MY KUBI

June 10, 2023 Opinion

I have an Ifugao kubi in my home, hung by the door, as it would have been utilized in its original environment. As an oddity in a modern home, the kubi has become a conversation piece to intrigued guests who cannot avoid asking what the seeming piece of furniture is. When the eventual answer is given as to what the kubi is, it instantly elicits smiles, smirks and the occasional bursts of
laughter. Museo Kordilyera defines the Kubi as “Made of rattan and bamboo, the kubi is the traditional chicken coop used by the Ifugao.

The Ifugao allow their chicken to roam around freely during the day; at night it is kept in the Kubi to protect them from predators.” I had the idea to re-create the kubi into a lampshade and was fixated on the idea until I got the medium sized chicken coop from Ifugao and had light fixtures installed, it was then I realized, it did not turn out the way I imagined. I kept the kubi anyway, despite the failure to make it into something it was not and hung it, as it should by the doorway, welcoming guests and making me smile each time I see my failed experiment.

I grew to love collecting odds and ends from my travels, making me not exactly a hoarder but a weird collector to many. I went to the Lussok cave and underground river in Apayao, now hailed as the biggest eco-tourism site in Luna and dubbed as the last forest frontier in the Cordilleras. I was in awe of its beauty and swore it was better than the Palawan underground river, which I found to smell of bat pee. I was so happy was I, that I brought home a paddle, I goaded my boatman to sell it to me, he laughed and looked like I was crazy and gave me the old wooden thing. I hiked the Batad rice terraces and the Kiangan Open Museum in Ifugao with a trusty hand carved cane, sold