Laguna Copperplate Inscription

Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Laguna Copperplate Inscription
	The inscription displayed at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila
Material	Copper
Height	<20 cm (7.9 in)
Width	<30 cm (12 in)
Created	April 21, 900
Discovered	1989; Lumban, Laguna, Philippines
Present location	National Museum of the Philippines
Language	Mainly Old Malay with some Sanskrit and Old Javanese, and/or Old Tagalog

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (Filipino: Inskripsyón sa binatbát na tansô ng Laguna) is an official acquittance (debt relief) certificate inscribed onto a copper plate in the Shaka year 822 (Gregorian A.D. 900). It is the earliest known calendar-dated document found within the Philippine Islands.^[1]

The plate was found in 1989 by a laborer near the mouth of the Lumbang River in Wawa, Lumban, Laguna, in the Philippines. The inscription was mainly written in Old Malay using the Early Kawi script, with several technical Sanskrit words and Old Javanese or Old Tagalog honorifics.^[2] After it was found, the text was first translated in 1991 by Antoon Postma,^[3] a Dutch anthropologist and Hanunó'o script researcher.^[1]

The inscription documents the existence and names of several surrounding states as of A.D. 900, such as the Tagalog city-state of Tondo.^[1] Some historians associate the toponym Medang in this inscription regarding the Medang palace in Java at that time, although the name is a common term of Malayo-Polynesian origin.^[1]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Postma, Antoon (April–June 1992). "The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: Text and Commentary". Philippine Studies. 40 (2). Ateneo de Manila University: 182–203. JSTOR 42633308.
^ Postma, Antoon (1991). "The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: A Valuable Philippine Document". Indo-Pacific Prehistory 1990 Assn. Bulletin 11. 2: 161–165 – via University Libraries – University of Washington.
^ Patanñe, E.P. (March 31, 1991). "New Philippine date challenges historians". Manila Standard. Kagitingan Publications, Inc. p. 4. Retrieved April 25, 2021. A copper plate containing an Old Malay inscription [...] deciphered by the Dutch Ethnographer [sic] Antoon Postma, carries a clear date of Saka 822, a Sanskritized reckoning equivalent to A.D. 900.

[Postma-1] Postma, Antoon (April–June 1992). "The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: Text and Commentary". Philippine Studies. 40 (2). Ateneo de Manila University: 182–203. JSTOR 42633308.

[2] Postma, Antoon (1991). "The Laguna Copper-Plate Inscription: A Valuable Philippine Document". Indo-Pacific Prehistory 1990 Assn. Bulletin 11. 2: 161–165 – via University Libraries – University of Washington.

[MS-3] Patanñe, E.P. (March 31, 1991). "New Philippine date challenges historians". Manila Standard. Kagitingan Publications, Inc. p. 4. Retrieved April 25, 2021. A copper plate containing an Old Malay inscription [...] deciphered by the Dutch Ethnographer [sic] Antoon Postma, carries a clear date of Saka 822, a Sanskritized reckoning equivalent to A.D. 900.

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