buri

The towering buri palms in this panoramic ricefield  of Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro. The tallest one in the middle is already dying after it bore fruits. I took this photo while sitting on the roof of a fully-loaded traveling  jeepney, August 11, 2010.

 

buri – /bu-rí/ (Tagalog, Capampangan, Bulaqueño, Waray, Ilonggo, and Bicolano palm)  [n.] raffia (sc.names: 1. Raphia ruffia; 2. Corypha umbraculifera, Blanco; 3. Corypha utan, Lam., Merrill; 4. Corypha elata, Roxb) \raffia palm \buri palm (Phil. English) \talipot palm.

Other local common names:

a.k.a. buli in Tagalog

a.k.a. ibos, bule or buli in Bulaqueño

a.k.a. ibus or silad in Bicolano

a.k.a. ebus, busi, or piet in Capampangan

buli in Cebuano, Boholano, and Ilocano

budjawi in Ilonggo

silag in Ilocano and Pangasinense

silal in Subanon

sirar in Bagobo

bagatai or taktak in Isinay

Buri palm is one of the largest palm trees we can find all over the country.  The leaves are sturdy and can be a strong binder for a bundle of firewood. The strips taken from its frond are used to bind farm goods, while the midrib of its leaf is used as a skewer to hold fish caught. The leaves are often used to bind the crabs.

The palms of buri are also used as a good food wrapper or packaging for suman sa ibos, patupat, sinanglay, inutokan, tagoktok, etc.. 

The Capampangans and Bulaqueños would use the palms of buri to weave native hats called kupiang ebus and sleeping mats they called dase. 

A serving of sweet tuba I tried at a roadside food stall of Balungao, Pangasinan in 2012. Read and see more photos here.

The Pangasinenses would harvest the sap they called sweet tuba from the inflorescence of buri. The sweet tuba is traditionally used to sweeten the Pangasinense patupat (sweetened glutinous rice in a square-woven palm pouch). It is from the inflorescence of buri that sweet tuba is gathered by a mangangarit (tuba gatherer) in a process similar to how coconut tuba is gathered. Unlike the Visayan tuba, no tungog (tanbark) is used in sweet tuba.

When sweet tuba is getting very scarce, patupat makers would resort to using arnibal (sugarcane syrup, a.k.a. pulot tubo in Tagalog) as sweetener being that arnibal is more abundant than sweet tuba in the region.

Sweet tuba if not consumed will become a Pangasinense tuka silag (raffia vinegar) in a few days. 

My own version of minatamis na buri has wild honey and star anise.  See my recipe here.

The palm of buri is also used by the Capampangans and Tagalogs to wrap bagkat, a thickened caramel-like syrup of boiled sap of buri. 

The buri fruits, while still green and young, have a soft nut with a taste and consistency similar to that of buko (young coconut fruit). The soft nut is eaten as is or boiled with sugar to make a minatamis na buri.  

Matured buri fruits are very hard to crack open. The nuts would even get harder and harder as it gets older by the time the fruits get fully matured and dried, they are very dense and marbled that they can be used as a cheap gem in jewelry or ornamental decors.

Freshly harvested buri fruits are green. 

(Photo credit to Castle Panganiban's Facebook account)

Buri fruits would turn maroon to dark brown after few days, specially when stored in closed plastic bags or in the refrigerator.

 

The ubod (pith) of buri is taken from the topmost part of the trunk. It can be cooked as vegetables, eaten raw like salad, or stuffed in fresh lumpia.

When the tree reached its maturity age, around 20 to 50 years, buri would start to bloom.  If the inflorescence is left to grow, it would burst open into a bunch of flowers that after a month or two would develop into a bunch of buri palm fruits. Soon after bearing fruits, the buri tree will die.

The dying trunk is sourced for palm flour, similar to lumbia palm of Mindanao. The inner part of the trunk is pounded into a pulp and processed into flour. The flour is made into suman, pastries, and other delicacies. Other uses are for medicinal and industrial benefits.

There are some places, mostly barrios (barangay) and districts (sitio) were named after this plant. Thus, we can find a place called Buri, Buli, or Ebus. It is the origin of other places called Bulihan, Kabulihan, Cabulihan, Burihan, Kaburihan, and Caburihan. The Brgy. Ebus of Guagua, Pampanga and the town of Cabulihan in Siquijor province are examples. Buri palms used to be thriving in these places. 

Personal notes

Buri palm reminds me of some people, who upon reaching the peak of their lives would become more passionate and productive in things they love to do. Then after delivering their best shot, they are gone and sorely missed.

Dark matured fruits of buli palm were part of my childhood happiness in Inopacan, Leyte.  My playmates and I would collect those round dried buli fruits we called bolitin. When very dry, they were dark brown or plainly black. We used to play bolitin as our toy marbles. Inside the bolitin is a hardened nut that when peeled would closely resemble that of a tiny ball of stone marble, much like a pearl and we kept them as a precious gem and traded them like play money as we play tinda-tindahan and bahay-bahayan.

All photos by Edgie Polistico are copyrighted. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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