Current Time in Butuan, Philippines

Butuan stands in the north-east of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, on the lower reaches of the Agusan River a short distance before it empties into Butuan Bay. It is the regional centre of Caraga, and the surrounding country is a broad alluvial plain of rice fields, coconut and banana plantations backed by forested mountains. The river dominates local life, providing transport and fish while also bringing seasonal floods.

Around three hundred and seventy thousand people live in the city, which is administratively independent of its province, Agusan del Norte. Butuan serves as the commercial, transport and government hub for the whole Caraga region, and its economy rests on agriculture, agri-processing, retail and services. For much of the twentieth century it was called the timber city of the south, and the logs floated down the Agusan built its early prosperity, though forestry has since given way to farming and trade.

Butuan's history is remarkable and increasingly well documented. Long before Spanish contact this was the seat of a wealthy trading polity that exchanged gold, forest products and pottery with Champa, Srivijaya and Song dynasty China. Chinese court records mention envoys from Butuan arriving in the eleventh century. Archaeologists working in the riverine mud since the 1970s have recovered a series of large wooden plank-built boats, known as balangay, the oldest dating from the fourth century, which are among the most important prehistoric finds in South East Asia and are protected as national cultural treasures. Spectacular goldwork, including the celebrated Golden Tara found in the Agusan valley, testifies to the sophistication of the culture.

The Balangay Shrine Museum, built over the excavated boats, and the Butuan National Museum, which displays gold ornaments, ceramics and burial coffins, are the essential visits. Butuan also maintains a claim, long debated with Limasawa island, to be the site of the first Christian mass in the Philippines in 1521, commemorated by the Magellan Shrine and a large cross. Further afield lies the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, an enormous freshwater wetland of floating villages, lotus lakes and thousands of migratory birds, one of the most extraordinary landscapes in the country.

Local culture blends lowland Christian Filipino traditions with those of the Manobo, Higaonon and other indigenous peoples of the interior, whose weaving and beadwork are sold in the city. The Kahimunan Festival in January, honouring the Santo Niño, brings street dancing and drums, and the local food is built on river fish, seafood and the sweet native delicacies of Mindanao.

Bancasi Airport offers daily flights to Manila and Cebu, national highways run along the coast and inland, and ferries and buses connect the city to the rest of Mindanao. Caraga State University and Father Saturnino Urios University give Butuan a large student population.

Butuan combines an unexpectedly deep archaeological past with the everyday energy of a regional capital, and it is the natural gateway to north-eastern Mindanao.