Thread: Visayan barong?
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Old 24th November 2018, 12:16 PM   #4
Ian
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Shazam,

I know of no traditional use of the barung (or kampilan or bangkung) by the people living in the Visayas. There are many of Visayan descent who live in Mindanao, especially Davao City, and it is possible that they may have sporadically used such Moro weapons. On the other hand, there are known examples of Moro kris in Visayan dress, and a number of these have been shown on this Forum. I know of no historical reference to the systematic use of Moro weapons by people native to the Visayas (such as the Ilonggo, Warai, Bisayan, Cebuano, etc.).

The adoption of weapons by different ethnic groups reflects the uses required of them. Many Filipino ethnic groups use swords that have shorter blades than a lot of other groups in Asia and SE Asia. This probably reflects the style of fighting they adopted. There are several martial arts styles practiced in the Philippines.

The picture that you show above is from a site that features modern interpretations of Filipino weapons, and some of their examples are pretty much fantasy weapons. I don't consider it an authoritative source for information about traditional Philippine weapons.

Ian.
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