of spices and empires

One of the advantages of participating on internet forums is having to meet with likeminded individuals, or even opposite minded ones but both with grit to discuss specific topics that otherwise one may not likely discourse with people in one's limited geographic location.

Internet forums now enable to meet individuals to share ideas despite the distance, be it from this country or from other nationalities enabling wider exchange and broader insights of topics.


From these forums I gained insights about this country's pre-colonial history from individuals who dared to think beyond the mediocrity and timidity surrounding them. Neither can one find such insights from this country's mainstream educational system, infamously inept in providing in-depth knowledge especially pertaining to pre-colonial eras, that had unwittingly patterned its curriculum instead after its Spanish colonizer, then eventually other foreign interests, inevitably weakening its rootedness as a nation and succumbing to inferior colonial mindset among its constituents.




It had been said (with mention to forumer albertus magnus) that the inhabitants of pre-colonial Philippines may actually be the last bastion of the fusion between two prominent Southeast Asian empires, the Sri-Vijayan and Majapahit Empires. In my opinion, these may partly explain why the pre-colonial inhabitants display a seemingly unusual profusion of gold jewelries. So widespread were the use of these precious metals that even slaves wore gold ornaments, and otherwise ordinary utensils such as combs were said to be made of shining gold. It seemed intriguing whether ancient Southeast Asian peoples during those times had such habit of displaying abundant extravagance among its mainstream constituents, but least likely may be the case. Perhaps this profusion of wealth could partly explain that the inhabitants of this country may indeed be remnants of the fusion between those once mighty and prosperous empires.




The Sri Vijayan Empire existed between 7th -14th AD while the Majapahit Empire in the years 1293-1500. Although both empires were based in present day Indonesia (Sri Vijaya being traced in the island of Sumatra with its capital city Palembang, and the Majapahit Empire in Java island), a phenomenon may have occured that eventually pushed the empire to the archipelagic islands in its last remaining days.





The kingdoms of Southeast Asia once played a very vital role in the lucrative spice trade routes that brought within the empire vast prosperity. Most likely, the rapid spread of a foreign religion, Islam in most of the mainland areas eventually pushed the empire's staunch inhabitants that refused to convert to Islam, and neither surrendering their wealth, to the edges of its trade routes, in the cluster of archipelago islands beyond the seas. As the Islamic empire ultimately succeeded at blocking the lucrative spice trade routes to the Christian West, the latter was obliged to find an alternative route to the East that eventually led it to these archipelago islands, the present day Philippines, unwittingly named after its colonizer.





map of 15th century Spice Trade of pre-colonial Southeast Asia

The vast wealth accumulated by the empire was said to be safely hidden secretly underground (to be guarded until a more deserving generation will partake of it) even with the aid of the ancient ancestors' deities of higher dimensional plane such as nature spirits or the Diwatas (knowledge of such entities together with other vestiges of pre-colonial culture were supressed and destroyed by the colonizers with its religious bigotry and political grip, and even by its present lackey of an educational system) to keep it away from foreign invaders that began with the Spanish explorers that eventually colonized the islands.



It had been said that a fraction of these wealth were exposed during the tumultous event in Philippines history during the time of deposed president Marcos, in which the legendary Yamashita treasures were said to be part of it. Some of the alleged "Marcos wealth" that were exposed upon their exile were even unaccounted for by the Marcoses themselves, as if appearing out of somewhere.