Banaue wooden scooter race

THE IMBAYAH festival will not be complete without the wooden scooter race. The handmade, two-wheeled contraptions have become a crowd drawer during the celebration of thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest in Banaue.It is run on a downhill seven-kilometer course from the Rice Terraces View Point to the town proper. Dressed in indigenous costumes, the Ifugao scooter daredevils hurtle down down the course at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour. Today’s Ifugao scooters incorporates bicycle parts for better control. But the frame and most of the scooter are still made from butbuta (white wood) or mananor (red wood).

Bulol or Ifugao rice god

 

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.

  . [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’.” Alfred L. Kroeber, 1920

wooden scooter/ bike of Ifugao

Amid the consecutive oil price hikes, people in Banaue seem to be unrattled as they have wooden scooters that do not require gasoline.It has already been normal to see Ifugao people riding a wooden scooter.Most people in the town use them instead of riding a jeep or a tricycle. They also serve as bicycles to many kids.