Binukot

Keeping the Culture

        Binukot, refers to the women with definite beauty that are kept from public eye since early childhood. They are treated like princesses, carried in hammocks, covered with veils for anyone not to see. They only get to go out of their houses if there are weddings or rituals happening; there they perform dances and sing really long epics. But after the tragedy that happened during the World War II the number of binukot almost got extinct. No woman ever wanted to be binukot and have their fate like the others. And in today’s modern world having a binukot is impractical, they say.

        In the middle of the video, I was afraid that their tradition of having a binukot would die. There would be no one left to sing all those long epics that were an amazing part of their culture. But I was fascinated when Kara David visited a place where a school was built keep the epics living with the help of Tata Pedring, a binukot’s son. There, they teach young girls the dances and long epics without secluding them from the public, it’s like they’re training a binukot, but a free one.

        There may be no assurance that the tradition of having a binukot is still alive but as Kara David said, all the binukot may disappear, the last princesses may have died but the culture they shared with the world will never die.