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A Collection of Published 360VR Articles and Personal JournalsArchive for balangay
Return of Balangays to Butuan
Author’s Note: This article uses virtual reality technology to provide an immersive experience. Click the images to view the 360-degree VRs. Adobe Flash 10 or higher is required. Average VR size is 2Mb each.
Battered by huge waves caused by the northeast monsoon, the 11-day journey of balangays Masawa hong Butuan and Sama Tawi-Tawi from Manila finally came to a close on January 31st as the boats docked at a swollen Agusan River in Brgy. Bading, Butuan City.
Under a state of calamity due to massive flooding from continuous rains, Butuanons nevertheless came out in full force to welcome the return of Butuan’s pride – balangay Masawa hong Butuan.
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Balangay Masawa hong Butuan Homebound
Author’s Note: This article uses virtual reality technology to provide an immersive experience. Click the images to view the 360-degree VRs. Adobe Flash 10 or higher is required. Average VR size is 1.7Mb each.
Text By: Jorge B. Navarra – Butuan Global Forum
In the morning of January 21, 2011, “Balangay MASAWA HONG BUTUAN” arrived in Sangley Point after more than an hour of sailing in Manila Bay from CCP Harbour Square. The crew was privileged to have on board the following guest passengers: Laurice Guillen-Feleo, her daughter Ina Feleo, Bibsy Carballo, Behn Cervantes, Nestor Torre, his mother Isabel Urbina-Torre, Nestor’s niece Angeli and nephew John, Djanin Cruz and brother Bodie Cruz (children of Tirso Cruz III), and TV reporters from Manila and Hongkong.
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Balangays: The Voyage Home
Author’s Note: This article uses virtual reality technology to provide an immersive experience. Click the images to view the 360-degree VRs. Adobe Flash 10 or higher is required. Average VR size is 1.8Mb each.
The moon hasn’t risen yet that night, a few stars dotted the sky here and there, clouds move with the wind against our bow, sounds of clashing waves mixed with the screams of the engine, even in darkness, the sea was white and furious as the rage of Poseidon tossed the small merchant ship I was on in a slow, arduous, 30-hour 250-nautical mile journey from Cuyo Island to Manila; with the first few seemingly endless moments spent in puking my guts out!
A Little History
The 3 balangay boats, Diwata ng Lahi, Masawa hong Butuan, and Sama Tawi-Tawi, are replicas of an ancient Philippine boat first excavated in Butuan in the 1970s. Carbon dated to about 320AD, these wooden boats, characterize with a carved-out planks edge adjoined through pins or dowels, were constructed by the Sama (Badjao) people of Sibutu and Sitangkai without any blueprints, but only through the knowledge handed down by their ancestors.
Made entirely of hard woods like the dugong, the boats use no metal nails with the planks lashed together using cabo negro, a kind of grass rope and sealed water-tight using gargar, a tree resin.
The balangay was a house boat as well as a vessel of war and commerce. Whole families lived inside these boats to which our barangay, the smallest unit of government was derived.
Propelled by wind using colorful sails and rowers on each side, our ancestors used these majestic boats in their migration; guided by the sun, the moon, and the stars as well as navigational aids such as wave patterns and seasonal wind changes.
As early as 10th Century AD, roughly 500 years before Magellan, according to the Chinese Song Shi (history), people from the kingdom of Butuan had already established trading relations with the kingdom of Champa in what is now South Vietnam. By the 11th century, Butuan was the center of trade and commerce in the Philippines and was able to send a tribute mission, using boats very much like the balangays, to the Sung Dynasty.
Antonio Pigafetta, Ferdinand Magellan’s chronicler during the voyage of 1521 described the balangay as sometimes having 100 rowers on one side commanded by proud warriors and chieftains.
Such were the maritime prowess and achievements of our pre-colonial forefathers; the forgotten heritage and consciousness that the Voyage of the Balangay hopes to rekindle.
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Balangays: Raiders of the Sulu Sea
Author’s Note: This article uses virtual reality technology to provide an immersive experience. Click the images to view the 360-degree VRs. Adobe Flash 10 or higher is required. Average VR size is 1.7Mb each.
Hundreds of years ago, the Filipino ancestors, part seafarers, traders and warriors, command much of the Sulu archipelago; from coastal areas of Zamboanga in the north, to Palawan in the west and North Borneo in the south. Control by the Sultan of Sulu, these warriors would often raid settlements and ships for slaves (hence the term “slave raiders”) on-board wooden crafts like the balangays. These majestic boats, described by Antonio Pigafetta, Ferdinand Magellan’s chronicler during the 16th century as sometimes having over 100 rowers, strike awe and fear into the hearts of their enemies.
Today, replicas of the balangay boats set sail again, not to raid and plunder, but to promote unity and understanding thru historically shared maritime bonds in Southeast Asia. The three wooden crafts: Diwata ng Lahi, Masawa hong Butuan, and the recently constructed Sama Tawi-Tawi undertake an adventure to retrace the migration paths of the ancient Filipino ancestors.
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Cruising with Sama Tawi-Tawi
Author’s Note: This article uses virtual reality technology to provide an immersive experience. Click the images to view the 360-degree VRs. Adobe Flash 10 or higher is required. Average VR size is 1.8Mb each.
The following additional VRs were taken during the maiden cruise of balangay Sama Tawi-Tawi; from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) wharf along the Agusan River to Masao in Butuan Bay. Coming back, we stopped by the Banza church ruins, the oldest church in Mindanao.
The team welcomes support in any ways, for more information, visit www.balangay-voyage.com All VRs taken on July 16 & 17, 2010. The author can be reached at: fung@firefly.ph
