A high inland lake with a dense farming population round it and no harbour at all (board), the Bukidnon plateau and the northern coast of Mindanao from Iligan to Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin.
The campaign board puts Lake Lanao on the map because a map that shows only coasts erases the largest concentration of people in the interior of Mindanao. The lake people are later called Maranao ('people of the lake'), the plateau people Bukidnon and the coast hill people Higaonon. No chief, town or text is dated to 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- No overall chief: the datus (chiefs) and elders of the river-mouth and valley communities, each answering for their own people
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing is written about the rulers or headmen of this country for 1200. The structure is read from geography and from ethnography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
What it holds
- The lake shore villages and rice
- The plateau
- The northern coast landings
Allies and rivals
The Lanao datus (Lanao chiefs).
How things stand that morning
Not described for 1200; the villages are presumed to be farming, fishing and selling what the rivers and forests give.
Wealth
Rice, forest goods; no figures.
Military
Not known; boats, spears, shields and blowpipes in the later record. No numbers.
Threats
- Feuds and raiding between villages
- Flood, drought or fire
- A change in the trade that comes by sea
Places of note
- Lake Lanao: The high lake.
- Marawi: Lake-shore city (a later name).
- Iligan: Northern coast (a later name).
- Cagayan de Oro: Northern coast (a later name).
Where the sources disagree
- The ethnic names used here (Ibanag, Ilocano, Tagalog, Bisaya, Maranao and the rest) are later labels, most of them recorded by the Spanish from the 1560s on; the ethnic map of 1200 is not known. The word barangay (a community under a datu) is also of the Spanish record.
Evidence: Geography and later ethnography only; no text of the period describes this country.
On the map: A rough outline of the people's country; the real extent of any village group in 1200 is not known, and nothing here is a border.
Sources and studies
- Background knowledge of Southeast Asian history (Wolters; Hall; Bellwood; Scott; Junker; Reid), recalled and not re-read in this pass
- The OMNIA board (September 2026) note for this place: a lead only, not a source
- Wikipedia, 'History of the Philippines (900-1565)' (read in this pass): the table of early polities, nothing dated for 1200
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.