Paduka Pahala (died 1417) was East King of Sulu, most famous for being the first king from the area of the modern day Philippines to be buried in China. He ruled one of the three Kingdoms on Sulu during his time.

Journey to China and Demise of the Sultan

During 1417, the East King of

Sulu Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg''; tl, Lalawigan ng Sulu), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamor ...

, Paduka Pahala, sailed with his family and 300 other people of noble descent. He was to pay tribute to the Yongle Chinese emperor,

Zhu Di The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyna ...

, who was of the Ming Dynasty. While he was welcomed by the emperor upon his arrival in China, he nevertheless contracted a mysterious disease on his way home and died at

Dezhou Dezhou () is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southeast, Liaocheng to the southwest, Binzhou to the northeast, and the province of Hebei t ...

, a town in

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

province in China. The emperor immediately commissioned artisans and sculptors to build a tomb for the deceased monarch, which still stands today.

Descendants

Tradition dictates that the descendants of Paduka Pahala remained in China and were subsequently classified as members of the

Hui The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...

nationality since they converted to Islam while in Shandong and were attended to by Hui people living there. The surnames of the descendants of the two sons Paduka left in Shandong are An and Wen.

Popular culture

He was immortalised in the Filipino film'' Hari sa Hari, Lahi sa Lahi'', which recounts his voyage to China to give tribute to the Chinese Emperor.Hari sa Hari

References

1417 deaths 15th-century monarchs in Asia Year of birth unknown People from Sulu 15th-century Filipino people {{Asia-royal-stub