Voyage of the Balangay

In the late 1970s, archaeologists from the Philippine National Museum excavated a wooden boat that was radiocarbon dated at year 320. It was the first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia and a significant evidence of early Filipino marine craftsmanship and their attempts at open-sea travel. It became known as the balangay, a term adapted from the chronicles of Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian scribe who accompanied the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, in the 16th century. Constructed from carved-out planks attached through pins or dowels, this type of boat was supposedly used by early Filipinos to travel from the Southeast Asian archipelago to farther points of the Pacific Ocean.

A group of Filipinos, partly made up of the Philippine Everest Expedition team members, reconstructed the Balangay and will attempt to sail it around the Philippines, through South East Asia, and eventually across the Pacific Ocean all the way to Africa. The 15 meters long and three meters wide replica, named the Diwata ng Lahi, was constructed with aid from the Badjao boat builders of the island of Sibutu in Tawi-Tawi, who acquired the skills handed down through generations. It was built with the same techniques and materials used during the time of the excavated balangay. The crew will also sail using traditional nature-based navigational techniques without the aid of modern technology.

The boat was launched on June 27 2007 in Manila, Philippines. The crew will test the boat in Manila Bay for two weeks, before they set sail on their voyage that will take it around the Philippines. It will visit several ports all over the archipelago on a route that will cover around 2,108 nautical miles or 3,908 km, ending in Tawi-Tawi at the tip of the Sulu Archipelago, before it embarks into foreign waters.

Erik Lacson