BUTUAN ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK BALANGAY

The Balangay Site Museum is a field unit of the National Museum, similar to Butuan Museum which located near the City Hall and Golden Tara Replica. It keeps the remnants of the earliest watercraft called “Balanghai" (and now more popularly known as the “Butuan Boat”) and other cultural materials associated with the boat like human and animal remains, coffins, pots, jewelries, hunting goods, ceramics and other items used for subsistence.

The Balangays are large, wooden plank-built and edge-pegged boats. This method of construction is typical to Southeast Asian boat making. The planks are one continuous piece carved to shape and made of hardwood identified as Heretiara Litorales, locally known as Dongon. 

BUTUAN ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK in BALANGAY LIBERTAD

The boat was 15 meters in length and 3 meters across the beam. Only in Butuan – and no other locality in the Philippines – has there been such rare and extensive recovery of these maritime vessels and the cultural relics associated with an affluent seafaring people in this part of the globe.

Butuan Boat That Easter Week of March 29, 1521 as Magellan’s Boat neared that island, two Balanghai Boats approached the ship, with the larger one stood the Chief of the Island of Mazzaua. 

That was how Pigaffeta the Chronicler of Magellan wrwheote into his record book 500 years ago.

On 20 September 1519 Ferdinand Magellan led the five Spanish ships and 251 men in what was to become the first voyage around the World. Ferdinand Magellan died on the island of Mactan before the end of the voyage. The names of the 1519 Ferdinand Magellan Ships were the Trinidad, the San Antonio, the Conception, the Victoria and the Santiago.

PARADISE ISLAND BARANGAY LIBERTAD

Even Balangay boats have been identified by the National Museum archeologists. The first discovery in September 1976 was in Ambangan Barangay Libertad. The results from the carbon dating test done by the specialists in Gakushin University of tokyp, Japan reveal that the oldest balangay can ve dated to about 320AD. This balangay is the oldest known Philippine water craft ever recovered and can be viewed at the Balangay Shrine Museum. The Balangays were the vessels that linked Butuan with other Asian Kingdoms during its flourishing trade period. The Boats were built out of Dungon wood (Hereteria Litoralis).

This is a photo that proves I went to Butuan Archeological Park in PARADISE ISLAND BARANGAY LIBERTAD. 

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