Butuan City is a storied place, and not without it’s controversy. It’s been said that even before the Philippines came to be, there was already the Kingdom of Butuan. Of course a lot of people were quick to dispute that claim. In this featured post, Francis of Butuan City Today, gives us a glimpse of Butuan through its artifacts and its month-long Balanghai Festival.
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Today, May 1, 2009 is the official start of Butuan City’s month long Balanghai Festival. We usually hear this word around this time of summer as we usually equate it with the city’s display of culture and tradition as well as its opportunity to show the development highlights it has travailed in its a thousand years of existence, from an influential maritime kingdom in the Sri Vidjayan and Madjapahit Empires, to a gold finders paradise in the early 20th century… to a booming timber-town in the 50’s. From a fragile, perennial calamity hit locality… to a rising highly urbanized regional capital of today…to that of vigorous shining metropolis in the near future. Let us again take a review of Balanghai, and how this great Indo-Malay word came to represent this city’s journey through the past millenia.

Golden Voyage

Since the 10th century, Butuan appeared to have been in good relations with the Srivijayan Empire. Being located on the coast of Mindanao, balanghais are often docking at the Butuan bay keeping good business between the local people of Butuan and traders from the neighboring empire.

During the 1970’s, these balanghais were exposed through an excavation to the modern time and found that through carbon-dating process, the boats were almost a thousand years old.

Building balanghai requires teamwork and unity among workers which is why it was used by the Philippine Government as a term to refer to the smallest political unit, now became popularly pronounced as barangay.

Butuan’s Early Balanghais

A balanghai, or some refer to it as balangay, is a wooden boat adjoined by planks, and believed that the term originated from an Italian archaeologist named Antonio Pigafetta in the 16th century when he mentioned the word spelled “balanghai”.

The balangays did not serve just a wooden boat but stood as a symbol for social unit. In the 16th century, Spaniards found out that balangay also referred to the smallest unit of politics among Filipinos.

Balanghai Boats

Late 1970’s, balangay boats were discovered in Butuan City by the National Museum archaelogists. Nine were recovered during the excavation. The first is being presently preserved and displayed in the museum in Libertad, Butuan City. It had undergone carbon-dating and dated at year 320. The second boat, dated 1250, is presently located at the Maritime Hall of National Museum in Manila. The third was transferred to Butuan Regional Museum while the six other boats are under the process of excavtion and preserved, remaining to their original waterlogged condition to protect the artifacts.

The Historical Butuan

The city of Butuan is the home of treasures such as the Tara, golden figurine of Buddha’s consort, an array of lustrous, most intricate jewelry, a collection of priceless ceramics from the Sung Dynasty, and the remains of the early balanghai.

These precious treasures of Butuan are now found around the globe. The Tara is now at the Field Museum in Chicago, the Chinese precious findings and the restored balanghais are being displayed at the National Museum, and the incomparable gold jewelry is the Metropolitan Museum of Manila’s grandest collection.

The first mass in the Philippines is believed to have taken place near the Agusan River, and it is said that Ferdinand Magellan himself dropped the anchor of the ship in 1521 at the Agusan River, and held a mass to commemorate the event.

BALANGHAI FESTIVAL

The Festival

Balanghai Festival

Commemorating the coming of the early settlers from Borneo and Celebes, Butuan in Agusan del Sur is celebrating Balanghai Festival during the third week of May, coinciding the feast of Butuan’s patron saint, Saint Joseph.

The balanghai, also known as balangay and Butuan boat, is the first water vessel to have excavated in Southeast Asia, serving as evidence to the craftsmanship of the early Filipinos in attempting to transport on water.

Balanghai Festival is one historical event commemorated through a night of exotic performances, costumes in an array of colors and creativity, and dazzling floats. One can also take part in the festivals activities such as contests, exhibits, and many other events.
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Take a Journey to Butuan today…explore ~ www.butuantoday.tumblr.com

Note: featured photo from Butuan City Today

By some unforeseen circumstances, this blogger will find himself spending the holy week in the historic City of Butuan, the capital of Agusan Del Norte. It shouldn’t be a surprise since I’m from there though I happen to work here in Manila.
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I say unforeseen because this was totally unexpected. I have accepted the fact that I will be working through the holy week (yep, including black saturday) since I’m supporting some European country and we’re about to migrate some of their work here. This european country however is strictly catholic (think in terms of Padre Damaso and Fray Butod and you’d know which country I’m talking about) and they decided not to come to the office, which means I’ve got some time in my hands. It also helped a lot that the significant other made arrangements for me to fly tomorrow which is really awesome.

So barring any force of nature, I should be in Butuan by noon tomorrow. Now if by some stroke of luck you find yourself in Butuan City, what do you do, where do you go, and where do you sleep. Despite being a city and all, Butuan is still a very small place with very limited options. No offense meant, I’m talking relative to Manila here. Anyway, there are still very nice places to go to within the city if you have time to spare.

If you’re an internet addict like myself and you’ve got your own wifi enabled laptop, you can always go to Margies at the Pan De Pugon along forgive-me-i-forgot-the-name-of-the-street, lol. But the place is very popular so you shouldn’t have any problem asking the tricycle driver to take you there. In a way this is where the ‘sosyal’ set hangout (that’s what I heard anyway). They have free wifi and their cakes are awesome. Ask for a whole chocolate cake and you’d be set back by around P800. In fairness, Margies does not skimp on the ingredients so it’s sinfully delicious. I have yet to taste a chocolate cake that’s as rich as the one that Margies has. Yep even here in Manila. Conti’s? Puhlease.

If you’re looking for a meal on the gourmet side, you can always go to True Brew where they serve those mouthwatering pork ribs and those hungarian sausages that are bigger than the sausages you see in porno movies. Sorry, bad joke. But really, the food they serve there is first rate. Trust me on this one, everytime I’m in Butuan, I always manage to gain a couple of pounds from visiting True Brew so much.

Butuan also has its share of little cancer centers in the form of BBQ stalls near the public elementary school. Again the name of the street escapes me. But these stalls are only open from late afternoon onwards. If you’ve got the grilled meat munchies, this is the place to go to. I often go there with my and eat our hearts out, the big gluttons that we are.

If you’re after seafood and chicken (the ubiquitous chicken inasal) there’s always Weegols and Aling Cora. I prefer the latter though. The kinilaw there (sort of like sashimi but bathed in vinegar with lots of chili if you like) is absolutely fantastic, pair that one with grilled Ketong (nope not the disease dummy, it’s a kind of fish) and you’re in for an absolute treat.

After all these pig-outs, you may want to get a little pampering and head on over to Body and Sole. You can get a facial or a full body massage at ridiculous prices. You’ll easily find yourself snoring after all the pampering you get.

Now the good thing about all of these is that this is Butuan, and as I said a very small city, which means that all of these things will cost you very, very little.

In terms of shopping, there’s really only one destination– Gaisano Mall. And while you’re at it, you may want to visit Bambi’s. It’s a can’t miss store and if you have the hots for anything Barbie or Hello Kitty and all those cute little characters that’s the place to go. They might even give you a discount if you mention that you know of Bambi’s through this blog. The beautiful Bambi better be prepared to compensate me for this plug. Lol.
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