Iloilo: A Quest for Burial Jars (Part 2 of 2)

I'll tell you right away what happened in Iloilo: the burial jar in the local museum was from the province itself, not from Kulaman Plateau in Mindanao. To my disappointment, I learned from the guide that all the burial-related artifacts in the museum were discovered in the town of San Joaquin. I got emo for about five minutes, and then I told myself that the journey itself, not the outcome, was my reward.

When I think about it now, though, I realize I really should have not been sad. I should have been ecstatic. If the limestone burial jar came from Panay Island, not from Mindanao, it should be closer to my heart. My grandfathers on both sides were natives of Panay who migrated to Mindanao more  or less fifty years ago. The limestone burial jars in Iloilo could be a handiwork of my ancestors! I could call them my own, while the jars in Kulaman Plateau were carved by the ancestors of the present-day Dulangan Manobo and could never be truly my own no matter how much I cherish them.

In Museo Iloilo, I also learned from the guide that the museum owned more than one limestone jar. The guide said that the other samples were in the stockroom. I asked if I could see them. She said I had to ask permission first from the head of the office. It was morning, and the head would not come to work until noontime, so I had to wait. The guide made me fill out a request form. I left the museum and did not go back, however. I wasn't ready yet to conduct a formal research—the kind that I have to affiliate myself with some serious project or official-sounding agency, set an appointment to interview authorities, and set out my findings in academese. No. For now, I don't want any attention. I just like to write whenever, wherever, and however I can and want, an obscure scribbler, a sneaky researcher.

Iloilo: A Quest for Burial Jars (Part 1 of 2)

I was in Iloilo City on the first and second days of this month, and I went there in search of burial jars. My sudden decision to take the quick vacation was spurred by a mere online photo. While googling for images of "limestone burial jars," I came upon a photo taken inside the provincial museum of Iloilo, and in it was a familiar-looking crudely carved white vessel.

I could have easily missed the photo if I was making random searches only. But I was feeling quite diligent that time, or I simply wanted to go through each and every result so that I wouldn't have to run the same search. The image of interest must have been image no. 395 or thereabouts, at page no. 20. It was from a post in a backpacking blog.

Burial jars in Museo Iloilo. The first photo I found online was similar to this. 

The limestone burial jar, at the right-hand side, is barely noticeable,

but because I've seen photos of limestone jars and actual samples,

I was able to identify the vessel right away.

The limestone jar in the photo was quite tiny. It was on the side, buried in about a dozen similar vessels. It stood out, however, because of its whiteness. The other jars around it were made of clay and thus colored brown or gray. (This sounds racist, but for the record, I'm not. I like my brown, Filipino skin.) The caption, or the text that accompanied the search result, also made me think that I had just stumbled upon what I wanted to stumble upon.

I googled more about that specific jar in Iloilo. I found other results. But aside from similar-looking photos, I did not find any detailed information on the jar. I learned that it was displayed in Museo Iloilo, and that was just it. I had a feeling that the the jar was from Kulaman Plateau, since I had not read about limestone jars discovered in other parts of the Philippines. I decided I had to go to Iloilo and verify it for myself.

It also happened that I was starting to be burnt out at work. I had been staying in Cebu for about four months, and though the city is filled with excitement and overflowing with charm, my routine employee life was starting to take a toll on my sanity. So I had more than one good reason to hie off to Iloilo.

I bought a ship ticket to Iloilo and a plane ticket for my return journey. I was all set. But something bugged me. There was something off with the way the burial jar in the photo looked. It had the similar rectangular body as that of Kulaman jars, but its lid was circular. The lid of a Kulaman jar was usually shaped like a tent or a tiny human head. The lid of the jar in Iloilo looked like a thick pizza and was too wide for the mouth of the jar. I wondered if it is not from Kulaman.

I had doubts, but I had a strong feeling that the Iloilo jar was from Kulaman. I was going to the city to know how it got there, not to know where it came from. It would be an interesting trip for me, fraught with possible disappointment and fulfilling discovery.