page_title: Negros Island
section_title: Precolonial era
hierarchical_section_title: Negros Island / History / Precolonial era
caption_attribution_description: English: A Negrito from Negros Island (c. 1900, Philippines)
context_page_description: Negros is the fourth largest island of the Philippines, with a land area of 13,309.60 km². Negros is one of the many islands that comprise the Visayas, in the central part of the country. The predominant inhabitants of the island region are mainly called Negrenses. As of 2015, the total population of Negros is 4,414,131.
  From May 29, 2015 to August 9, 2017, the whole island was governed as an administrative region which was officially named the Negros Island Region which comprised the highly urbanized city of Bacolod and the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, along with its corresponding outlying islands and islets within a total regional area of 13,350.74 km². It was created on May 29, 2015 by virtue of Executive Order No. 183 issued by Benigno Aquino III, who was the president at that time. In August 9, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Executive Order No. 38 dissolving the Negros Island Region.
context_section_description: Negros was originally called Buglas, an old Hiligaynon word thought to mean "cut off", as it is believed that the island was separated from a larger landmass by rising waters during the last ice age. Among its earliest inhabitants were the dark-skinned Ati people, one of several aboriginal Negrito ethnic groups dispersed throughout Southeast Asia that possesses a unique culture. The westernmost portions of the island soon fell under the nominal rule of the Kedatuan of Madja-as from the neighboring islands of Panay and Guimaras, while the easternmost areas were influenced by the Rajahnate of Cebu from neighboring Cebu Island.
caption: An Ati man with a hunting bow (c. 1900) from Negros Island
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