Origin of the Kalinga Axe

[Tim Simmons]

Fascinating. Nice scabbard, the handle on that knife has the influence of many Philippine knives we see on this forum. The blade looks a little similar to a talibon.
I cannot help myself seeing a relation to the indigenous knives of Taiwan, is this rather fanciful?
Here are some day light pictures of the Hinalung, as you can see it is a big heavy knife. A chopper just as much as a knife. It is one of my most treasured artifacts. I like the almost futuristic clean geometry to the blade, made with absolute confidence. I am not surprised they are used to chop wood, human bodies would offer very little resistance. The other picture is a taiwan knife.

[Nonoy Tan]

Tinguian (Northern Luzon) folklore (oral tradition) describes the headaxe and its uses in many ways. It also mentions several times the headaxe being used magically by a character in the stories to cross bodies of water or the sea.

This leads me to conjecture that the crescent-shaped blade may have been inspired by the shape of a boat

More conjectures .... The shape may have originated from the coastal lowlands (not the mountains of the Cordillera where there is no sea) of Luzon, and where blacksmithing technology (using the Malay forge) may have entered the island.

Nonoy

[Nonoy Tan]

The mention of the term "Buneng" (refering to the axe) by the Ibanag in the 17th century is interesting.

The reference to an axe was made by my favorite historian, William Henry Scott, in his book "Barangay: Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society" (1994). In the section covering the Ibanag, Scott wrote (using the work of Fray Jose Bugarin as source):

“Maengel raiders sent out with the plumes of the dalaw bird on their heas and the hair of defeated foes on their spears, to which they added gold ornaments during victory dances around their trophies. An illustration in the Boxer Codex shows a Cagayan warrior … Their weapons were leaf-shaped daggers 20 to 30 centimeters long (inalag) spears (suppil if plain, saffuring if barbed), and one which in modern times would be called a head axe – bunang, “machete of the natives,” Father Bugarin said, “like a crescent moon with a long point.”

Dominican priest Jose Bugarin in the 17th century collected Cagayan Ibanag words which would later be published in an 1854 dictionary (in Spanish).

This is signficant because it provides a possibility that the so-called "Kalinga head-axe" had an Ibanag (not Kalinga or Igorot) origin.

I checked Bugarin's work (in the 1854 document) and discovered that there is no attribution of the Bunang to an axe. In fact, he was specifically refering to a "machete" with a blade that was half-moon shaped (not crescent moon shaped, as Scott had misinterpreted). Thus, the possibility that the head-axe was of Cagayan origin is unlikely, in my opinion.

From the time I posted this topic in October 2009, my research on the origin of the "Kalinga axe" has not ceased. I have since then obtained new and interesting information. I will share these when the research is completed.

[Navigator]

What are the chances that these two Kalinga head axes were made by the same guy?[IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

[Nonoy Tan]

There is that possibility... to what extent we may never know.

There are beautiful.

[Battara]

I believe these to be datu pieces, but their blade heads are on backwards and there are some replacement bands. Still great pieces.

[Nonoy Tan]

I believe these to be datu pieces, but their blade heads are on backwards and there are some replacement bands. Still great pieces.

Navigator, the observations by Battara are important to consider.

Battara, I am doubtful about the use of "datu" - Are there datus in the Northern Luzon Cordillera social and political structures?