A List of Limestone Jars in Sultan Kudarat Museum

The Provincial Tourism Office and Museum of Sultan Kudarat contains fourteen specimens of limestone burial jars. One is a jar with a lid, two are jars that are almost intact, six are fragments of jars, and five are lids that have been separated from the jars that they used to cover. Most of these specimens are placed in front of the tall display case that contains items from the municipality of Lebak. The smallest of the almost-intact jars is inside the display case. The large jar that has a lid has been moved from one spot to another. It cannot be ascertained yet which municipality it came from. It’s the first limestone jar that came into the museum’s possession, and it is a subject of my post more than a year ago. Below are my more-detailed notes on all fourteen specimens.

1—This is a piece of a broken small quadrangular jar.
2—This is a lid that has a circular base and missing top.
3—This is a big cylindrical jar with vertical flutings.
4—This is the base of a quadrangular jar with vertical flutings.
5—This is a lid that looks like an inverted bowl at the base and has a simple tubelike handle. The surface is covered with vertical flutings.
6—This is a piece of a broken small quadrangular jar with flutings on the sides.
7—This is a jar cover that is squarelike at the base and topped by a figure of a bald human head. The right side of the head is missing, including the right eyebrow and the right eye. The left eyebrow, the left eye, and the mouth are excavated. The nose is embossed. The face looks serene; the person buried in the jar might have been a sage or a venerated chieftain. Tiny arms are embossed from the neck of the figure to the edge of the base.
8—This is a piece of a broken small quadrangular jar.
9—This is smaller than specimen no. 8 and probably a part of it.
10—This is the base of a broken quadrangular jar.
11—This is a lid that is square and flat at the base and topped by a round handle. The surface is pockmarked, heavily on the handle and lightly on the base. Tiny and close lines run from the bottom of the handle to the edge of the base.
12—This is a spherical lid topped by a tubelike handle with a missing upper part.
13—This is a tiny quadrangular jar broken on one side. The surface is adorned with horizontal lines that have crisscrossing diagonal lines in between. The lines are thin and straight, which indicates that a sharp and tiny metal was used in making them, which indicates that the jar is newer than the ones that were carved using stone flakes.
14—This is a big quadrangular burial jar with a pyramid-shaped lid. Diamond-like designs cover the entire surface. One side of the lid is broken at the base, forming a horizontal and oblong hole.

Specimen no. 13 in Sultan Kudarat Museum

Jars from Lebak in Sultan Kudarat Museum

Limestone burial jars and other interesting items from Lebak town

My mother told me, “I didn’t know you wrote something about burial jars for the provincial museum.” I frowned and answered, “No, I didn’t.” She explained that she had been to the Provincial Tourism Office and Museum to transact some business and she had seen a label for burial jars there that mentioned my name. “You wrote that the jars are one thousand five hundred years old,” she added.

I figured out that the staff of the tourism office must have quoted something I wrote online. “No,” I told my mom. “It wasn’t me who said the jars are that old. I was simply quoting an anthropologist who did a test on a bone that was found inside a jar.” I was embarrassed that something scientific was attributed to me, a blogger who has too much time in his hand. I decided to visit the museum to ask the staff there to change whatever needed changing. I also wanted to see the burial jars that my mom had described. She had told me that the museum had several pieces of burial jars from the municipality of Lebak. I had not seen them before. When I went to the museum more than a year earlier, the place only had one large burial jar.

I didn’t see the label that my mom had told me about. It was supposed to be attached to the large burial jar, which had been placed in front of a display case containing Dulangan Manobo items from the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino. When I went to the museum, the burial jar had been moved to another spot, and the label must have been lost in the process. But I did see the new burial jars, placed in front of the display case for the municipality of Lebak, and I recognized right away that the label for the jars was a verbatim quotation from an essay of mine that had appeared in Philippine Daily Inquirer. I wasn’t cited in the label, but I didn’t complain. I simply wanted to make sure that no one was quoting me as if I had a PhD and carbon-dating apparatus.

The label says the jars are from Lugping and donated by a certain Ugkaw A. Mamaku. I don’t know where exactly Lugping is. It must just be a sitio, for it’s not one of the barangays of Lebak that are listed in the 2010 Socio-Economic Profile of Sultan Kudarat Province. Mamaku must also be an ordinary Manobo or one of the lesser-known chieftains, for I can’t find his name among the datus who promulgated the Kitab, or Dulangan Manobo Customary Law, in 2011.

The new set of burial artifacts comprises one semicomplete big jar, five jar covers, and six jar pieces. The smallest of the broken pieces probably belong to one of the bigger ones. The specimens are all placed in front of the tall display case allotted for Lebak. There’s an additional semicomplete tiny jar inside the display case. I’ll give you more details about the specimens in my next post. I’ll have an inventory of them so that they can be traced or recovered in case they become missing.

One of the more beautiful specimens in Sultan Kudarat Museum

A more realistic sample compared to other anthropomorphic lids

(Update: These jars may be fake. Check out this post for the explanation.)

Manobo Items in Sultan Kudarat Museum

You don’t have to come up here in Kulaman Plateau to see the traditional things used by the Dulangan Manobo people. The provincial museum, located in the plains of Isulan town, has such items. The display includes clothes, baskets, and musical instruments. Just a little caveat: If you’re used to going to museums, don’t be surprised with what you will see in our provincial museum, which also functions as the Provincial Tourism Office. The place doesn’t have the subdued look and feel of a standard museum. It is flashy and colorful instead. It seems to me that whoever designed the exhibits has seen a lot of beauty pageants and not a single museum.

The museum has a tall display case for each of the eleven municipalities of Sultan Kudarat Province, and each case has a mannequin or two wearing ethnic clothes. The cut of the clothes is modified, and the cloth is combined with modern materials, and I don’t know why. It’s possibly to make the clothes look “fashionable.” The tribal handicrafts, musical instruments, hunting equipment, and even archaeological artifacts are scattered around the feet of the mannequins like novelty items in a department store. They’re used as mere accessories instead of being highlighted individually. The place is for the eyes and not for the mind.

I can go on endlessly about how bad the provincial museum is, but I’ll focus instead on the good side of things. The place at least has a good collection now. When I visited it last year, it was almost empty. And of course, the province at least has a museum now. It didn’t have any even if it had existed since 1972. Despite my issues with how the place is set up, I still highly encourage you to visit the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Tourism Office and Museum. It’s a two-story small building at the back of the capitol. (Don’t enter the fenced-up capitol grounds. Take the road outside.) If you’re in my province and you want to see traditional Dulangan Manobo objects—and Kulaman Plateau burial jars—the museum is the most accessible site. You only have to ride a tricycle plus a jeepney, depending on where you are from. You don’t have to travel for hours.

The labels are so small, but thankfully, I don’t have to read them because I know the names of common Dulangan Manobo items. This is the bottom of the display case for the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino.

By turning ethnic clothes into evening gowns, the tourism officers of my province have created a showroom, not a museum. The display case on the left is for the municipality of Lebak. The one on the right is for Kalamansig.

The Burial Jars Triangle

I wanted to create a map of some kind of where secondary burial in limestone jars were practiced. To my surprise, the map turned out to be more interesting than I had expected. When I identified the villages where there had been confirmed sightings of burial jars, I found out that the three villages could be connected by lines to form an almost perfect triangle. The area inside the triangle, being sparsely populated and largely forested, may have a number of burial caves still waiting to be discovered!

At the right-hand edge of the triangle is Barangay Kuden, Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino. That’s where an anthropologist from the University of San Carlos (Cebu) dug up burial jars in 1963–64. At the top of the triangle is Barangay Salangsang, Municipality of Lebak. That’s where anthropologists connected with Silliman Univeristy (Negros) dug up burial jars in 1965–66 and 1967–68. At the left-hand edge of the triangle is Barangay Nalilidan, Municipality of Kalamansig. That’s where burial jars have been found or can be found based on the socio-economic profile of Sultan Kudarat that the provincial government released in 2010.

I must admit that the information about Barangay Nalilidan is not very reliable. Even if the source is an official document, it contains quite a number of errors, both factual and typographical. I found the information on the “list of tourist spots by municipality/city.” Indicated beside “Nalilidan” is “Burial Urns,” along with “Sulfuric Hot Spring” and “Nalilidan Hot Spring.” To help you gauge the reliability of the list, here’s more information from the downloadable report: Indicated beside “Kuden” is “Burial Urns.” This is accurate, though Kuden has no burial jar collection to speak of, as I narrated in a previous post. Indicated beside “Salangsang” is “Salangsang Cave,” no “Burial Urns.” The cave is probably not the same cave where burial jars were found, for according to some published research papers, the cave is named “Seminoho.”

I’m also not a hundred percent sure of the exact location of Nalilidan in the map. The provincial map has no labels for barangays and sitios, so I had to compare it with Kalamansig’s municipal map, which has labels, all right, but barely legible in some parts. Though the two maps seem to coincide on the location of Nalilidan, they don’t on the locations of some other barangays, especially the poblacion—the seat of government, the most important barangay. How could you trust such maps?

All the same, I’m glad to have discovered that there might be burial jars in Kalamansig, and the location is near the coast, not very far from the paved national highway. It will be easier for me to research about them in case I find myself in Kalamansig one of these days.

The Twenty Caves of Sultan Kudarat

Based on official records, the province of Sultan Kudarat boasts of twenty caves that tourists can explore. Ten, or half of those caves, are found of course in the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, often promoted as “the town with a hundred caves.” Three of the twenty caves are in the municipality of Bagumbayan, one in Kalamansig, two in Lebak, one in Isulan, and three in Columbio. Only the four caves in Isulan and Columbio are not located in or very near Kulaman Plateau.

The twenty caves are not all that the province has. They are simply the ones that are accessible to or frequented by tourists. There cannot be twenty caves only in the whole province because Senator Ninoy Aquino alone has dozens. The municipality can possibly live up to its seemingly hyperbolic epithet if all its natural tunnels are examined and listed. It’s also impossible that there are only one cave in Kalamansig and two caves in Lebak. Most of the land area of the two “coastal towns” has the same topography as Senator Ninoy Aquino. The area probably has dozens of caves too. The caves have not been discovered yet because the area is sparsely populated and controlled by a private logging company.

For now, tourists who want to go spelunking in Kalamansig only have the Pangaun Caves to visit. Note, though, that the name is in plural form. The caves, located in Barangay Sabanal, may have several mouths and have chambers that branch off in several directions, not just a single straight tunnel. (I haven’t been there, and I’m sorry that I’m not sure of my information.) In Lebak, tourists may explore a cave in Salangsang and a cave in Kalamongog that are named after the villages where they are located. Salangsang is where the burial jars that are now in Silliman University were excavated, so the cave there is historic aside from attractive.

The ten caves in Senator Ninoy Aquino are the following: Midpanga Cave in Nati, Tinalon Cave in Tinalon, Bugso Cave and Tudog Cave in Bugso, Saklay Cave in Malegdeg, and Kiabuan Cave, Lagbasan Cave, Bitogon (also called Casi) Cave, Batasan Cave, and Kalupingon Cave in Kuden. Lagbasan Cave is what I call White Cave in this blog, and the burial jars that are now at the University of San Carlos were taken from a cave in Kuden, though the sacred cave is probably not one of the touristy caves in the list.

Bagumbayan has Pitot Cave in Sto. Niño, Guano Cave in Masiag, and Maetas Cave in Titulok. I’ve explored Guano Cave last summer. Isulan has Kamanga Cave in Laguilayan. Though I heard that the hamlet of Kamanga is in the mountainous part of Isulan, it is populated by Maguindanawons and not by Dulangan Manobos, so I’m not counting the area as part of Kulaman Plateau.

The only part of Kulaman Plateau that has no cave for tourists is Palimbang. Again, this is not an indication that there is no cave at all in the municipality. Palimbang, in fact, may have as many caves as Senator Ninoy Aquino has. It’s just that its mountainous part is barely accessible. Most of the villages of Palimbang, a small fraction of the total land area, are located at the coast.

As mentioned earlier, most of the twenty caves in the list are in or very near Kulaman Plateau. Only the three caves in Columbio are quite far: Datalblao Cave in Datalblao, Panes Cave in Lasak, and Bombed Cave in Lasak and Eday. The existence of caves there, however, is not surprising if you’re aware that Columbio is “the other” mountain town of Sultan Kudarat, the one being Senator Ninoy Aquino.

I wish to explore all the caves above that are in Kulaman Plateau and share the trip with you in this blog—in words and photos. It’s a shame that I’ve only been to two out of the sixteen caves. If I get a few thousand bucks to spare in the future, I will go cave hopping—and burial jar hunting. From the experience, surely, I’ll be able to create more than a hundred posts.

(Photo: A stitched image of the mouth of Guano Cave, in Masiag village, Bagumbayan town)

Civet Cat in a Cage

I saw a civet cat when I visited Kulaman village weeks ago. It was sad that the animal was caged, but I was glad that I could observe it closely and I could take photos of it to share with the readers of this blog. I’d seen a civet cat before—also caged, in another village—but it was smaller. It was probably young. The one I saw in Kulaman seemed to be an adult, for it was bigger than an average-sized adult cat.

I was excited when the civet cat was pointed to me. I stood near the cage, put a finger against the plastic screen, and made a calling sound with my tongue. In a speed that shocked me, the civet cat put its snout against the screen and blew air against my finger. The air produced a sound. In Hiligaynon, we call such an action pusnga.

I stepped back in surprise, and then laughed at my foolishness. It had escaped me that the civet cat, called milo in Hiligaynon, was a wild creature and would likely remain so despite being exposed to human beings constantly. It didn’t repeat the offensive move though, but that’s of course because I didn’t try again to pet the animal.

One of the most interesting things about civet cats is that they’re a source of very expensive coffee. Civet cats are fond of eating coffee, and when they poop, the beans are still whole. The beans are picked by hand and then ground, and the drink made from them are sold for as high as $50 per cup. The more interesting thing is that no one in Kulaman Plateau has made a business yet out of civet cat poop, despite the fact that civet cats are still plenty and coffee is more than abundant in the area—Sultan Kudarat Province produces 25 percent of the coffee in the country. If I were not dedicated to writing stories, I would consider engaging in coffee poop business.

Festivals of Isulan, Esperanza, and Bagumbayan

Municipality of Isulan

(Update: Isulan has moved its foundation anniversary celebration to August, and the festival has been renamed Hamungaya. I agree with moving the event to the accurate date, but I can’t see why the name should be changed.)

Every September, Isulan holds the Pasundayag Festival to celebrate its foundation anniversary. Pasundayag is a Hiligaynon term that means “show”; thus, the festival showcases the literary, musical, and cultural talents of the people of Isulan, both young and old.

Pasundayag is also a thanksgiving festival of its residents, who are mostly engaged in agriculture. The products of Isulan are rice, corn, vegetables, and African palm, one by-product of which is the kalakat, a weaving that is used as a wall.

The festival is divided into two parts. First, the different activities done in the farm are shown. Next is merrymaking in the form of dance using different materials as props.

Municipality of Esperanza

Hinabyog Festival portrays the diverse tradition and culture and the history of Esperanza from a humble sitio to a progressive municipality despite tribal conflicts.

Agriculture is the primary source of income in Esperanza, and as the population grew, the people began to engage in simple cottage industries to sustain their way of life. Weaving is an important activity. Weavers use anahaw, buri, pandan, tikog, nito, wild bamboo, and rattan, which thrive in the area. From these materials, mats, bags, baskets, kaing, kalalaw, and duyan are made.

The duyan (hammock) is significant to the name of Esperanza’s festival. The duyan does not only give the populace pleasure and rest. It was also used to transport individuals who needed medical attention since motorized vehicles were rare in the old days and animals or animal-driven carts were not always comfortable for people in sensitive or serious condition.

Taking inspiration from the swing or habyog of the duyan, Hinabyog Festival was created. Through arts and culture, the festival aims to keep alive the memories of the pioneers and their successful struggles and to swing the present generation to continue dreaming for a better and more beautiful Esperanza.

Municipality of Bagumbayan

When the Christian settlers in Bagumbayan had established their farms and begun reaping the fruits of their labor, foremost that came into their minds was the offering of thanks to the Almighty. They did this in the form of a harvest festival, which would start with religious prayers and highlighted by merrymaking festivities. The festivity evolved and was enhanced throughout the years as the Christian settlers learned more about the beliefs and traditions of their Muslim and indigenous neighbors.

Thus, the Bansadayaw Festival came into existence. Although the term is a combination of the Hiligaynon words bansa (in full view) and dayaw (praise), the other, non-Ilonggo inhabitants of Bagumbayan are deemed integral part of the revelry.

Bansadayaw also signifies that somebody in full view is lording and above humanity. He is the Heavenly Creator who wants his creation to act according to his will. Therefore, aside from merrymaking, the festival is a means to implore the divine guidance of the Almighty.

The Bansadayaw Festival is a result of the unified efforts of all the tribes in Bagumbayan—Maguindanon, T’boli, B’laan, Dulangan Manobo, Ilonggo, Cebuano, Ilocano, Pampanggeño, and Tagalog.

(Blogger’s note: This post is a part of “The Other Towns” series. See my October 5 post for the overview.)

The Only Internet Café in Town

Of all the villages in Senator Ninoy Aquino, only the poblacion is officially classified as urban, but I must say that only recently did it earn the right to be classified as such, when an Internet café opened along one of the main streets. Although the shop has six or seven units only, it is better than having to travel for three hours to the capital town just to open your email.

The Internet café is in a stall owned by the Flauta family. The father was the town mayor, the son is one of the town councilors, and the mother works with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. The local NCIP office is in fact located on the upper floor of the stall. The workstations on the ground floor share space with a “giftshoppe” and a snack bar. If you’re just passing and your eyes don’t catch the small tarpaulin advertising “Meraflor’s Internet Café,” you won’t know that there are computers inside. But because it’s the only Internet café in town, everyone will point or take you to the right place if you ask about it.

More often than not, you have to wait for fifteen minutes to an hour before a station gets vacated. If you have a deadline to beat, don’t wait for the last minute before going to the café. Once in a while, a student or two would peek at your screen while standing behind you. Of course, they’re not really interested in the boring selfies of your Facebook friends; they just have nothing better to do, or they’re subtly telling you to hurry up and leave because they still have to research about something. So please be considerate. Even if you have money to burn, do what you have to do and let others take their turn.

Festivals of Lebak, Kalamansig, and Palimbang

Municipality of Lebak

(Blogger’s note: The original version of this text is in Filipino. It seems to have been used by a dance group that performed in the street dancing competition on the province’s foundation anniversary celebration. I omitted more than half of the material.)

Lebak is a place where various tribes have gathered, and though they have different cultures, traditions, and religions, they were made one by a common occupation—tilling the soil. As farmers, all of them had a practice of having a thanksgiving feast after every harvest, though these feasts were conducted separately and in different manners. These separate gatherings eventually melded into one and became what is today the Hinugyaw Festival.

The Christian settlers, being mostly migrants from Panay Island, used to stage their own version of Aklan’s ati-atihan, which was originally a celebration of the aboriginal Aetas. Eventually, as the Christians of Lebak became more acquainted with the other tribes in the locality, the festivity began to form its own shape, becoming less like ati-atihan. Hinugyaw is a Hiligaynon term that means “jubilation.”

Municipality of Kalamansig

( The original version of this text is in Filipino. I have doubts about its accuracy. The Dulangan Manobos call God “Nemula,” not “Manama.” Whoever wrote the original text might have referred to the folklore of another Manobo tribe.)

The Dulangan Manobos rely on the abundance of nature. The bountiful mountains serve as their home and source of food, materials for shelter, and medicine for various illnesses. They are farmers who depend on the fertility of the land, and whenever their crops are lush and bear plenty of fruit, they celebrate Salagaan, which means “plenteous harvest.”

During the celebration, the Manobos dance, play musical instruments, and rejoice as a way of thanking “Manama,” whom they recognize as the Supreme Being. In times like this, the tribe unites to express their common dream of peace, love, prosperity, and happiness.

Municipality of Palimbang

(This account seems like pure invention to me. The original version uses the term Manobo Bagobo. I changed it to Dulangan Manobo since there are no Bagobo settlements in Baluan. I’ve been there myself. The indigenous people there are Dulangan Manobos. Also, a communal system of planting crops is not a prevalent practice among the Dulangan Manobos, according to some research papers that I’ve read.)

In a Manobo village in Baluan, the people were hardworking and united. In spite of their simple life, they were happy and contented of what they had. During planting season, people practiced the bayanihan system to prepare the land for planting. Men and women, young and old, helped each other in the farm. They enjoyed these activities because it was a time for gathering and knowing each other better.

The happiness of the people in the community was short-lived. When their plants were about to bear fruits, calamity struck the whole area, and all the people were saddened and depressed. They then gathered and tried to look for ways and means to overcome the situation. With concerted efforts, they eventually won over the plague.

In celebration of their success, they made an offering to the god of harvest to thank him for the victory and the abundant blessings. Because of that calamity, the community valued the spirit of unity and cooperation. They realized that their strength magnified when they joined hands and fight for a common objective.

Based on that story, Palimbang adopted the culture of the Dulangan Manobos and named the annual celebration of the municipality Kalilang/Sanufe Festival.

(This post is a part of “The Other Towns” series. See my October 5 post for the overview.)

Five Things to Do in Kulaman River

Several weeks ago, I was finally able to take a dip in Kulaman River. It had always been one of the things that I wanted to do, along with going to the original sites of limestone burial jars. The river has not been developed to cater to tourists, but there are some touristy things that you can do in it. Here’s some:

1. Swim, of course. Anywhere is good for this, but the best is the spot that is connected to the center of the town by a graded road. The spot is frequented by people, and it has a number of wide calm pools.

2. Ride the “ferry.” The bamboo raft is actually for travelers (and their motorcycles) who don’t want to take the slightly winding national highway. If you’re coming from or going to the west of the central village, taking the raft will save you a few kilometers of travel. If you just want to have fun and you’re willing to pay for it, the “driver” of the raft can take you across the river and then back again for a minimal fee. The fee for travelers is maybe five or ten pesos per head, and only at least three persons is required for every trip.

3. Check out the waterfall. It’s just near the river, but it’s hidden by weeds and trees. Though the fall is neither big nor very tall, wading through the river and trekking to the fall is a brief adventure that people of all ages can enjoy.

4. Jump off the bridge. No, don’t take your own life. Just stand on the waist-high railing of the bridge, leap, and dive into the water. I can’t guarantee your safety, of course, so do this with caution. Don’t do this at all unless you’ve seen locals your size and height doing it first.

5. Wash your vehicles. Save time by cleaning your scooter or wheels while you’re cleaning yourself. Just make sure no one is swimming downstream twenty meters from you. Also make sure that there are no horses or carabaos upstream twenty meters from you. The river is wide and long, and there’s enough space for everyone and everything.

Final warning: Don’t expect to come across an innocent barrio lass wrapped in a wet patadyong. That kind of scene is only for titillating films and for short stories set in the fifties. Most bathers in the river are men of all ages, from prepubescent boys to tottering grandfathers, and many of them are in well-worn cotton briefs.

The Creepiest Jar Cover

 This jar cover is creepy even if—or because—it looks

like a mini bust of Jose Rizal.

I know, of course, what burial jars are. They contain dead people. They contain exhumed bones of dead people. They’re small coffins. Despite this fact, they never gave me the creeps. Until I saw one jar cover in Museum of the Filipino People.

The jar cover is one of only three specimens from Kulaman Plateau. While the two others are jars with intact lids, this one is a lid only. It is made of limestone at the bottom and the middle and of clay at the top. It’s a bust. The base is shaped like an inverted bowl. The middle, forming the chest, is a simple short cylinder carved with tiny arms on the sides. The head part is what makes the artifact Halloween-y. It really looks like the face of a human being, and because the material has crumbled, it looks as though one of the eyes is winking at the onlooker and the mouth is forming a maniacal grin.

I wonder why the clay lid looks creepy when the anthropomorphic jar covers that are purely made of limestone are not exactly angelic. Only a very few of them look like real human beings. The others look like lizards (on purpose), penises (on purpose), or monkeys (probably not on purpose). Maybe the reason is that crumbling limestone figures, whatever they may be depicting, look like crumbling stones, nothing more, while crumbling clay looks like decomposing flesh—a much clearer reminder that the jars are not just archaeological artifacts. They contain dead people. They contain exhumed bones of dead people. They’re small coffins.


Don’t confuse the Museum of the Filipino People with the National Museum.
The former is inside Luneta Park and contains archaeological artifacts. The latter,
just across the street, contains mostly paintings and sculptures.

Kulaman Jars in Museum of the Filipino People

Despite being placed in the center of the display case, the Kulaman jars in Museum

of the Filipino People are outshined by other artifacts. The museum

should look for better and more samples of Kulaman jars.

The Museum of the Filipino People, being run by the National Museum, is the repository of everything that is important in the natural, historical, and ethnographical history of the Philippines. Therefore, it is only expected of the museum to contain samples of the 1,500-year-old limestone burial jars from Kulaman Plateau. I was first able to visit the museum three years ago, but I have no memory of seeing limestone burial jars there because I didn’t know yet at the time that such things exist. To my surprise weeks later, while reading about the jars in the Internet, I found out that I had missed a good opportunity, that the Museum of the Filipino People in Manila had valuable artifacts that came from my hometown.

When I went back to Manila in October this year, I put the museum in the list of places that I must go to. And go there I was able to. And see the limestone burial jars I did. I also found out why I had not noticed the jars during my first visit, even if I had spent a long time in the galleries, inspected almost every item, and read all the labels. The first reason is that the sample Kulaman jars in the museum are unremarkable. There are three specimens only—a large quadrangular limestone jar with a gable-shaped lid, a medium-sized cylindrical limestone jar with a gable-shaped lid, and one anthropomorphic clay lid. The second reason is that the labels simply state “limestone urn” and does not indicate where the urns are from. The third reason is that the Kulaman jars are outshined by the other “archaeological treasures” in Don Vicente Madrigal Gallery. The Maitum jars, made of clay and have anthropomorphic lids, occupy most of the room. The Manunggul Jar, whose image used to be in the P1,000 bill, is also in the gallery. I must have been too busy staring at the famous jar to notice the lowly limestone ones.

The larger of the two Kulaman jars has a design on its body

that looks like joined sixes and nines. The smaller jar 

as a honeycomb design.