via Cebu Daily News, 29 December 2020: Opinion piece by a lawyer who oversees a seafaring division, discussing the Manunggul jar and the Balangay, two iconic Philippine artefacts related to seafaring.
The journey of the soul to the afterlife was closely associated by early Filipinos to maritime culture as represented by the “ship-of-the-dead” burial container called Manunggul Jar.
I saw the burial jar twice during my visits to two museums, the Palawan Cultural Center in Puerto Princesa, and National Museum in Manila.
The jar dates from 890–710 B.C. and was excavated from a Neolithic burial site in the Manunggul cave of the Tabon Caves at Lipuun Point in Palawan.
During the webinar on maritime history sponsored by the Asian Institute of Maritime Studies (AIMS) last September, my fellow speaker historian Xiao Chua explained how the Manunggul jar shows the interaction between the Filipinos’ maritime culture and their ancestors’ religious beliefs.
Source: Manunggul jar ‘ship-of-the-dead’ and the journey to afterlife | Cebu Daily News
