In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed aboard Kon-Tiki, a raft made from balsa wood, for 4,300 miles from South America across the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian Islands to prove that pre-Columbian people from South America could have crossed the Pacific aboard wooden rafts and settled in Polynesia. For 101 days he sailed and made successful landfall in Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia.
In 1970, Thor Heyerdahl once again made a daring voyage. He theorized that it is possible for ancient people from North Africa to travel across the Atlantic to the American continent by using boats made from papyrus reeds. Aboard the vessel Ra II, Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco, crossed the Atlantic and reached Barbados in the Carribean sea.
In 1976, a relic of an old wooden boat was discovered in Butuan, this is was carbon dated to be 1,600 years old. This is boat is the Balangay, the boats used by the ancestors of the Filipinos in crossing the distant islands of the South Pacific. This discovery was hailed to be the South East Asian equivalent of viking boats discoveries in Northern Europe.
One June 27, 2009 a wooden boat replica of the balangay set sail and embarked on an ambitious 4-year voyage that will take its brave crew of Filipino adventurers around South East Asia, to Micronesia, to Madagascar and Africa. The core crew is lead by Art Valdez and the Philippine Mt. Everest Team including Nestor Emata and Leo Oracion. They will be supported by members of the Coast Guard and skilled Badjao boatsmen. The voyage will be done without the aid of modern GPS systems and will rely on the navigational methods of ancient Badjao sailors that are passed on from generation to generation. This is to prove that the our ancestors are skilled sea fearers long before Ferdinand Magellan dropped anchor on Philippine shores.
It is a shame that my family and I missed the releasing of the Balangay onto the waters of the Manila bay. I am sure that those who witnessed that event felt proud that they are Filipinos. When my family and I visited the Balangay when it is still being constructed, I wrote in the log book that “First, its the Kon Tiki, then its the RaII. Now its time for the Balangay and its time to show the world that ancient Filipinos are capable of crossing oceans on ancient boats.” Goodluck to the Balangay, may you have a safe voyage.
The balangay, christined “Ngandahig” (some sources say the boat’s name is Diwata ng Lahi, I prefer this as this is more poetic) receiving finishing touches from skilled Badjao craftsmen.
RP with her friends from MAP-Ultra, Bentong, Sarah and Irish. RP is carrying a kitten she found abandoned in Rizal Park and we christined him Balangay.
