Kulaman Burial Jars in Dumaguete

Perhaps I’m really fated to see the burial jars of Kulaman with or without much effort. I am now based in Dumaguete City, specifically at Silliman University, which happens to be one of only two universities that conducted studies on the burial jars (the other one being University of San Carlos in Cebu City). Since November last year, at the start of the second semester, I’ve been a graduate teaching fellow at Silliman. I’m on something like a scholarship. I’m taking up masteral classes for free, and in exchange, I have to teach two undergraduate subjects.

I learned that Silliman was in need of a graduate teaching fellow on the third week of November. In a hurry, and without really expecting to be accepted, I sent my resume through email. As I’ve said, it must be fated. I was asked to come here in Dumaguete that very week. I asked permission from the company I’m working for in Cebu City, and after some serious negotiations, I was allowed to keep my job and work from home. So here I am now, walking inside the campus of Silliman on weekdays, just a few hundred meters away from a group of Kulaman burial jars.

The burial jars, along with other artifacts from other parts of the country, are housed on the second floor of Kalayaan Hall, which serves as the Silliman University Anthropological Museum. The jars were taken away from Kulaman Plateau in the late 1960s. In 1965–66, Samuel Briones, a graduate student at Silliman, led the exploration. Manuel Maceda of the University of San Carlos had gone to Kulaman Plateau first, but Briones went to a different spot. While Maceda conducted his study in the hamlet of Menteng, which is part of the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino today, Briones went to Salangsang , a village in the municipality of Lebak.

Kalayaan Hall, perhaps the most iconic building in Silliman University,

houses the Kulaman jars on its second floor.

In 1967–68, two foreign anthropologists conducted further research in Salangsang: Edward B. Kurjack, of the University of Miami, and Craig T. Sheldon, of the University of Oregon. They were the ones who, through carbon dating, found out that the jars are about 1,500 years old. Kurjack and Sheldon were affiliated with Silliman, but I’m not sure what role the university specifically played in their research. They might be graduate students enrolled in Silliman or just conducted their thesis through the help of the university. I will find out in the next months, for Kurjack and Sheldon had some papers about the jars published in Silliman Journal. I’ll look for copies of those papers in the school library.

I was able to visit the museum on the first or second week of December. Too bad, taking pictures is not allowed there. I had a digital camera with me, and truth be told, I was tempted to steal some shots. The CCTV camera, however, was just two or three meters away from the limestone jars and its red dots menacing, so I kept my hands where they should be. Besides, I don’t mind waiting for the right time for me to take pictures. I believe time will come when circumstances will allow me to openly say to people, “Hey, I’m writing a book on the burial jars. Allow me access to this and that.” For now, though, I’m happy enough as an obscure blogger.