What is the Lakanate of Lawan?

Answer 1

This answer tries to stitch together multiple erroneous assumptions about Philippine history without providing legitimate sources. There is no proof that Jewish people settled in the Philippines in precolonial times.

Samar is not named after Samaria; it may have been a corruption of samal which means 'leaf awning' possibly referring to the houses of the natives. Similar place names include Samal Island in Davao del Norte and the municipality of Samal in Bataan. A Malay cognate - samar - means 'obscure', 'ambiguous', and 'vague'. Meanwhile, the proto-Austronesian samir also refers to a leaf awning. The Magellan expedition referred to the people and land as Zamal.

As for Lequios, that is an alternative spelling for the Lequeos or Liu-Kiu - what are now referred to as the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Lequeos is mentioned in the Suma Oriental, an early catalogue of Asia by the Portugese traveller Tomes Pires in 1512.

The Ophir narrative is not a new one, and it tries to justify an ahistorical past by using false friend words between Philippine languages and Hebrew.

Answer 2

What Is Ophir and Why Does a Laguna Congressman Think the Philippines Could Be It?

Could our islands really be the ancient city of Ophir?

On Monday (July 30), Rep. Dan Fernandez of the lone district of Santa Rosa, Laguna delivered a privilege speech that was noteworthy mostly because he gave credence to theories that the Philippines is, in fact, the biblical city of Ophir.

Ophir what?!

In a report on Rappler, Fernandez, who is a former actor and licensed optometrist, spent over 20 minutes citing historical evidence establishing the Philippines as the ancient city known for its great wealth. The congressman invoked a 16th century document in the Archivo General de Indias that contained directions to get to Ophir, as well as the fact that the Baybayin writing system bears a resemblance to Hebrew, in which the Bible was written.

It's all a bit of a stretch, until you realize that Fernandez is not the first to make the Philippines-is-Ophir claim; conspiracy theories abound on YouTube, Facebook, and elsewhere.

But what—or where—exactly is Ophir? What is Ophir?

In the Bible, Ophir is first mentioned in the book of Genesis not as a place but as a person, specifically one of the sons of Joktan, who is descended from Noah. Eventually, Ophir is described as a place famous for its gold. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ophir was initially placed somewhere in Arabia, but by the time of King Solomon, it was apparently in a faraway land overseas.

1 Kings 10:22 says: “The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.”

Ophir is also mentioned in other books in the Old Testament:

“Then you will lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.” (Job 22:24)

“Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” (Psalm 45:9)

“I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isaiah 13:12)

Clearly this Ophir was a place known for great riches, wherever it was.

Where is Ophir?

By the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, there is evidence of the royals sending naval expeditions to places in East Africa for things like monkeys, ivory, frankincense, and slaves, which led many to believe that Ophir could have been in that area.

However, others contend that the city was actually in India. “The Hebrew words for the products of Ophir may be derived from Indian languages; furthermore, sandalwood and peacocks are commonly found in India, whereas, at least in modern times, they do not exist in East Africa,” the Encyclopedia Britannica says.

Another theory claimed that Tell Qasile (modern-day Tel-Aviv) was Ophir based on a pottery shard that bore inscriptions that referenced the place. Even the United States had made an announcement back in the 1970s that a place in Saudi Arabia called the Mahd adh Dhahab (Cradle of Gold) is the biblical Ophir.

Other places that have been proposed as the real Ophir include Sri Lanka; Kerala, India; Zimbabwe; Mozambique; Indonesia, and, of course, the Philippines.

Is Ophir the Philippines?

In his speech, Rep. Fernandez floated the idea of changing the name of the country to Ophir. “When we learn to know ourselves, we will be known in the entire world as Ophir and we will know that we are the sons of the living father, but if not, we will continue to be ignorant just what the Spaniards wanted,” Rappler quoted the congressman as saying.

Just as Fernandez cited, perhaps the strongest evidence believers hold about Ophir being the Philippines is a book called Colección General de Documentos Relativos a las Islas Filipinas (General Collection of Philippine Islands related Documents), that gives specific directions to reach the ancient land.

In the section “Document No. 98,” which is dated 1519-1522, the book says that Ophir can be found “by travelling from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, to India, to Burma, to Sumatra, to Moluccas, to Borneo, to Sulu, then finally Ophir facing the Pacific Ocean.”

The book also said Ophir is “in front of China towards the sea, of many islands where the Moluccans, Chinese, and Lequios (a group of ancient Hebrews who supposedly settled around Ophir) met to trade...”

Historians and academics believe that this “group of islands” could not be Japan because the Moluccans never reached Japan, nor Taiwan, since it is not composed of “many islands.” That leaves only the Philippines that fits the description.

There are also Spanish records that mention the presence of the Lequios in the Islands to gather gold and silver.

Answer 3

The Lakanate of Lawan was a pre-colonial polity located in present-day Southern Philippines. It was one of the earliest known historical states in the region, with a well-established political structure and trading networks. The Lakanate of Lawan was known for its strategic location and its interactions with neighboring polities.

Answer 4

Lakanate of Lawan is the oldest Kingdom in the Philippines, It is populated predominantly by the Lequios tribe whom the natives called "waray hadlok" or simply "waray". Waray hadlok means no fear in local dialect. They are called as "waray" because they are adventurous, traders and some are pirates which the Chinese calls the Pi She Ye, but they are faithful to their homeland. Using big native ships called "karakao" and over thousand years, they bring people, goods, animals in most part of the Philippines, south East Asia, polynesia and austronesia in exchange for gold. The gold are then traded in ancient Israel. The most popular head of the Lequios tribe in the Lakanate of Lawan was Datu Iberein, describe by historians as one of the richest datu in the Philippines pre hispanic history, as rich as Lakan Dula of Tondo and Sultan Kudarat of Mindanao. Datu Iberein is responsible for naming the 3rd largest island of the Philippines as Samar, in memory of the homeland of his lineage, Samaria. Some historians and Hebrew scholars believe that the Lakanate of Lawan could be the seat of Ophir. It is known as center of navigation with an existence of a shipping industry in Palapag island and a lighthouse guiding the ships in the Pacific ocean in Batag island. It is also known for for their advance culture, love for homeland and beautiful ladies. One of the historical figures show casing its beautiful ladies is the story narrated by Fr. Alzina as cited by Henry Scott about Princess Bingil of Lawan whose beauty captivated the nearby kings around the influence of the Lakanate. Lakanate is an ancient system of governance in the Philippines where kings of different rajahnate (sultanate) or settlements are federated as equals but symbolically headed a lakan or "paramount ruler". Lakans are not the warlike king but somebody with lots of wisdom, wealth and influence. Slowly through thousand years, from the Lawan homeland, the Lequious (waray) tribe spread in the asian, polynesian and Austronesian settlements and in other parts of Bisayas, Luzon and Mindanao. In a place called Sawang in Batag Island in Laoang, a ancient grave yard was excavated in the 60's with martabanas, antique plates and jewelries. But what is noticeable are the human bones on that grave yard which are basically longer than the average Filipinos, maybe the bones of Lequios tribesmen. Dr. Borrinaga mentioned lequios (waray) settlements in Biliran, Mactan and Bohol. He also thinks that the Pi She Ye pirates who are regularly attacking mainland China are the pintados from Samar because of a legend of Sumaga. Dr. Boni Comandante mentioned an ancient map in Quezon Province with a name Lequios River. He also mentioned a place in Masbate whose local history says that their ancestors were lequios (waray). He went to the place and they are fair skinned and tall people. He intend to lecture about it in the eBaybayin Buhayin Lecture Series. The Lequios settlement slowly expanded over thousand years into Luzon. In the book of Tome Pires, he said that it was also the Lequios tribe who built the Luzon empire in the ancient Philippines. Historians would say that the original settlers of Tondo came from several big karakoas coming from the nearby Bisayan islands.With all of these historical citations, it can be said that based on history, the modern Filipinos came from the lineage of the Lequios (ancient Hebrew) blood. As time goes by, with a very prosperous civilization, the ancient Philippines (Ophir) attracted the inter migration through settlements, marriage and trades of different people and races from all over the world: sanskrit, arabs, chinese, majapajits, sri vijayans, spaniards, americans, etc making the Philippines a virtual melting pot of races saturating further its original lequios blood. Today, with the advent of Filipino seafarers and overseas workers, the once "melting pot" further became more mixed of bloods and races that young Filipinos are confused whether they are Asian, Pacific Islanders or Latinos. But beyond all of these historical phenomenon, patriotism should be: knowing that all polynesians, austronesians and Filipinos of today came from Lequios (Hebrew) blood in the ancient beginning of times.