Rhinoceros ivory seal with a design carved in ancient Javanese or early Kawi script
Butuan
A place that has been around for a very long time in the northeast part of Mindanao
Butuan rose to become an international trading centre
Butuan had cosmopolitan tastes for fine clothing and jewelry, chinaware, cosmetics, gold ornamentation and silver-smithing technology
The belief adds credence to claims of evidence of the existence for the Kingdom of Butuan
Butuan was a flourishing and highly-civilized community
5th to the 14th century AD
The name Butuan is believed to have existed before the Spanish conquistadores arrival in the Philippines
There is a favourite saying among the Butuanons that, “… in the Beginning, there was no Philippines, but there was Butuan”
Another account suggests the name derives from
The word ‘batuan’, a mangosteen-like fruit tree thriving in Mindanao
Butuan was a flourishing and highly-civilized community
Butuan possessed a developed political structure
Sources of the name Butuan
Rhinoceros ivory seal with a design carved in ancient Javanese or early Kawi script
The word ‘batuan’, a mangosteen-like fruit tree thriving in Mindanao
The seal was deciphered as ‘But-wan’
The name Butuan is believed to have existed before the Spanish conquistadores arrival in the Philippines
An indication of this is a rhinoceros ivory seal with a design carved in ancient Javanese or early Kawi script
Another account suggests the name derives from the word ‘batuan’, a mangosteen-like fruit tree thriving in Mindanao
Butuan has been around for a very long time in the northeast part of Mindanao
An indication of this is a rhinocerosivoryseal with a design carved in ancientJavanese or early Kawiscript (used around the 10th century AD) according to a Dutch scholar AntoonPostma, was deci-phered as ‘But-wan’.