Antique Filipino Ifugao Bulul Wooden Tribal Ritual Sculpture

Details

Description

This very old Bulul is a carved wooden sculpture that was used to guard their rice crop by the Ifugao … Read more This very old Bulul is a carved wooden sculpture that was used to guard their rice crop by the Ifugao people of northern Luzon Island in the Philippines. He's an emblematic depiction of the people's ancestors, who lend power by the presence of their spirits. Bulul were formerly used in ceremonies to help with healing and crop production. The priests conducted a ritual to empower the statue.

This particular Bulul has a typical simplified from -- he does not have a loincloth and he's shown squatting on the ground with his arms crossed over his knees. He seems to have been carved from local narra wood. The top of his head shows shallow pitting, darkening and shine from the repeated rubbing of greases during blessings.

I inherited this Bulul in 1982 -- about 45 years ago -- in San Francisco, where there's a large Filipino population, and I don't really know anything about its provenance before that. I'm told that the local shamans on Luzon claim that no Bulul have been used in rituals since sometime in the early sixties. Since this one shows very clear evidence of long-term ceremonial use, it's reasonable to believe that he's much older than that, but I've no proof. See less