The Only Foreign Royal Tomb in China

Beiying Village is just an ordinary village in Dezhou City, Shandong Province. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passes by the rural village. What makes the village unusual is a grand mausoleum where a foreign monarch is buried. The mausoleum is nearly 600 years old. It is the mausoleum of the Eastern King Paduka Batara of the ancient Sulu Kingdom in the Philippines of today. The tomb is now a key cultural relic under state protection. It is also a tourism attraction on the Grand Canal.

In the early 15th century, China was an oceangoing power in the world. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) boasted advanced ship making technologies. Zheng He traveled south and west in giant treasure ships seven times (1405-1433). Emperor Zhu Di was the mastermind of the great voyages southward and westward. As Zheng He reached distant parts of the world such as Southeast Asia, Mid-East and Africa, China’s reputation spread and some foreign kings and envoys came to visit China during that period of time.

In 1417 (the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Zhu Di), three kings of the Sulu kingdom came with a 340-people entourage including royal family members, doctors and servants. Eastern King Paduka Batara was the most important king of the three kings. They landed at Quanzhou City in Fujian Province. A scholar of the Ming Dynasty recorded the large-scale visit by observing that the royal houses had left the kingdom behind.

After learning about their arrival in Quanzhou, the Chinese Emperor instructed local governments to receive them royally. A special diplomatic envoy was sent from the capital to welcome the three kings halfway in Yingtian (today’s Nanjing) on the Yangtze River. A special banquet was held to entertain the three kings in Yingtian. The Sulu kings arrived in Beijing in the mid August, 1417.

The Chinese Emperor held a welcome ceremony in the Forbidden City. The three kings presented a great many gifts including pearls, gems, and tortoise shells. Emperor Zhu Di conferred the king’s title officially upon the Eastern King Paduka Batara of the Sulu Kingdom. During their time in Beijing, the honored guests were afforded the finest reception. When the three kings left the Chinese capital for home, they brought with them a great quantity of gifts.

The three kings stayed 27 days in Beijing before setting out on the home journey in September, 1417. They were traveling southward on the Grand Canal when Eastern King Paduka Batara unfortunately fell ill in the north of Dezhou and died at a government hotel. After learning about the death of the Eastern King, the Chinese Emperor dispatched a high-ranking official from the Board of Rites and Ceremonies to Dezhou with a funeral oration. The imperial minister presided over the funeral.

The Ming government built a large royal tomb compound around the tomb. A memorial temple was erected in front of the tomb. A large stone stele was established under the instruction of the Chinese emperor in the honor of the Eastern King Paduka Batara. Emperor Zhu Di penned a memorial inscription for the stone monument.

Official Chinese history has a detailed description of the architecture: the memorial temple was completed in the early 1418. The whole architecture adopted the style and scale appropriate for princes of the Ming Dynasty. The main hall was five pillars wide whereas the west and east wing halls each was three pillars wide. The temple had stone statues in the shape of humans, horses and sheep along the tomb passage and a towering memorial archway. The Ming Government also gave 238 mu of farmland to the descendents of the Eastern King Paduka Batara who stayed behind to guard the tomb. Income from the farmland was tax free forever. The descendents who stayed to guard the tomb received monthly government stipends.

In 1730, namely the 8th year of the reign of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the king of Sulu Kingdom visited China. On his way to Beijing, he visited the memorial temple in Dezhou. He related the dilapidated conditions of the temple to the Emperor Yongzheng. After he returned to the Sulu Kingdom in 1731, he sent Sulu officials to China to make arrangements for the tomb maintenance. After Chinese officials inspected the tomb and authenticated the conditions, the Qing government allotted a fund in 1732 to get the tomb repaired.

During this important visit, the king of Sulu Kingdom applied to the Qing Government for Chinese citizenships on behalf of Eastern King Paduka Batara’s descendents who had lived around the tomb. In 1735, the Chinese government issued a permanent license to An Ruqi and Wen Congkai, the eighth-generation descendents of the Eastern King in China. Each of the An and Wen families would have a guardian with official title and the title was inheritable. Since then, the two branches have lived in Dezhou peacefully as Chinese. Data shows that since 1417, there have been 21-generation descendents of the Eastern King Paduka Batara in Dezhou. At present, the Wen branch has 68 people in 13 families and the An branch has 216 descendents in 53 families. Altogether there are 284 descendents of the Eastern King Paduka Batara living in Dezhou, Shandong Province.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, the tomb has been under the government protection. In 1956, the Shandong Provincial Government designated the tomb as a key cultural relic at the provincial level. In 1980, the State Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Shandong Government allocated funds to have the stone statues restored. All the fourteen statues were repaired and put back to the original spots along the tomb passage. In 1985, Dezhou City Government had the memorial temple rebuilt and expanded. In 1997, Dezhou City Government further expanded the tomb compound, adding a 310-meter-long wall, a stele corridor, a drainage system and a lot of trees.

Today, the restored and expanded tomb compound is a grander architectural structure appropriate for a king, grander than it was originally built. The tomb is an international royal mausoleum in China, a witness to the history of diplomatic relations between Sulu and China.

In 1980, the Philippine Ambassador to China visited the tomb and met with the descendents of the Eastern King Paduka Batara in Dezhou. In 1986, a large television drama called Sulu King and Chinese Emperor was produced, a Sino-Pilipino joint venture.