Most of the bulul statues shown in this album were examined carefully by a Curator from the Anthropology Division of the National Museum of the Philippines and confirmed as authentic artifacts used for traditional purposes with a Certificate of Registration of Cultural Property issued by the National Museum of the Philippines. This is an important qualification since about 80-90% of the bulul statues for sale in the 1990's were fakes, and that proportion has risen to well over 90% since then. The supply of authentic bulul statues at source in the mountain provinces is largely depleted now, and very few are available for sale now.

Some people believe that I smuggled these artifacts out of the Philippines, but that is not the case, as I will explain. The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines mandates the "State to conserve, develop, promote and popularize the nation's historical and cultural heritage and resources, as well as artistic creations." Accordingly, the National Museum of the Philippines had established a practice of issuing Certificates of Registration of Cultural Property to promote and popularize the tradition of Philippine bululs and other cultural artifacts, and to help serious collectors by distinguishing genuine old bulul statues from the many copies that were being sold. However, there was no restriction on the export of such registered cultural properties until 2009, when a National Cultural Heritage Act was approved that restricted the export of such registered cultural properties and required an export permit to do so. All my Philippine cultural artifacts were exported in 2005, when there were no restrictions yet on such exports.

My initial purpose in establishing this online album was to share photos and descriptions of my collection with others interested in this subject, and that still continues. However, my collection is so large that I cannot display more than a few items at home and most of them are in storage. So I have decided to repatriate this collection and donate it to the National Museum of the Philippines, where many more people can appreciate it and see the real statues and artifacts, not just photos online. This has been discussed with the curators and directors of the National Museum, and plans are being made now to repatriate this collection and ship it back to Manila.

If you wish, you can contact me at Philippine.bululs@gmail.com to discuss my collection. If you would like to know more about me as an art collector, click on John Kuiper.

To view an associated website that shows other Philippine tribal artifacts in my collection, click on Philippine-Artifacts.