The Bulol, a healing figurine

By: Nonnette C. Bennett

Unlike the popular notion that the Bulol is a rice deity, it is actually the manlike object that is used to transfer illnesses to. The transference requires the offering of a pig and the participation of a mumbaki or ritualist who offers to ancestors the healing petitions. Thus, it is an object that spares the host from illnesses that are said to have been inherited from elders.

Santos Bayucca, Ifugao artist and historian, said that after the ritual of healing, the objects that are carved to receive that mumbaki incantations are relocated to the granary because these are located at a distance from the home.  These do not guard the rice stocks but instead are supposed to store the negative energies of sickness and make the family member well.

Pig blood is poured over the head of the Bulol while prayers are expressed to transfer the illness to the sculpture. Other offerings also adorn this until the sick are spared from the malady. When the human is healed, it is then placed at a distance from the household to resolve the disease. Santos said that the moment that the Bulol is removed from the location near the rice granary, the ailment returns to the same member of the family or kin.

The ritual is repeated for healing again if the old figurine is not found. The recovery of the former Bulol is still imperative to spare the family from the same infirmity.

Many of the Bulols that are commonly seen around museums or art hubs are merely representations but are not those used in curative rites. The Bulols are not demi-gods for bountiful harvests of rice.