The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations.
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (Tagalog: Inskripsyon sa Binatbat na Tanso ng Laguna, literal translation: Inscription on Carved Bronze/Copper of Laguna) is an official document, more precisely an acquittance, inscribed in the Shaka year 822 (Gregorian A.D. 900). It is the earliest known calendar-dated document found within the Philippine Islands.The plate was found in 1989 by a labourer near the mouth of the Lumbang River in Wawa, Lumban, Laguna in the Philippines. The inscription was written in Old Malay using the Kawi script with Sanskrit and Old Javanese influences. After it was found, the text was first translated in 1991 by Antoon Postma, a Dutch anthropologist and Hanunó'o script researcher.The inscription documents the existence and names of several surrounding states as of A.D. 900, such as the Tagalog city-state of Tondo. Some historians suggest that this implies economic, cultural, and political connections between these states, and with the contemporaneous Medang Kingdom in Java.