#pintados

Visayas: //clears throat "I mean, yeah, sure livelihood. Makamingaw..."

DID YOU KNOW: back then, the sight of the balanghay mothership was a scary sight on the coast.

Columnist Jobers Bersales challenges this and suggests the ancient Visayans used the balanghay, especially since it was impossible for rafts to carry all the iron taken from China. The balanghay predates the 12th century raids by over a thousand years, and were formidable and impressive vessels at the time.

In the 12th century, ancient Filipinos had earned a status of notoriety as masters of the sea and expert raiders. Their appearance on any shore was an ominous sign of impending catastrophe: Balanghay ships from the Visayas would carry hordes of ancient tattooed warriors known as Pintados, who would ransack and pillage every house in sight.

The Visayan raids on China during the 12th century occurred frequently, according to China’s Chu-fan-chi, a book which loosely translates to “A Description of the Barbaric People”. In this book, the fearsome warriors from the Visayas are frequently mentioned. Such raids focused on the southern part of Taiwan (Formosa). Friedrich Hirth and William Rockhill’s 1911 translation of the Chu-fan-chi offer a footnote describing the Visayan raids on China.

But why would the ancient Visayans resort to piracy when their own country was endowed with riches such as gold and silver?

According to ancient Chinese records, they were only after one thing only China produced so well and in exquisite quality—iron. Anything that was made of iron was taken away: from armor to door knobs, and jars to chopsticks.

SOURCES: 

1. https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/ancient-visayan-raids-china-a00293-20200331-lfrm

2.https://www.jstor.org/stable/29792550

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