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Originally Posted by Ian
Dear Xas,
Wonderful stuff! Thanks so much for posting these clarifications. I think what you are saying is that dahong palay is used in the Tagalog regions and that bulong unas is used where Ilokano, or a dialect thereof, is spoken. Is that correct? How confusing that "rice leaf" is used to describe two different blade profiles.
One question. The hilts described as sinan olimaw in your pictures appear to be the same as sinan sabong that Lorenzo illustrated in an earlier post. The sinan sabong was said to represent a flower. Can you clarify if we are talking about the same thing, just two different names, or are they different hilt styles? Perhaps the same style represents different things in the Ilocos provinces compared with elsewhere.
Xas, it might also be helpful to describe the geographic area that you classify as Southern Luzon. For example, you have mentioned Taal, Laguna, Batangas in the context of Southern Luzon. Parts of these areas are now almost "bedroom suburbs" of Manila. Do you extend your definition to include as far down as the Bicol region?
Ian
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Halloo Ian thanks for pointing out my area classification deficiency - I think I'll stick to CALABARZON as my area indicator instead for Southern Luzon (encompassing Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon provinces). That's a new area classification being used nowadays. All those areas have a similarly-profiled dahong palay blade.
Regarding the blade profile, the equivalent of rice leaf 'dahongpalay' in the aforementioned provinces is equivalent to Ilocos sugarcane leaf 'bulong unas.' The rice leaf 'bulong pagay' of Ilocos has a different blade profile. I can't comment on Bicol as that's another complication altogether, one I'm not yet thoroughly familiar with.
Regarding the sinan sabong, that's the standard labeling, but according to the Ilokano martial artist, healer, and researcher Virgil Apostol (2010) in his book Way of the Ancient Healer, that particular hilt represents olimaw or orimaw. It's one of the monsters in Ilokano mythology, similar to the Visayan bakunawa.