Garuda of the Philippines

Ukkil: Visual Arts of the Sulu Archipelago is a treatise on cultural practices inextricably linked to the political, economic, and social history of the Sulu Archipelago. The author, Ligaya F. Amilbangsa, declares the need for ethnic art forms to be viewed as authentic reflections of social history. Having married into the family of the Sultan of Sulu and lived in southern Philippines for more than two decades, Amilbangsa names objects to record, as it were, the lives of the people with whom she lived. She does not engage in collection and exoticization of artefacts; she engages in recollection. The visual arts of the Sulu Archipelago recall the ancient, pre-Islamic, pre-Christian past of the Hindu-Malayan empire, a time when the Malays of Sulu were acknowledged for superior weaponry and watercraft. Pottery from Sangasanga dated 6060 BC exhibits artistic traditions enriched by the merging of the developed culture of immigrants with that of the indigenous population. A monetary economy, flourishing in the eighth century, made the Sulu Archipelago the wealthiest of settlements in the Philippines by the seventeenth century.

Ukkil enhances our understanding of early Philippine history, particularly early Sulu history. From Samal craft specialization in pottery making, boat building, metal forging, and stone carving, Amilbangsa deduces that Samalan-speaking Hindu-Malays were the earliest inhabitants of the Sulu Archipelago. In seven chapters devoted to each of the different visual arts (basketry, cloth weaving, embroidery, pottery, carving, blacksmithing and casting, goldsmithing), she links motifs and symbols to the rest of the Philippines and Asia. Motifs such as boat-coffins, which symbolize a swift and peaceful journey for the dead, are also found in Palawan, Batan Island, and Central Philippines. The bird as guide to the heavens hovers throughout Asia as the Sulu Galura, the Hindu Garuda, the Caliph’s Simurgh, and the Chinese feng. The fish represents Chinese yin-yang as well as early Christian faith and is abstracted in paisley by Muslims. The dragon, symbolizing protection from evil and misfortune, spans Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Javanese, Thai, Indonesian, and Chinese beliefs. Coralstone grave markers in Tawi-Tawi confirm the Samalans’ high culture and their spiritual kinship with Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

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