PRE-SPANISH

IN THE
VISAYAS
(PRE-COLONIAL IN THE VISAYAS)

CASTRO, Rojeal BSED ENGLISH 2

wHAT IS PRE-
SPANISH?
In Philippine history, the year 1521
marks the arrival of the first
colonial power, and the beginning of
what is often called the Spanish
period. This period is thus described
as the pre-colonial era or the pre-
Spanish era
 HIGH CULTURE: THE
VISAYANS BEFORE SPANISH
COLONIZATION WERE
BADASSES
Visayans were feared and respected as
warriors.
War and virility were very much
central to the pre-colonial Visayan
culture. The Visayans were seafarers
and raiders who attacked each other or,
more often than not, other islands near
the archipelago. Their most common
targets were the Moros and the
Maranao people of Mindanao, though it
wasn’t strange for them to reach as far
north as Luzon either. An account from
Legazpi talked of how Rajah Suleyman
of Tondo saw the Visayans as fierce
warriors only to become weak under
Spanish influence
THE BELIEFS OF PRE-
SPANISH IN THE
VISAYAS
PRE-CHRISTIANITY
 Prior to the arrival of
Catholicism, precolonial
Visayans adhered to a
complex animist and
Hindu-Buddhist system
where spirits in nature
were believed to govern
all existing life.
PRE-SPANISH IN THE
VISAYAS COSTUMES
 The patadyong (pronounced pa-
tad-jóng, also called patadyung,
patadjong, habol, or habul), is an
indigenous Philippine rectangular
or tube-like wraparound skirt
worn by both men and women of
the Visayas islands and the Sulu
Archipelago , similar to the
Malong , or Sarong
 PRE-SPANISH
CULTURES IN THE
VISAYAS
 Visayans practiced unique body modification.
Aside from tattoos, which led the Spanish to called them pintados, the Visayans also had a lot of
practices modern society would consider strange. One of the most prevalent tradition was
decorating their teeth black by chewing anipay root or applying a tar-based coating called tapul.
They also chewed betel nut, ant eggs, or kaso flowers to paint their teeth red.
 Visayans were top
class drinkers.

Aside from fighting and, uh, fornication, Visayans were known as hard drinkers. The Spanish
detested meeting with Visayans because they wouldn’t discuss anything without a drink, and they
saw it as “attempts to subvert their occupation.” But Visayans were not alcoholics—they detested
being drunk in public and they had a sophisticated drinking culture.
 There was a Visayan alphabet, though
there is dispute if it was different or
similar to the Tagalog baybayin.
Regardless, they didn’t use their
alphabet for literature. That’s not to
say Visayan literature didn’t exist.
Visayan speech was full of prose and
metaphor, and Visayan poetry was
filled with colorful imagery with its
own poetic vocabulary.
Visayans were poets and
musicians.
THANK YOU VERY
MUCH!