The Glorious Holy Shit Visits his Roots

It's called the Ifugao Woodcarvers' Village. Within the stretch of the Asin Road is a museum of a renowed Fiipino artist: Bencab! I was on my way back to Manila and I made sure the one last stop in Baguio City is the Glorious Holy Shit's origins.
I got the Glorious Holy Shit from Baguio City Market more than ten years ago. I was still with the Institute for Labor Studies in Manila and I was home in La Union for the holidays. Baguio is just an hour and a half ride from my mother's house in Ballay and I went up to Baguio for a day trip. 
The Glorious Holy Shit's roots, literally speaking, are the same as any tree's. As a woodcarving, my holy shit originates from the skilled hands of Woodcarvers in the Cordillera region. As the Cheryl Mondiguing of the Mondiguing curio shop at Asin Road told me, my holy shit is a sack Buddha. To me, he has always been a monk, celibate and full of wisdom. It is for this reason that I referred  to him as Lao Tzu at first, the Holy Shih Tzu and now the Glorious Holy Shit. The chosen one was picked from among barrel men, Igorots or Cordillerans who couldn't find their g-strings. As a child, I remember cousin Sam bringing one home to Seattle when he visited Philippines as a teenager. The barrel man has always been to me most artless Cordillera woodcarving. They were mass produced for tourists. 
 

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