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Originally Posted by Battara
Mabuhay Maharlika Timawa,
To my understanding early accounts of the Philippines seem to indicate the kampilan was not a Moro creation so much as it was a common weapon in various forms among several island areas from Borneo to the Malaccas to Luzon to he Visayas to the Moro lands. With the advent of colonial Spanish rule, it seems to have died out among the Luzonos and Visayans.
Note: if I remember right, the Luzon version as shorter than the Maranao version.
And yes, the Spanish banned bladed weaponry in their areas of control (as much as they could) because Filipinos were too good with bolos - any bolos.  |
Shorter? The sizes the kampilan usually comes in, is 36-48 inches (3-4ft) in length. Quite odd that the kris was evidently used in the Visayans while the the Kampilan is still a theory. Although, The Visayans use of Kiuo or quiuoquiuo which was “wavy” like the Muslim kris. The Calis was a sword used by the three regions. The kampil or kampilan was favored for close range fighting but the lack of the word in the vocabularios makes it evident that it was not made by both Visayans and Tagalog smiths. Presumably, they were made and brought in from Mindanao by Muslim traders.
But again this is also just a theory considering that swords like the katana was used by the animist filipinos from trade with the Japanese. Isn't it possible that the Filipinos had their own long sword whether it may of been the kampilan or something else? the dayaks had weapon that very much resembles the kampilan and they were also animist. Maybe its possible that the kampilan existed among Visayans and Luzon.