Palawan

Palawan

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the...

, the largest province in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, is home to several indigenous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 ethnolinguistic groups namely, the Kagayanen >http://kagayanenmovement.webs.com/, Tagbanwa, Palawano, Taaw't Bato, Molbog and the Batak

Batak (Philippines)

The Batak are one of about 70 indigenous peoples of the Philippines. They are located in the northeastern portions of Palawan, a relatively large island in the southwest of the archipelago. There are only about 500 Batak remaining. Also called Tinitianes, the Batak are considered by anthropologists...

 tribes. They live in remote villages in the mountains and coastal areas.

It is believed that their ancestors occupied the province long before Malay settlers from the Majapahit Empire

Majapahit Empire

Majapahit was a vast archipelagic empire based on the island of Java from 1293 to around 1500. Majapahit reached its peak of glory during the era of Hayam Wuruk, whose reign from 1350 to 1389 marked by conquest which extended through Southeast Asia. His achievement is also credited to his prime...

 of Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 arrived in these islands in the later 12th or 13th centuries.

In 1962, a team of anthropologists from the National Museum

National Museum of the Philippines

The Museum of the Filipino People is a department of the National Museum of the Philippines that houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions of the National Museum. It is located in the Agrifina Circle, Rizal Park, Manila adjacent to the main National Museum building...

 led by Dr.