A Glimpse of White Cave

No, this is not a gooey baby alien. This very hard rock

is a chunk of a speleothem from the White Cave of Kulaman. 

I visited the provincial museum last week to see the limestone burial jar that I had heard was on display there. To my surprise, the jar was not the only item in the museum that came from Kulaman Plateau. The bare collection also included a chunk of speleothem from the White Cave in Sitio Siokong, Barangay Kuden.

When the staff pointed the smooth white rock to me and said it was from a cave in the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, I was appalled. Tourists aren't supposed to touch the stone formations in the cave, much less take a chunk and bring it home. But since the deed has been done, I guess there's no point going ballistic over it. I just hope that (1) the rock was taken out of the cave for the sole purpose of displaying it in the museum, (2) no other rock has been taken out of the cave, (3) a similar thing will not happen in the future.

I noticed that the piece of speleothem looked different when shone upon by sunlight. It was slightly translucent. Inside the cave, where only flashlights and similar devices could be used, the stalactites, stalagmites, and other limestone formations looked solid. Artificial light seemed to bounce off the smooth surface.

The provincial museum, which also serves

as the local tourism office, is at the back

of the capitol, about 30 meters away.

Burial Jar in Provincial Museum

I'm back here in Sultan Kudarat, and as any self-respecting burial jar enthusiast would, the first thing I did was visit the provincial museum and see the Kulaman burial jar in its collection.

I had heard on Facebook how disappointing the museum was, so I was no longer surprised when I found out it barely had anything on display. The two-story modest-sized building, some fifty meters behind the provincial capitol, was newly erected and tastefully designed. Inside, however, the museum only had the following: the Kulaman jar; an anthropomorphic clay figure, similar to the lids of the Maitum burial jars and maybe one of them; a jagged rock with streaks of gold; a made-of-clay kettle; and some brass Maguindanaoan musical instruments.

This is the provincial capitol, and the local museum is behind it.

The back gate might be closed, so take the unpaved road near

the entrance to the capitol but outside the concrete fence. 

The collection had no labels whatsoever, and the staff who was in the office was not sure when and how the items came into the possession of the provincial tourism office, but she knew that the burial jar was from the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino.

What mildly surprised me about the jar was its size. Among the burial jars I had seen, it was one of the largest and probably had the widest base. Each side of the square base must be at least 15 inches in length. The height of the jar, not counting the lid, was around 36 inches.

The Kulaman burial jar is one of the very few items

in the museum. Below, I took photos of my hand and foot

so that you would have some idea how large the jar is.

The jar looked like a tall rectangular box, and its lid was a plain pyramid. From the tip of the lid to the base, the artifact was covered with simple diagonal lines that formed diamonds. It might have been excavated from Senator Ninoy Aquino because the ones that were found in Lebak mostly had round bodies and human-shaped lids. I've seen Kulaman jars of various sizes and shapes, and the one in the provincial museum is now one of my favorite. It's simple, and its chipped lid notwithstanding, it's sturdy—something that has survived more than a thousand years and could seemingly survive thousands more.