Carabao Nipa Hut

Procreate, 2020

“Carabao Nipa Hut” addresses Albularyos importance in the Philippines because of their deeply rooted beliefs in folklore and folk medicine. The Carabao-shaped nipa hut shop displays potions and remedies made from traditional herbs and roots for sale. The healing hands of Albularyos reach across the island performing hilot using herbs recognized in indigenous Filipino healing practices, which grow around the shop.

Folk healers, Albularyos, are well-known on the island of Siquijor in the Philippines. These witch doctors sell traditional herbs and roots, and heal people using herbs and traditional practices like hilot (a traditional Filipino healing massage). They also brew herbal potions that cure illnesses and bring luck in love and business. Albularyos remain important today because Filipinos have a deeply rooted belief in folklore and folk medicine, ingrained in the pre-colonial Filipinos’ psyche for hundreds of years prior to colonization. Growing herbs recognized in indigenous Filipino healing practices are featured in this illustration: cassia alata, psidium guajava, and peperomia pellucida. A nipa hut is a native house of indigenous people of the Philippines, they are only found in rural areas today. 

The national animal of the Philippines: Carabao