Country or people · Self-governing peoples of Island Southeast Asia · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Mindoro and Romblon

Mindoro and the Romblon islands.

The interior holds the people later called Mangyan (Iraya, Alangan, Tadyawan, Tau-buid, Buhid, Hanunuo and Ratagnon), the coast trading villages. The campaign board's Ma-i stands on the Mindoro coast (the Calapan, Puerto Galera, Bulalacao, Mamburao and San Jose shore); the English page 'Ma-i' reports Cole's reading that Mindoro was once called Mait. Where Ma-i stood is argued (Mindoro or Bay on Laguna de Bay), and the Ma-i realm record carries the argument.

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

  • Coast villages and landings
  • The interior swiddens of the Mangyan
  • The Ma-i landing (contested site)

Allies and rivals

The traders and headmen of Ma-i (Ma-i headmen).

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

Cotton, wax, tortoise shell, betel nut and cloth by the Zhufan zhi's account of Ma-i (about 1225); 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

  • Calapan: North-east coast town (a later name).
  • Puerto Galera: Northern harbour (a later name).
  • Bulalacao: South-east coast (Scott's reading of Ma-i).
  • Mamburao: West coast.

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.
  • The campaign board entry id ma-i-mindoro is kept in the Ma-i records; the province outline overlaps the Ma-i contested seeds on purpose.

Evidence: Geography and later ethnography only; no text of the period describes this country.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

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

  1. Wikipedia, 'Ma-i' (read in this pass): Song shi 971 and 982, the Zhufan zhi and Daoyi zhilue notices, the Mindoro and Bay readings
  2. Wikipedia, 'Zhu Fan Zhi' (read in this pass): the work, its date (about 1225), its debt to Zhou Qufei's Lingwai daida of 1178, the list of countries
  3. W. H. Scott, Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (Quezon City, 1984): the Chinese notices of Ma-i, Pu-tuan, Pi-sho-ye and the Three Islands; known here only through Wikipedia, not read
  4. The OMNIA board (September 2026) note for this place: a lead only, not a source
  5. Background knowledge of Southeast Asian history (Wolters; Hall; Bellwood; Scott; Junker; Reid), recalled and not re-read in this pass

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.