the fields; and the ruled classes that included the timawas, the serfs who shared the crops with the petty nobility, and also the slaves and non-slaves who worked without having any definite share in the harvest."
* Scott 1994 p131-132
"Spanish dictionaries always define timawa as freemen (libres) or freedmen (libertos). They were originally the offspring of descendant's of a datu's commoner wives or slave concubines, and they were technically free because their progenitor had granted it. But slaves could also be freed (matitimawa), so Loarca, in describing this social class, found it necessary to call them 'true' or 'recognized' timawa. All persons liberated by their own master were called ginoo, and might be chided, 'Dika magpadayaw, kay akun ka ginoo [Don't put on airs, I'm the one who made you ginoo]'. In English, 'freedmen' has little meaning today: in modern societies, all citizens are free. But when Isla referred to timawa as 'citizens,' he meant a privileged class, not ordinary people. In sixteenth-century Spain, citizens (ciudadanos) were the nonslave residents of chartered cities (ciudades) who enjoyed its special laws and exemptions. They were not peasants, peons, serfs, tenants, or farmhands -- all of whom would have been called oripun in the Visayas.
"Timawa paid tribute called buhis or handug and, in theory at least, were free to transfer their allegiance to some other datu. But those attached to their lord as personal vassals paid no tribute and rendered no agricultural labor: thus the Boxer Codex called them 'knights and hidalgos.' They won their tattoos beside him in battle, rowed and manned his warship, received his favors, and shared in the public accolade for his victories. Their datu was obligated to defend or avenge them at the risk of his own person if need be, and to share booty and captives with them. They attended his feasts as retainers and familiars, acting as his wine tasters, and were sometimes honored by receiving a cup from his own hand from which he had already taken a sip. They were sent as his emissaries to open marriage negotiations for his sons, and at the time of his death, acted as bailiffs to enforce his mourning tabus, and three of the most renowned among them would accompany his grieving womenfolk on a ritual voyage in which they boasted of their personal conquests and bravery.
"Timawa were therefore men of consequence in the community. But they were not often men of substance: if they were wealthy enough to behave like a datu, they were belittled as timindok, a big banana. They had no right to booty beyond what their datu gave them, and they were held accountable for wounding or killing any captives. Though they could lend and borrow money, enter business partnerships, and acquire slaves of their own, their children inherited only at their datu's pleasure. As Loarca said when speaking of weddings, 'the timaguas do not performs there ceremonies because they have no estate.' This right to restrict timawa -- or oripun -- inheritance enabled a datu to reward and indebt his favorites, and leave others under threat of the sort of economic reversal which set downward social mobility in motion." [references omitted]
* History Rise 2024-01-24 online
"In the Visayas, the ... warrior class was called Timawa. The timawa were the feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the uripon (commoners, serfs, and slaves) but below the tumao (royal nobility) in the Visayan social hierarchy. The Visayan timawa had slightly different rights and obligations than the Tagalog maharlika, though both served similar military functions.
"Like the Tagalog maharlika class, the timawa were primarily a feudal warrior class, required to provide military service to the datu in hunts, raids, wars, and defense. However, the Visayan Timawa neither paid tribute nor performed agricultural labor. In this sense, they were truly aristocrats. This gave them a somewhat higher status than their Tagalog counterparts."
* Junker 1999 p124
"The nonchiefly elite, referred to as timawas and hidalgos (Sp. 'knights') in the Boxer manuscript (1590), nobleza (Sp. 'the third rank of nobility') by Alcina (1688), maharlika ('great, noble') by Plasencia (1589), and maginoo ('noble in lineage or parentage') by San Buenaventura (1613), occupied with the datu this upper tier in the social hierarchy. This nobility was generally composed of those sharing the chief's high-status genealogy, such as his brothers, cousins, and affines, although others with more remote kin ties, fictive kin relations, specialized skills, or exceptional ambition could rise to serve as 'personal vassals' of the datu. They aided him in military campaigns (including outfitting themselves with weapons at their own expense, navigating boats for maritime raids, and participating in raiding activities), they organized and attended datu-sponsored feasts (including ensuring against treachery by the hosts or guests through wine tasting), they participated in maritime trade expeditions sponsored by the datu, they arranged for the chief's 'ransom' if her were taken captive in warfare, and they enforced the funeral taboos at the chief's death. In return for this support, members of the elite rank shared in the material wealth (including slaves) obtained in datu-sponsored raiding and trading, in the public esteem accorded to successful warriors, and in the chief's obligations to protect them and their families from harm both within and outside the datu's district of control." [references omitted]
* Junker 1999 p126-127
"The nonchiefly elite in the Visayas, termed 'timawa' by Loarca (1582), by Morga (1609), and in the sixteenth-century Boxer manuscript (1590) and as the 'third rank of nobility' by Alcina (1688...) were likely the offspring or descendants of a datu's secondary wives. Their position in social status hierarchies is described by Morga. 'What the chiefs received from their followers was to be held by them in great veneration and respect. ... The descendants of such chiefs, and their relatives, even though they did not inherit the lordship, were held in the same respect and consideration. Such were all regarded as nobles, and as persons exempt from the services rendered by the others, or the plebians, who were called 'timaguas.' The same right of nobility and chieftainship was preserved for the women, just as for the men.' As summarized by Scott, the timawa served as personal vassals to the datus, with their most important role as warriors who accompanied the datu into battle, although they were also the primary contributors to chiefly feasts, they assisted in chiefly marriage negotiations and death rites, and they generally accrued significant ritual potency, political power, and wealth through their association with the chief. Like the Tagalog maginoo and maharlika, they were largely exempt from the agricultural duties and other tribute-producing activities of the commoner and slave classes. However, unlike the Tagalog-speaking chiefdoms of the northern Philippines, the position of timawa as 'men of consequence' in the community did not generally translate into independently inheritable wealth and status. While these warrior elites could acquire slaves and amass considerable material wealth through trading and raiding activities, their children's inheritance of these status accoutrements was controlled by the chief." [references omitted]
Spear
* Scott 1994 p149
"The spear, bankaw, was the most important Visayan weapon. It was carried both for security and ceremony, and it figured not only in warfare but in religious functions and business transactions. Pamankaw was a spear the bridegroom's party gave the bride's grandmother to let down the house ladder. The part of the dowry that was held in abeyance and only demanded in case of a breach of connubial harmony was called lantay -- to throw a spear at a distant target. Marriage negotiations actually began with a spear thrust: The man's father sent one of his timawa vassals bearing his son's spear to the girl's father. There, he drove it into the house steps and then, while he gripped it in his hand, the ancestral spirits of both families were invoked for fertility and prosperity.
"The importance of the Visayan spear is indicated by the special vocabulary attached to it. The general term for it was bankaw; while a light spear was barobankaw or bankaway, or piniris if fitted with a short shaft. Men called their own spears by more intimate terms: ipambuk or ipanonos had the nuance of 'my trusty blade'; and bankaras or bankaraw, something like 'that damned spear of mine.' The shaft, almost 2 meters long, was duldug or ilhi, and the spearhead was hafted into it by a tang, tugod, and held firm by a ring called pitara if it was metal, bankorong or pikit if rattan. The butt, hele, was strengthened by a pointed sheathing (tikala) of brass or even gold for 10 or 12 centimeters, which permitted it to serve as a staff for climbing, or to be conveniently driven into the ground to stand by itself when men met in friendly discussion.
"Good spears were kept highly polished, and among them the most prestigious was the songil, a leaf-shaped blade 30 centimeters long and as wide as a man's hand, sharpened for as much as half its length, knifelike, in both edges. If it was piniskan or pinamaskan, it had elegant round or flamelike inlays of brass, copper, or silver, and could be valued at one slave. The minalo was similar in shape but cheaper, while the budiak was longer and wider but thinner. The liparak was short and broad, the tumbak medium-sized, and the lanab the longest and widest of all, while the tinikol was the shape of a tikol leaf. Some were thick and heavy: the binusloran was thick down the middle and the pinuso was so called because of its similarity to the flower of a banana plant."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p42
"[E]stas gentes [son] acostumbran ... unas lanzas con unos hiernos de hechura de lenguados, las astas pequeñas, de la estatura de un humbre poco más. [....] Tienen ... una lanza ... en los hierros de las cuales echan algunas veces ponzoña, que hay mucha en todas las islas Pilipinas ....
[....] Hace muchas lanzas de palo y cañas, con las puntas tostadas, las cuales tiran muy a menudo cuando pelean unos con otros."
* Donoso/García/Quirino/García tr. ed. 2016 p43
"[T]hese people are accustomed to using [....] some lances with iron [tips] in the shape of tongues, with small poles more or less the height of a man. [....] [T]hey have arrows and lances whose iron [tips] are sometimes laced with poison, which is plentiful in all the Philippine islands. [....] They make many lances of wood and bamboo with singed points, which they often hurl at each other when they fight."
Swords
* Scott 1994 p148
"There were two kinds of swords -- kris (Visayan kalis) and kampilan, both words of Malay origin. The kris was a long double-edged blade (modern specimens run to 60 or 70 centimeters), either straight or wavy but characterized by an asymmetrical hornlike flare at the hilt end, called kalaw-kalaw after the kalaw hornbill. The wavy kris was a called kiwo-kiwo, and so was an astute, devious man whose movement could not be predicted. Hilts were carved of any solid material -- hardwood, bone, antler, even shell -- and great datu warriors had them of solid gold or encrusted with precious stones. Blades were forged from layers of different grades of steel, which gave them a veined or mottled surface -- damascened or 'watered.' But even the best Visayan products were considered inferior to those from Mindanao or Sulu, and these in turn were less esteemed than imports from Makassar and Borneo. Alcina thought the best of them excelled Spanish blades.
"The word kampilan came into Spanish during the Moluccan campaigns of the sixteenth century as 'a heavy, pointed cutlass [alfange]' -- inappropriately, however, since a cutlass had a curved blade weighted toward the tip for slashing blows, while the kampilan was straight. (Modern ones are two-handed weapons running to 90 centimeters.) It apparently was never manufactured by Visayan smiths but imported from parts of Mindanao, both Muslim and pagan, which had direct culture contact with the Moluccas. Like the kris, it was coated with poison before going into battle, and the fiction that the metal itself had been rendered poisonous by some arcane alchemy no doubt enhanced its market value. Fine ones were handed down from father to son, bore personal names known to the enemy, and could be recognized by the sound of little bells which formed part of their tasseled decoration."
Shield
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p42
"Tienen pavises de madera con que se cubren los cuerpos cuando pelean. Son largos y angostos. Tienen algunos muy galanos y pintados. [....] Tienen rodelas hechas de bejucos. Son muy fuertes porque no se pueden cortar ni pasar de ninguna cuchillada que sobre ellas den."
* Donoso/García/Quirino/García tr. ed. 2016 p43
"They have wooden shields with which they cover their bodies when fighting. These are long and narrow, and some are very elegant and painted. [....] They [also] have shields of rattan. These are very strong because they cannot be cut or pierced by any stroke of the blade."
* Scott 1994 p151
"The shield, kalasag, was made of a light, corky wood which was very fibrous so as to enmesh any spear or dagger which penetrated it, and it was generally considered sword-proof. It was strengthened and decorated with rattan binding coated with resinous pitch, and of sufficient size to give full body protection -- about 50 by 150 centimeters. A small round buckler called tamin appears to have been copied from the Moluccans or the Spaniards themselves. The kalasag was typically painted red and decorated with shell sequins and hog bristles on top or, in the case of real braves, the hair of vanquished foes."
Armor
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p42
"Hacen unas armas a manera de corazas de hilo de algodón muy fuertes, que aunque les den o tiren con una lanza, aunque sea de muy cerca, no les harán daño ninguno. Tienen otras hechas de palo a manera de petos y espaldares [....] En algunas partes traen en las cabezas unos como cascos o morriones hechos de cuero de pescado, que son muy fuertes. Tienen algunos coseletes hechos de cuero de búfano, y algunos hay de cuero de elefante, que hay algunos en una isla llamada Xoló, aunque no son tan grandes como los de la India."
* Donoso/García/Quirino/García tr. ed. 2016 p43
"They make some kind of armor in the form of a cuirass from cotton fiber, which is very strong such that even if it is hit by a lance from a short distance, no harm will be inflicted. They have others made of wood in the manner of breast and back plates for defense .... [....] In some areas they wear on the head some helmets or moriones that are made of fish skin and that are very strong. They have corselets made of buffalo skin and some made of skin from elephants, which can be found in an island called Jolo, although they are not as large as those in India."
* Scott 1994 p150-151
"The Visayan equivalent of a cuirass, or chain mail, was barote, quilted or corded body armor, which the Spaniards called escaupiles after the cotton-padded ones they found in the New World. The barote was woven of thick-braided abaca or bark cords, tight enough to be waterproof in good ones, and so intricately knotted that cuts did not spread. A piece similar to burlap (habay-habay) was worn next to the body under the barote itself. It extended to the elbow and knee, with an ankle-length variety with sleeves for manning defenseworks, though for greater agility in hand-to-hand combat, confident warriors preferred to fit without them. Pakil and batung-batung were breastplates or backplates made of bamboo, bark, hardwood like ebony, or, in Mindanao, carabao horn or elephant hide from Jolo. Shark-skin was used effectively for helmets or moriones."
Costume
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p24-26
"A los hombres sirven estas pinturas como si fuesen vestidos, y así parecen bien, aunque andan desnudos de ordinario, que no traen en el cuerpo sino un paño de algodón, de largura de dos prazas poco más, y de anchura de tres cuartas, el cual con unas vueltas mu pulidas que con él hacen poniéndoselo revuelto a la cintura, y entre una pierna y otra, tapando con él sus vergúenzas y partes traseras, quedando todo lo demás del cuerpo desnudo. Al cual paño en su lengua llaman bahaque, y con esto parecen bien las pinturas como si fuese un vestido muy galano. Tiene otra manera de vestidos, que son unas mantas de algodón que hacen unas como ropas de levantar. Son cerradas por la delantera. Traen los hombres en las cabezas unas muy galanas toquillas de muchas colores, que puestas en la cabeza hacen con ellas una manera de tocado como turbante turquesco. Llaman a éstas en su lengua purones, y cierto que es vistoso y galano. Y los que son mozos lo traen muy pulido, con muchas listas de oro."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p25-27
"To the men, these [body tattoo] paintings serve as clothing, and thus they look alright although they usually go around naked, and wear nothing on the body except a cotton cloth two fathoms long or a bit longer, and three-fourths of a fathom wide, which with a few polished turns, they wrap around the waist and between the legs so as to cover their private parts and posteriors, leaving the rest of the body naked. This cloth they call in their tongue bahaque [fn.3: "Bahaque is properly spelled bahag in most Philippine languages and means loincloth."], and with this and the paintings on their bodies, they look well as if they were dressed very elegantly. They have another type of clothing, which consists of cotton blankets that they make into morning wear. These are closed at the front. The men carry on their heads some very fine multi-colored head-scarfs which they wear as some sort of Turkish turban. They call these in their language purones, and they certainly are nice-looking and elegant. The young men wear them very finely with many inserts of strips of gold."
* Scott 1994 p28-29
"Visayan clothing varied according to cost and current fashions and so indicated social standing. The basic garments were the G-string and tub skirt -- what the Maranaw call malong -- or a light blanket wrapped around instead. But more prestigious clothes, lihin-lihin, were added for public appearances and especially on formal occasions -- blouses and tunics, loose smocks with sleeves, capes, or ankle-length robes. The textiles of which they were made were similarly varied. In ascending order of value, they were abaca, abaca decorated with colored cotton thread, cotton, cotton decorated with silk thread, silk, imported printstuffs, and an elegant abaca woven of selected fibers almost as thin a silk. In addition, Pigafetta mentioned both G-strings and skirts of bark cloth.
"The G-string (bahag) was a piece of cloth 4 or 5 meters long and something less than a meter wide: it was therefore much larger than those worn in Zambales and the Cagayan Valley, or by Cordillera mountaineers today. The ends hanging down were called wayaway -- ampis in front and pakawar behind -- and were usually decorated. Binkisi was an expensive one with fancywork called gowat, and if it had a fringe of three-strand lubid cords, it was lubitan. G-strings were of the natural color of the cloth. However, in the case of men who had personally killed an enemy, they were qualified to wear deep red ones.
"To put the G-string on, one end was held against the chest while the other was passed between the legs, pulled up between the buttocks and wrapped around the waist several times, thereby binding the front flap which was then allowed to hang down as ampis; the other end was then knotted behind and let to fall as pakawar. Care was taken to see that one of the wayaway was longer than the other: wearing both of equal length was considered ludicrous. The word watid was for a G-string dragging on the ground, a deliberate sign of mourning.
"Because its size permitted the bahag to be spread out to cover the entire hip, many observers thought it was a kind of kilt from the waist to the knees. And because of its bulk, men removed it in the privacy of their home. ....
"Men also wore a blanket or another length of cloth as clothing. Singal was to put on like a G-string; and tampi was simply to wrap it around the hips, tied with a knot in front, and not passed between the legs. Alampay meant to wrap anything around the shoulders or over the head like a cape, including G-strings which were then given fewer turns around the waist to allow it to extend over the shoulder or head. To lend greater dignity to a formal occasion, an ankle-length garment called saob-saob was worn, with or without sleeves but open down the front like a cloak. Raja Humabon put on a silk one at Magellan's request to take his oath of vassalage to the Spanish king.
"There seems to have been no Visayan term for the long-sleeved gowns depicted in the Boxer Codex, with fine Pintado ankles just peeping out at the bottom -- nor for those tight-sleeved tunics the Tagalogs called baro. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that these pictures were painted twenty-five years after Spanish advent. However, though references from whatever source were and have been made to such clothes, these togalike garb could not have been the ordinary Visayan costume. All royal datus who had dealings with early Spanish commanders were clothed only in tattoos and G-strings -- Kolambu of Limasawa, Awi of Butuan, Katuna of Bohol, and Tupas of Cebu. Bare-chested exposure to the elements was a matter of masculine pride, and even a century later, men's jackets had still not caught on. Writing in 1668, Father Alcina said,
They rarely used these tunics, or baros; what was common for going out and for working was the bahag only, except for old men who would cover up with these baros against the cold or extreme heat, or the flies and mosquitoes that bit them.
"The tube skirt was described by Juan de la Isla in Cebu in 1565 as follows:
The clothes which they wear are a piece of material closed like a sack or sleeve with two very wide mouths, and they make many pleats of the extra width on the left side, and, making a knot of the cloth itself, let the folds fall on the left, and although it does not go above their waist, with a tight blouse most of the body and legs are clothed.
"This was the lambong, and because it could also be fastened under the armpits or over the shoulder, or even around the head, the Spaniards called it a sayo (smock or coat) rather than saya (skirt). The same term was extended to include any garment tailored to the body, like the sinulog (i.e., Sulu-style) or sinina (Chinese), a short jacket which exposed the midriff -- and more, Father Sánchez observed, when they raised their arms. This sinina could have originated in Indonesia or Malaysia, since the Visayans called all foreigners Sina before the coming of the Europeans." [references omitted]
Dagger
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p42
"[E]stas gentes [son] acostumban ... unos puñales de extraña hechura, las vainas de madera llámanles bararaos ....."
* Donoso/García/Quirino/García tr. ed. 2016 p43
"[T]hese people are accustomed to using ... daggers of a type with a strange design and with wooden scabbards, called bararaos ...."
* Scott 1994 p147-148
"The most intimate weapon was the baladaw. This was a short broad dagger with a single-edged leaf-shaped blade like a songil spearhead, and a cross-shaped hilt which was grasped with the blade protruding between the index and middle fingers. It was 20 to 25 centimeters long, with smaller ones made especially for youngsters since even a small boy felt naked without one. They were typically decorated with tassels made of silk or hairs from the bushy tail of the civet cat dyed red or, better, a lock of hair provided by one's own sweetheart. Like other bladed weapons, and even working bolos, they were strapped to the wrist for use, either by a cord or a tassel called kulili."
"Sixteenth to eighteenth century archival sources show up the leaf-shaped dagger in many locations. It can be seen in the small paintings of "Zambals" (of Zambales, whose language exists), "Cagayanes" (of the Cagayan Valley), and "Tagals" (Tagalogs) from the Boxer Codex of 1590.
"Use of the balarao in the Visayas is clear. It shows up in a miniscule detail, a vignette with the caption “Bisaya con balarao” of the famous Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Islas Filipinas by the Jesuit cartographer Pedro Murillo, engraved by Nicolás de la Cruz Bagay and Francisco Suarez."
"Its sheath or scabbard is made of hardwood, carabao horn, and metal. This was described in the early 1600s by Spanish soldier Antonio de Morga, where he mentions its use by Visayans in headhunting raids."
* Sinaunang Panahon 2025-04-17 online
"The origins of the Balarao likely lie in the need for effective personal defense and close-combat weaponry in the often-volatile environment of the Pre-colonial Philippines. Daggers were essential tools for warriors, travelers, and even civilians. In societies led by Datus (chiefs) and characterized by a warrior class, weapons like the Balarao were not merely tools for survival but also symbols of power, status, and martial prowess.
"Mandirigma, the traditional Filipino warriors, would have been proficient in the use of various bladed weapons, and a reliable dagger like the Balarao would have been an indispensable part of their arsenal. It would have served as a backup weapon, a tool for executing captives, or for self-defense in situations where a larger sword or spear was impractical. The culture of Pangayaw, or raiding, prevalent in many pre-colonial societies, would have necessitated warriors being well-armed, and the Balarao would have fit seamlessly into this context.
"Archaeological findings of ancient burial sites and shipwrecks have yielded various bladed implements, providing clues about the types of weapons used in the Pre-Hispanic Philippines. While definitively identifying a “Balarao” in all contexts can be challenging without historical documentation, the presence of dagger forms with guard-like protrusions suggests a long history for this design element.
"Balarao During the Spanish Colonial Period The arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century brought significant changes to the archipelago. While larger conflicts involved firearms and European-style swords, traditional Indigenous Filipino Weapons like the Balarao did not disappear. Filipinos continued to produce and use their native bladed weapons, often adapting them for resistance or retaining them for personal defense and cultural purposes."
Jewelry
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p40
"Los hombres y mujeres traen las orejas abiertas por muchas partes, y en los aberturas de ellas se ponen las mujeres y hombres muchas cosas y joyas de oro hechas con much primor, porque hay para esto en ellos muchos y muy buenos oficiales que labran de filigrana escogidamente y con much sutileza. Unas son .... como argollas redondas que las traen los hombres y mujeres, llámanlas panicas, y traen algunos tres o cuatro pares de ellas en las orejas que, como tienen tantos agujeros en ellas, lo pueden hacer."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p41
"The men and women have many holes in their ear lobes, and in these openings they place many objects and gold ornaments that are made very exquisitely, as they have among them many gold artisans who do filigree work expertly. Some pieces .... are like round rings worn by men and women who call them panicas. Some wear three or four pairs of such rings in their ears, which they can do because they have so many holes."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p46-48
"Traen las mujeres en los brazos muchas manillas de oro y otras de marfil, y también los hombres usan de esto muy de ordinario. A las de oro llaman gambanes, y las de marfil tiposos. Estiman en mucho las de marfil. Traen al cuello algunas cadenas de oro, teniéndolas por much gala y bizarría."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p49
"Women wear on their arms many bracelets of gold and of ivory; the men also use these ordinarily. The gold ones are called ganbanes and those of ivory tiposos; they value highly those of ivory. They place around their necks chains of gold and consider them very pleasing and magnificent."
* Carballo/Oshimo 2025-02-10 onilne
"When the Spaniards first arrived on our shores, they were astonished by the intricacy and fineness of the gold accessories worn by the Visayans. But gold also played an economical role to the early Filipinos, as a commercial mode of payment. Purchases were often carried out through gold dust which was weighed through scales or through barter rings called panika. Beyond that, these golden crafts speak of virtue and valor, ritual and revelation. They showcase a culture that had its own set of hierarchies, spiritual beliefs, and artistic practices.
"“The existence of a Hindu substratum in early Philippines before conversion to Islam and Christianity was illuminating,” Dr. Capistrano-Baker said. “It was surprising and exciting to discover Hindu imagery such as the gold kinnari vessel, garuda images and other symbols associated with the Hindu god Vishnu.”"
Tattooing
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p24
"Acostumbran los bisayas a pintarse los cuerpos con unas pinturas muy galanas. Hácienlas con hiereros de azófar puestos al fuego, y tienen oficiales muy pulidos que los saben bien hacer. Hácenlas con tanta orden y concierto y tan a compás, que causan admiración a quien las ve. Son a manera de luminaciones. Píntanse los hombres todas las partes del cuerpo, como son los pechos, barriga, pierna y brazos, espaldas, manos y muslos, y algunos los rostros."
* Donoso/Garcia/Quirino/Garcia tr. ed. 2016 p25
"The Bisayans are accustomed to paint their bodies with some very elegant tattoos. They do this with iron or brass rods, the points of which are heated on a fire. They have artisans who are adept at this. They do this with such order, symmetry, and coordination that they elicit admiration from those who see them. These are done in the manner of illuminations, painting all parts of the body, such as the chest, the stomach, legs, arms, shoulders, hands, and muscles, and among some, the posteriors."
" The name of the [Pintados-Kasadyaan] festival stems from the term the Spaniards used to describe the locals when they landed on our shores. It means “painted”, and stems from the fact that the locals they saw had their bodies tattooed. The more you had, the higher your status was as a warrior."
Bowl
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