A Bulul is a carved wooden figure used to guard the rice crop by the Igorot peoples

of northern Luzon. The sculptures are highly stylized representations of ancestors,

and are thought to gain power from the presence of the ancestral spirit. [1] The
Ifugao are particularly noted for their skill in carving bululs

Use
Bul-uls are used in ceremonies associated with rice production and with healing.
Creation of a bul-ul involves alwen bul-ul ritual by a priest to ensure that the statue
gains power. The bul-ul is treated with care and respect to avoid the risk of the
spirits of the ancestors bringing sickness. The figures are placed in rice granaries to
bring a plentiful harvest. Bul-ul is important to ifugaos bacause they belief that they
can have abundant harvest when this is placed near rice granaries.
Form[edit]
Male and female Bulul statues are often found together, with sex-related symbols
such as the mortar for the female and pestle for the male. [3] Male bulul may
sometimes be depicted with loincloth, and females with tapis (wrap skirts), earrings
and anklets.[4] Although the form varies, the bulul is commonly represented as
seated on the ground, with arms crossed over his upraised knees. [5] The bulul has a
simplified form, and is traditionally carved from narra or ipil wood or sometimes
stone. The bulul is touched by hands dipped in blood of a chicken or pig in ritual
called tunod during the rice planting season.[4] Over time the blood imparts a dark
color to the figures, overlaid with a patina of grease from food offerings. [6] Bululs are
handed down to the first child of a family. Typically the older statues have beetle
holes made by insects in the granary.[7]

manufacture
Bululs are nowadays mostly manufactured for the tourist trade, but a local family
may buy such a bulul and use it for ceremonial purposes, thus in a sense
adding authenticity.[6] Some of the carvers, such as Rey Paz Contreras, have
become well-known artists, with their work exhibited and sold widely in the western
world. Contreras uses discarded wood from the railways for his carvings of Bululs
and other Anito (guardian deity) figures
purpose/specification
The bulol, or "Ifugao rice god," is a carved human figurine into which a certain class
of anito is said to incorporate itself when worshipped. Bulols are kept in the house or
granary, and are usually made in pairs. They are carved of narra wood, which
represents wealth, happiness, and well-being. Every step in their production
requires a ceremony, from tree selection to arrival at the owner's house; a
consecrated bulol has been bathed in pig's blood, had myths recited to it, and
received offerings of wine, ritual boxes, and rice cakes.

"On the side of plastic and depictive art, the Filipino cannot be accorded the right to
high rank. . . . The anito figures . . . [are] rude: a suggestion of the human figure in
abbreviated conventionalized form without aesthetic aspiration sufficed all needs."
. . . [T]he bulol spirit images are fine examples of abstract art, for the Ifugao
woodcarver expresses his feelings rather than attempts realistic representation.
The distortion, as many observers want to call it, results from emphasis being
placed on the quality of 'other worldliness' or the 'preternatural'."
Art through the Ages...
Alfred L. Kroeber, 1920
Alfredo

Design
The Ifugao also place fernwood anthropomorphic sculptures
called komis or bihang (none pictured on this page) at entrances, village
boundaries, and in archways over paths, to protect from evil spirits; in addition to
white, saucerlike eyes and teeth which give them a gruesome aspect, these have
shields, spears, and jewelry carved from whitewood. Property is guarded by yet
another class of carved deity called pili, which are usually accompanied by little
dogs and kept in thatched shrines. Finally, figures known as hipag are carved to
assist in warfare. They take the shape of humans, roosters, boar, and ducks, and
serve as intercessors with the deities.