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

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of 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 west, Mountain Province to the north, Isabela t ...

(and their sub-tribe Kalanguya) people of northern

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

. 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. Ifugao_people_rice_gods12

Use

Bu-luls 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 bu-lul 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 sometimes the buttocks. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or breechclo ...

, 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. However, an Ifugao former "mumbaki" (

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

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

(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