From the Nile to the Philippines

Dear Ms. Alice Linsley,

Blessings of Peace and Good Health to You.

I have read your blog for about two months now and what has been bothering me mentally for the past 50 years has been lightened. I seem to understand now why my father, who died in 1994, as said by my uncle who recently died, witness by my mother from their acquaintances in their early years, until I witness it myself, would wake at dawn every day to face the rising sun and pray for two hours, and in the midday, he stopped whatever he was doing to pray, and in the afternoon he faced the downing sun to pray again.

And when in my younger years I asked why he faced the sun to pray he would say "because it is the emblem of God." He would lie kissing the ground but in all his life he was not a follower of Islam. In fact, in the Catholic church in Dauis, Bohol his grandfather Damiano Bulang's name is etched in the first right side Column. How I longed and wish I can show my father to you in his position while performing his dawn prayer facing the sun, and I can hug him today.

Father of Jose C. Bulang

When I was about 9 or 10 years old after reading history of Daniel, about Samson in the Bible, about Alexander the Great in World History, one time I asked my father where we were descended from and he would say it was not clearly known, but his great great great grandfather was a name of Osman and once said that he come from the house of Sulaiman. And so I embark on research in my later life, and I found out that my family name Bulang was name of the place kampung Bulang of the royalty of Malacca/Johore (Hindu-Malay) empire from 1400-1800.

I have read every entry of the www.royalark.net pertaining to Malaysia and Singapore. In fact, I noticed the brother-sister-cousin marriage practice. And it appeared that my great grandfather is a sent away first son of the Sultan Sulaiman Badr Ul Alam Shah who ruled Johor Empire from 1720-1760, and this is together with the sent away grandson of his successor son Sultan who was murdered. The period being the most turbulent in South East Asia being occupied and conflict area by the Dutch and English. In fact, in that Genealogy it appeared that the wife of Sultan Husain who signed the cession of Singapore with Sir Stamford Raffles to British was named Inche Puan Bulang. And so I was wondering and bewildered where our roots are coming from.

And two years ago I have myself DNA profiled under 16 Y-STR, and to my great surprise although I can not exactly understand and interpret it result some of my individual data under are aplenty in Iberian peninsula.

You can see picture of my father while 20 years old when you google the "House of Bulang."  But take no mistake, we are poor and we are working hard to progress as a family. We are related to family who have family name like Tubal, Tubio, and Abejaron which may be read Abd el Iaron.

Anyway, in the wikipaedia there is an entry about Gujarat. It speaks of Gujjars whose origin is unknown but it says that these people were Sun worshipers. It said that its plate has an emblem of God, Sun.

Is it possible that these people known as Gujjars are descended from Horite ruler-priests and maybe descendants of Keturah?

My apology for taking much of your time. I think I just got excited. I am really thankful you have helped me in my research and I hope to God I am not wrong about my presumption.

Thank you and more Power. May Almighty God Bless you always in all your labors.


Very respectfully yours,

JOSE C. BULANG

I am very grateful to Mr. Bulang for contacting me and for his kind words about my research in Biblical Anthropology. It is my hope that this research will help and bless many people. Here I hope to answer some of Mr. Bulang's questions.

The Bulang clans are found in many parts of the world. Some are the original inhabitants of Yunnan in China. Yunnan can also be Yon or Y-On (as in Biblical On on the Nile) or Y-Ainu. There the Bulang live in huts, often on pillars, in the humid mountain forests. A rite of passage to signal readiness for marriage among the Chinese Bulang involves dying their teeth. Among the Nilotic Luo and the Natufians of ancient Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria, the rite, called nak, involved removing six front teeth.

The round houses of the Bulang and their old ways of life resemble those of the Ainu of Northern Japan. Here is a photo of a Bulang women cooking in Yunnan.

Compare this image to the photo below of Ainu women and their homes in Northern Japan.

Note the letter Y in the place called Yunnan. This ancient symbol indicated a people who venerated the Sun, like the Biblical Horites. In fact, the word Jo-hor reflects Horite beliefs. A variant spelling would be Y-Hor and it means Horus is God's appointed, or the Messiah. The point of origin for Messianic expectation is the Nile Valley and the expectation is expressed in the language, images and religion of Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors for whom the Y was a solar cradle that indicated the ruler-priest. That is why the names of many Biblical rulers begin with Y. Yaqtan (Joktan), Yacob (Jacob), Yosef (Joseph), Yeshua (Joshua), Yetro (Jethro) and Yishai (Jesse) are examples.

The cultural context of these people is Kushite. According to Genesis 10, they are descendants of Noah through his grandson Kush and Kush's sons Ramah, Dedan and Nimrod. These are the rulers, priests, merchants and craftsmen of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. The Bible speaks of them as "the mighty men of old." They migrated out of the Upper Nile Valley in different directions, but the main movement was to the east.

Migrations out of the Upper Nile traced genetically

DNA evidence confirms the Kushite migration out of the Nile Valley. There were many migrations, but the Kushan-Yuezhi provide evidence of a relatively recent movement of Kushite craftsmen-traders. By this time, human populations were scattered across the earth wherever there were major water systems. Some of those populations resulted from earlier migrations out of Africa. The first took place about 120,000 years ago and the second about 70,000 years ago. The Kushite expansion coincided with the spread of the Horite religion by the Hapiru. In the proto-Saharan languages p is replaced by b so Hapiru also appears as Habiru (Hebrew).

The Habiru venerated the Sun as the emblem of the Creator, just a Christians venerate the Cross as the emblem of Jesus Christ. They did not worship the Sun, as the Wikipedia article claims. Even today in Judaism the Birka Hachama or “Sun Blessing” is performed every 28 years.

Some Kushite craftsmen-traders moved into central Asia and China, and others moved into Japan. They are also called Gujjar and Gurjar. Gurjar is a reference to their mercantilism and metal work. Bulgaria likely refers to a territory (bul) in which the Gurjar lived.

In Akkadian gurguri means metalworkers or copper smiths. In Somali Oromo gurguru means to sell (gurgurtaa = sale, gurguraa = seller). In Somali gur- refers to collecting something and gurgure means one who collects and keeps collecting. The Gurgure clan of the Somali Dir refers to traders who collect wares and resale them. Among the Dir guri means stick, rod or firearm. Among the Ainu of Northern Japan guruma means wheel. The Ainu of Japan believe the "koro-pok-guru" lived there before the Ainu.

A Gurjar friend tells me that her people are descended from the Kushan and Huns. There are 10 Gujar clans in India: Kasana/Kushana (the largest), Baisla (Baileus in Greek), Khatana, Hoon, Hepthali, Tongar, Chechi, Chawda, Guj and Gorsi. The Kushana of India and the Gurjars of Punjab worship Nana, the goddess of the Nile. There are hundreds of Gurjar clans spread across India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. (The plight of the Gurjars is discussed here.)

These traders and merchants of the ancient world did business along the great rivers and were also seafaring. Their commodities were weighed and evaluated at the shrines by the Horite ruler-priests. This custom is evident in the book of Leviticus where it equates twenty gerahs to one shekel (Lev. 27:25). The custom of the priests weighing and placing value on offerings and traded commodities explains the linguistic connection between the Gurjars and the Horites and between the words ghar/khar and har. In ancient Egypt khar referred to a unit of measurement offered at the temple (James Orr, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, page 1421). The association of the roots gr (trader) and hr (Horite) is evident in Southern India in place names such as Gurgaon Haryana. Mr. Bulang's forefathers came from this part of India.

The movement of craftsmen-traders out of the Nile Valley began long before Abraham's time, so it is not possible for Mr. Bulang to establish lineage from Abraham and Keturah. His ancestors may well have been in Southern India when Abraham lived in Canaan, or they may have been closer to the Philippine Islands. If they came from Arabia originally, they might be related to the Joktanite (Yaqtani) clans of southern Arabia who descend from Keturah's father, Joktan the Elder. In some ancient Near Eastern texts these Arabian craftsmen-traders are called "Sauda-gar."


Related reading: The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Chinese Geneticist: Chinese Ancestors Were Africans; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; The Horite Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Boats and Cows of the Nilo-Saharans; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; More East Africa-Asia Connections; Making Sense of Genesis 10; Sent Away Sons


Dear Ms Linsley,

May Blessings of God most merciful and generous be upon you.

I felt so insignificant and humbled by the knowledge you imparted to me. When I was younger my father would cuddle me while sayings his prayers to God, and blessings upon me. Even now I can visually imagine him standing covering my head with his two palms while I am kneeling and pronouncing blessings for me and to his future descendants.

Thank you for your very valuable help. I felt I have just started my journey back and it is a long way home. It has been a long hard travel of my forefathers from somewhere in Nile through the valleys and mountains of Arabia, the valleys and mountains of India, the rivers and seas of South East Asia, the peace and wars, and finally where and what I am today. I know it is the same experience for others too.

JOSE C. BULANG

Dear Mr. Bulang,

Thank you for sending your DNA Profile. This traces your Y-chromosome ancestry, or your patrilineal ancestry. Y-STR profiles are exactly the same among distantly related males down centuries of patrilineal lines.

Here is an explanation about how DNA profiling works:
http://www.dna-fingerprint.com/static/Null-Alleles.pdf

Scroll down to where it shows the null allele at DYS448. Here no signal was detected in your DNA. So this eliminates from your ancestry all men with this allele. DYS448 is found most in East Asian populations. So it appears that your ancestors did not originate in East Asia.

The primitive Iberian ancestry is really Paleo-North African. This might include ancient Nilo-Saharan peoples, some of whom went to Southern India.

Best wishes,

Alice C. Linsley

Related reading: Kushites in Mindanao; Pythons Used for Sea Navigation; More East Africa-Asia Connections; Dispersion of Words Related to Rica and Millet