Marlon Martin explains that the carver Taguiling became well known because he created the bulul figures commissioned by Edward K. Tomlinson in the early 1900s. As part of Tomlinson’s prestige ritual, he required a male–female pair of bululs, and Taguiling—an accomplished woodcarver from the Cababuyan region—interpreted the commission in his own way. Believing that the bululs of foreigners should resemble them, he carved figures with distinctly Caucasian features, producing what became the first and only authenticated “American” bululs.