Ifugao Seated Bulul (Anito) Rice Guardian

A seated bulul figure of the Ifugao of Luzon, probably early 19th century. Bululs are carved as representations of ancestors or deities and invoked for the protection and prosperity of the rice crop; a mumbaki, the Ifugao ritual priest, consecrated the figure so that the spirit would inhabit it. Once consecrated, the bulul was held to bring bountiful harvests and to guard stored grain against calamity and theft.

The figure is carved in the characteristic seated anthropomorphic posture. Repeated applications of sacrificial materials over years of ceremonial use, animal blood and other organic substances among them, produced the deep, complex patina across the surface, with areas of lighter wood showing beneath. Unlike many late 19th- and early 20th-century examples cut from mahogany, this bulul is worked in a lighter wood.

The figure stands approximately 9¾ inches (24.8 cm) high on a base of roughly 3 inches (7.6 cm) diameter, and weighs about 11 oz (315 g). The Ifugao are indigenous to the mountainous interior of Luzon and are known for rice terraces built more than two thousand years ago.