Bulul, Ifugao

All Artworks

Granary figures("bululs")

Full Screen

3D Model

Virtual Exhbition

MUSEUM LABEL

Attributed to the carver Taguiling

Rice granary guardian male and female figures (bulul)

1900–25

Ifugao, Kababuyan, North Luzon, Philippines

Carved wood

Fowler Museum at UCLA, X86.5522; anonymous gift

Attributed to the carver Taguiling

Rice granary guardian male and female figures (bulul)

1900–25

Ifugao, Kababuyan, North Luzon, Philippines

Carved wood

Fowler Museum at UCLA, X86.5522; anonymous gift

Attributed to the carver Taguiling

Rice granary guardian male and female figures (bulul)

1900–25

Ifugao, Kababuyan, North Luzon, Philippines

Carved wood

Fowler Museum at UCLA, X86.5522; anonymous gift

DESCRIPTION

Bululs are consecrated wooden figures central to Ifugao life. They are invoked to ensure plentiful rice harvests and are regarded as ancestral presences that mediate between human and spiritual worlds. Carved in male–female pairs and often kept in granaries, bululs are distinctive in an Ifugao pantheon of more than a thousand deities, as they are the only ones given physical form.

This pair was likely created in the early 1900s by master carver Taguiling as a commission from Owen A. Tomlinson (b. 1882), an American Constabulary officer and colonial administrator in Ifugao during the early years of U.S. rule. The bululs’ facial features reflect the likeness of their colonial patron. While serving as ritual guardians of rice, they also capture a moment when Indigenous carving traditions engaged with colonial power, demonstrating both cultural continuity and local agency.

26 PERSPECTIVES

5 PEOPLE

Stephen

Acabado

Professor, Department of Anthropology at University of California, Los Angeles

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Armand

Camhol

Doctoral candidate

National Chengchi University in Taiwan

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Paulette

Crespillo-Cuison

President of the Kiyyangan Weavers Association (a member organization of the Save the lfugao Terraces Movement (SITMo))

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Eulalie

Dulnuan

Tourism and Cultural Officer

President of the Ifugao Intangible Heritage and Performing Arts Society

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Marlon

Martin

Executive director of Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement

Co-director of Ifugao Archaeological Project

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Stephen

Acabado

Professor, Department of Anthropology at University of California, Los Angeles

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Armand

Camhol

Doctoral candidate

National Chengchi University in Taiwan

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Paulette

Crespillo-Cuison

President of the Kiyyangan Weavers Association (a member organization of the Save the lfugao Terraces Movement (SITMo))

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Eulalie

Dulnuan

Tourism and Cultural Officer

President of the Ifugao Intangible Heritage and Performing Arts Society

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Marlon

Martin

Executive director of Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement

Co-director of Ifugao Archaeological Project

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t006

t005

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Stephen

Acabado

Professor, Department of Anthropology at University of California, Los Angeles

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Armand

Camhol

Doctoral candidate

National Chengchi University in Taiwan

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A0006

Paulette

Crespillo-Cuison

President of the Kiyyangan Weavers Association (a member organization of the Save the lfugao Terraces Movement (SITMo))

t004

t006

t003

t005

v0237

v0238

A0006

Eulalie

Dulnuan

Tourism and Cultural Officer

President of the Ifugao Intangible Heritage and Performing Arts Society

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A0006

Marlon

Martin

Executive director of Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement

Co-director of Ifugao Archaeological Project

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10 THEMES

History, Politics, and Economics

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Ecology and Environment

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Medicine and Well-being

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Indigeneity

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History, Politics, and Economics

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Language, Memory, and Iconography

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History, Politics, and Economics

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Ecology and Environment

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Language, Memory, and Iconography

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Medicine and Well-being

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The Art of Rice Spirit and Sustenance in Asia

https://fowler.ucla.edu/product/the-art-of-rice-spirit-and-sustenance-in-asia/

Basketry of the Luzon Cordillera, Philippines (traveling exhibition)

https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/philippine-basketry-luzon-cordillera-fowler-museum-ucla

Marlon Martin public program

https://fowler.ucla.edu/events/lecture-sustaining-heritage-and-empowering-communities-the-dynamic-legacy-of-the-ifugao-rice-terraces/

Mountain Spirits Exhibition

https://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/mountain-spirits/

Argus

https://argus.fowler.ucla.edu/final/Portal/Default.aspx?component=AAFG&record=29eda787-cc17-4276-ab48-5494555e0550