Who are the Visayans and where do they come
from?

Before 500 AD, there are no known
archaeological findings of native Southeast
Asian Malay inscriptions. Thus, we have to rely
on Chinese documents about Southeast Asia.

Their records tell of five Southeast Asian states
sending trade missions to South China between
430 to 473 AD. After that, the one known by its
Chinese toponym Kan-t'o-li prevailed over its
neighbors. Historian O.W. Wolters believes
that this state was established near Palembang,
Sumatra in the second century. Trade stopped
during the 500's due to civil strife in China, and
Kantoli was never heard of again.

Inscriptions in Old Malay appear after 500 AD,
notably in Sumatra, Banka Island, Java and the
Malay Peninsula. Eight states emerged to
resume trade with South China starting 608 AD
but by 670 only one remained, Shih-li-fo-shih.

Artifacts dated 775 AD from the Ligor isthmus
of the Malay Peninsula, as examined by
Southeast Asian history pioneer George
Coedus, determined that the state known to the
Chinese as Shihlifoshih was the same as Sri
Vishaya.

Sri is an Indian honorific placed before the
name of people and places. One familiar
example of this usage is on the island of Lanka.
Thus, the common name of Sri Vishaya was
probably just Vishaya.

Now, consider that most Philippine languages
do not have the 'v' and 'sh' sounds. These are
pronounced as 'b' and 's' respectively. To some,
Vishaya might have been known as Bisaya.

Like the Kantoli, Sri Vishaya warred on
neighboring states. It was also based in
Palembang. It is possible then that this state,
which was known to the Arabs as Zapage, was
the same entity as the Kantoli.

Sri Vishaya ruled from the Malay Peninsula up
to perhaps Western Java at its peak. It had
diplomats, traders, sailors, an international
seaport, and, according to its own inscriptions,
an army of 20,000. As middlemen, they
monopolized the highly lucrative Persian trade.

Javanese records tell of raids against Sri
Vishaya in 992 AD while the Tamils claim to
have sacked Palembang in 1025. The death
blow probably came when the Chinese manned
their trading ships themselves, doing away with
Vishaya middlemen.

Chinese monk I Tsing noted during his travels
from 671-695 AD that Sri Vishaya practiced
Mahayana Buddhism. If there is a direct link
between the Sri Vishaya and the Bisaya of the
Philippines, why does the latter show no traces
of the Buddhist faith?

Only the Vishaya aristocracy adhered to
Mahayana. In spite of Mahayana's headstart, it
was Hinayana that had greater success in the
Southeast Asian mainland. The rest of Vishaya,
probably ninety percent, remained animists.
This explains the unencumbered spread of Islam
later on. The migration of Visayans from the
Malay Archipelago to Visayas in the
Philippines must have consisted of animists.

Another author, Kenneth Scott Latourette, notes
that the Vishaya established trading outposts in
Taiwan. It makes it easy to suppose then that
some of them migrated to the Philippines and
settled in what is now the Visayas. So where
was their first settlement? Probably in Cebu.

Possibly not Bohol because some native arts
there resemble the Bukidnon's in Mindanao.
Negros likewise had sizable remnants of the
Bukidnons until recently. Panay has a large
population of Karay-as and Aklanons who may
antedate the Visayans. Among its neighbors,
Cebu seems to have had a Visayan identity for
the longest time.

Three major ethnic groups call themselves
Bisaya and their language Binisaya. They are
the Ilongo, Cebuano and Waray. No matter that
they speak three separate languages and have
three distinct identities, still they are
collectively known as Bisaya.

Cebuano may be the purest form of Binisaya.
Ilongo root words are mostly Cebuano, with a
significant admixture of Tagalog. The Ilongos
are also geographically close to the Tagalogs.
Waray root words are also mostly Cebuano,
with a significant admixture of Bicolano. The
Warays are also geographically close to Bicol.
In Mindanao, the native forms of Binisaya are
dialects of the Cebuano language. Take note
though that Cebuano language is a technical
term that not all its native speakers are
accustomed to.

One hypothesis is that Visayan consciousness
and language spread from Cebu. Northwest it
mixed with Tagalog, forming Ilongo, and
northeast it mixed with Bicol, forming Waray.
South to Mindanao, it retained its Cebuano
form.

Alternatively, the northward spread gave birth
successively to the Ilongo and Tagalog as well
as the Waray and Bicolano languages. This
hypothesis is correct only if it can be shown
that Cebuano is relatively the oldest of the five
languages while Bicolano and Tagalog are the
youngest. Note also that Tagalog and Bicolano
are intimately related to no other indigenous
language in the Luzon mainland so it is not
difficult to trace a Visayan root.

It does not follow that the Sri Vishaya spoke an
archaic form of Cebuano. Ilongos, Cebuanos
and Warays share the same root and may in fact
have descended from the Sri Vishaya, an
empire acknowledged today to be the greatest
Malayo-Polynesian nation ever. They share
equally of this sterling heritage.

Ages before Manila imposed its Tagalog
language on the Philippines, Visayans already
were predominant outside of Luzon. In Samar
and the Leytes. In coastal Iloilo, Capiz (where
an unusual form of Ilongo, Capisnon, is spoken)
and the Negroses. In Southern Masbate, Cebu,
Bohol, Siquijor, Camiguin, Misamis, Lanao del
Norte, Zamboanga, Agusan, Surigao (where an
unusual form of Cebuano, Surigaonon, is
spoken), Bukidnon and Davao.

Curiously, the Karay-as and Aklanons of Panay
also consider themselves Bisaya. Binisaya is
not how they call their languages though. They
must be pre-Visayan peoples with their own
proud history and traditions who have since
coexisted with their Ilongo-Bisaya neighbors.

It is never too late to expand one's knowledge
of the past. Embarrassing as it may be to the
Manila government that the Bisaya it has
tirelessly repressed is indeed descended from
the great Sri Vishaya, the pursuit of historical
truth justifies itself. If not, then for the sake of
our young who can only take so much of
self-serving and subjective official Philippine
history.


© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 1999-2001
Jed Pensar and Herb Mantawe. Manila, Philippines

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