On

 

pilando el palay

Pilando el Palay / Husking the rice


Palay refers to the unhusked rice.

Bugas or bigas, when it is without shell.

In the Visayan Islands, palay has the name humay.


The steps carried out for husking palay are the following:

From the damasig or tambubu, the palay or humay is taken to dry, for three to four hours, in the intense heat of the sun in a sauali or hamacanes.

Damasig or tambubu are what are called granary and where palay is stored.

Sauali or hamacanes resemble the mat woven made from bamboo bark.

Once the humay is already dry, it is passed through the galingan with wooden teeth to remove the shell from the grain.

Galingan is a lightweight cane mill used to facilitate the shelling off of the palay.


Once this step is done, the palay is completely husked in the following way:

In the lusong, a chunky piece of wood with a hole in the middle of a conical figure, the palay is emptied, and the tauos or men, using masses of wood, peel the rice husk without crushing it.

Carrying out this process requires skill and finesse. Not everyone is suitable for this work.


In the photo, four tauos perform the task next to a traditional house in the countryside.

Next comes the sieve to separate the shell of the bugas or bigas.

The rice is carried out using the calalau.

Calalau is a fabric also made from cane bark with a quadrangular shape that is used to easily extract the humay bran.

Once these steps are done, all you have to do is put the rice in the pot to be cooked.


In the cities, the process is done with modern procedures and tools.


Source:

Felix Laureano’s Recuerdos de Filipinas

Falvey Memorial Online Library

Villanova University

Pennsylvania, United States

MuseumxstOries (follow at Instagram)