Bulul, also known as bul-ul or tinagtaggu, is a carved wooden figure used to guard the rice crop by the

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of Ifugao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ifugao; tl, Lalawigan ng Ifugao), is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the wes ...

(and their sub-tribe Kalanguya) peoples of northern

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

. The sculptures are highly stylized representations of ancestors and are thought to gain power and wealth from the presence of the ancestral spirit. The Ifugao are particularly noted for their skill in carving bulul.

Use

Bul'uls are used in ceremonies associated with rice production and with healing. The creation of a bulul involves alwen bulul ritual by a priest to ensure that the statue gains power. The bul'ul is treated with care and respect to avoid the risk of the spirits of the ancestors bringing sickness. The figures are placed together with the rice in the house or granaries to bring a plentiful harvest. The bulul is important to

s because they believe they can protect and multiply the rice and help make the harvest abundant.

Form

Male and female Bulul statues are often found together, with sex-related symbols such as the mortar for the female and pestle for the male. Male bulul may sometimes be depicted with

loincloth A loincloth is a one-piece garment, either wrapped around itself or kept in place by a belt. It covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or ...

, and females with '' tapis'' ( wrap skirts), earrings and anklets. Although the form varies, the bulul is commonly represented as seated on the ground, with arms crossed over his upraised knees. The bulul has a simplified form, and is traditionally carved from narra or ipil wood. The bulul is touched by hands dipped in the blood of a chicken or pig in a ritual called ''tunod'' during the rice planting season. Over time the blood imparts a dark color to the figures, overlaid with a patina of grease from food offerings. Bulul are handed down to the first child of a family. Typically the older statues have beetle holes made by insects in the granary. Bulul are nowadays mostly manufactured for the tourist trade, but a local family may buy such a bulul and use it for ceremonial purposes, thus in a sense adding

authenticity Authenticity or authentic may refer to: * Authentication, the act of confirming the truth of an attribute Arts and entertainment * Authenticity in art, ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic Music * A ...

. However, an Ifugao former "mumbaki" (

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

) stated that the last traditional rituals were held in the 1960s. Some of the carvers, such as

Rey Paz Contreras Rey Paz Contreras (August 31, 1950-March 23, 2021) is a prominent Filipino sculptor working with urban refuse and environmental materials as artistic media. He is inspired by the indigenous Filipino culture and creates visual forms of contemporar ...

, have become well-known artists, with their work exhibited and sold widely in the western world. Contreras uses discarded wood from the railways for his carvings of Bulul and other

Anito ''Anito'', also spelled ''anitu'', refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associati ...

(guardian deity) figures.

References

External links

*{{cite web , url=http://www.google.ca/images?q=Bulul&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=yJaYTYK9MPSw0QHryfD-Cw&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=687 , title=Bulul images Religion in the Philippines Culture of Ifugao Austronesian spirituality

Use

Form

See also

References

External links