Parrots, spices and royal ambition: when the Kingdom of Butuan reached out to Song Dynasty China
More than a thousand years ago, the Kingdom of Butuan, in what is now the northern Mindanao region, sent envoys and prized goods across the sea to Song Dynasty China. Behind those missions were people with names, responsibilities, and stories—giving a human face to a centuries-old connection.
The gifts included red parrots. The business was royal. More than a thousand years ago, the Kingdom of Butuan was reaching across the sea to Song Dynasty China, sending representatives with valuable goods and a clear understanding that connections mattered. No instant messages. No flights. No quick video calls to settle the arrangements. Making contact meant undertaking a journey—and Butuan kept making the effort. William Henry Scott’s “Filipinos in China Before 1500,” cited in my third book A Malayan Tale: Pre-colonial Philippines and Its Relations with Southeast Asia, China and Europe, offers a glimpse of this outward-looking kingdom. According to Scott, the first Philippine tribute mission to China appears to have come from Butuan on March 17, 1001.