Two monkeys on a boat

NGC or “New Generation Currency” is the label the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has given to the re-designed banknotes. Despite some nitpicking complaints that went viral on the Internet, public reception of the notes has been generally positive. These banknotes follow the same colors as the previous series but they have a brighter and more cheerful tint, and the numbers are bigger and clearer (some say the numbers resemble those on euros); the personalities are the same (with the exception of Corazon Aquino joining her husband Ninoy on the P500-note), although the worn-out historical faces have been given a lift—they are based on photographs taken when they were so much younger.

One thing I miss from the old banknotes, however, is the Manungul Jar and the Rice Terraces, iconic national treasures of the  Philippines that appeared on the reverse side of the P1,000-banknote. They have been replaced by a part of Tubbataha Reef and a Philippine pearl in the shell. Unfortunately, because of our short memories the pearl is commonly associated with the Greenhills Pearl market rather than with “Perlas ng Silanganan” (Pearl of the Orient), which describes the Philippines.

After many years in storage, the original Manungul Jar, together with many other national treasures only seen in pictures, has been put on display by National Museum director Jeremy Barns. Before, only replicas of the Manungul Jar were on display and, confusing students and  teachers, there were two or three displayed in different rooms. With the renovation of many rooms in the former Legislative Building, we can expect more to come out of the bodega and make a visit to the National Museum worthwhile.

When the Manungul Jar was first proposed as one of three important treasures to be placed on the reverse of the P1,000-bill, a Bangko Sentral official asked: “Ano ba ang significance ng dalawang tsonggong namamangka (What is the significance of these two monkeys rowing a banca)?” Someone explained to this bank official that the two “monkeys” on the boat adorn the cover of a burial jar and are representations of a human soul traveling on the so-called “ship of the dead” into the afterworld. These, if we need convincing, is proof that our ancestors not only had a sense of art; but more importantly, that well over 2,000 years ago, pre-Spanish Filipinos believed in an afterlife and the existence of the soul. As a matter of fact,  the late Robert Fox of the National Museum declared the Manungul Jar as, “perhaps unrivaled in Southeast Asia; the work of an artist and master potter.”

The jar was discovered among hundreds of antique treasures found in the limestone cliffs that can be seen as you approach Lipuun Point, Palawan. Some of these caves were investigated by Filipino and foreign archeologists from 1962-1965. Many of the excavated or discovered artifacts here pushed Philippine history further back to a time we previously hardly knew.

Manungul Cave is 114 meters from sea level and faces the South China Sea. The jar was found among many artifacts which included jade, shells and stone beads. Of course, human remains were found there, and these were covered in what appears to be red paint and were ornamented with bracelets of shell, agate and jade. All these point to human habitation of Manungul Cave around 890 B.C-710 B.C.

The Manungul Jar measures 66.5 cm x 51.5 cm and has a unique cover with the “ship of the dead” that would’ve been complete but for a missing broken mast in the center where a sail would have been. There are two figures on what looks like a dug-out canoe whose prow is marked by two circles that I mistook for headlights. It must have been dark in the afterworld, but a closer inspection made me see eyes, a nose, and a mouth on the prow. The figure in the back did the rowing and navigation because it used to hold a now-missing paddle. The passenger is the figure in front. Its arms are crossed over its chest; and again a closer inspection reveals that its head and jaws were held by a piece of cloth or a band in the manner by which corpses as prepared for burial. Too small to fit a whole corpse, it was probably a secondary burial jar, meaning, the body was previously buried, exhumed later and the bones painted and laid to rest in the jar.

Naturally, everyone looks at the lid which is a pity because the body of the Manungul Jar is just as intriguing. Our pre-historic artist not only formed the jar but etched parts of it with a graceful curvilinear design that is both visual and tactile. I wouldn’t be surprised if we can still make out his hand or fingerprints all over the jar. The master touch was the application of hematite or natural iron to portions of the jar, resulting in a red tinge that contrasts with the dull brown of baked clay. If, as anthropologists  assert, pottery is one of the indications of human development, then we can see that the Manungul Cave inhabitants had fire and knew how to use it, they had some form of social structure, they believed in the afterlife, and they had a notion of prestige goods that they sent as  “pabaon” with their dead. It is true that where history ends, anthropology begins. So much of Philippine pre-history remains to be read from excavated earthenware like the Manungul Jar.

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