Many years, scholars believed that Ma-i was likely to have been on the island of Mindoro within the Municipality of Bulalacao as there is an old settlement there named Mait.
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12 Facts About Ma-i
2.
Ma-i is first mentioned in Volume 186 of official history of the Song Dynasty, which lists Ma-i among the southern sea nations with whom Chinese merchants traded in the year 971 AD.
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3.
In 1225, the Zhu Fan Zhi noted that "the country of Ma-i is to the north of Borneo" and added that few pirates reach these shores.
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4.
For example, in supporting Blumentritt's proposition that Ma-i was somewhere on Luzon Island, Rizal cites the Zhu Fan Zhi's use of the word "Buddhas" as evidence:.
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5.
Chinese records made no specific note of the solid food the people of Ma-i ate, but the Daoyi Zhilue did describe their process for making alcoholic beverages:.
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6.
Ma-i never sent a tribute mission to China and probably never needed to: it flourished during the Sung Dynasty when the imperial government was encouraging Chinese merchants to carry their goods abroad in their own ships.
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7.
Early theories for the location of Ma-i include locations in Central Luzon, or the Southern Tagalog area.
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8.
Many 20th Century Scholars came to accept the idea that Ma-i was located on the island of Mindoro, based on the name of Mait, a place on the island.
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9.
Idea that Ma-i was located somewhere in the Tagalog region was proposed early on by scholars such as Blumentritt and Rizal.
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10.
Ma-i suggested that Chinese orthography equally allows for the possibility that Ma-i became Bay, Laguna, whose name is pronounced "Ba-eh" by locals.
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11.
Ma-i notes that Bay is a match for the physical characteristics of Ma-i, and that numerous artifacts found in the area suggest the presence of a prosperous pre-colonial settlement.
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12.
Philippine historians of the middle and late 20th century widely believed Ma-i could be equated with "Mait", a place now located in Mindoro, because research by Fay Cooper Cole for the Field Museum in Chicago in 1912 discovered that the ancient name of Mindoro was Mait.
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