The Balangay Shrine Museum or Balangay Site Museum keeps
the remnants of the earliest watercraft called “Balangay” or “Butuan Boat”
which are large boats, built with wooden planks and pegs -- a National Cultural
Treasure as declared through Presidential Proclamation No. 86.
According to the tourism officer, balangay boats
are usually made of dongon or sangilo wood, famous as hardwood but are
floater wood at the same time.
There are
nine balangays discovered as of today.
Three has been excavated but one was totally damaged. One balangay was on exhibit at the National
Museum in Manila and the other one at Balangay Site Museum itself.
Aside from balangays, the museum
also showcases wooden coffin, human artifacts, pots and ceramics. The coffins were dated 14th
to 15th century and discovered together with the bones/skulls sometime in
September of 1976. The skulls were said to belong to a royal family as indicated by the flat forehead - deformed at infancy when the
skull is most pliable.
The Museum is located in Libertad which is about
5 kilometers from the City proper and a kilometer away from Libertad public market. Open from Monday to
Friday between 8am to 5pm. Admission is
free but donations are appreciated to help in the conservation of the place.
From Voyage of Balangay: In 2009, a replica of balangay boat was created
to voyage around the Philippines and the Southest Asia. It was named “Diwata ng Lahi” and the event
as called "Salinlahi: The Heirloom of Our Generation", where the ship builders from Sibutu and
Sitangkai in Tawi-Tawi crafted the boat according to their tribes traditional
shipbuilding methods.
Travel Date: November 2012
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