Strange Werewolf Planter Décor in Bicol

In the Philippines, there's not a dearth of strange and inexplicable stuff. Local beliefs and knowledge may seem strange to Westerners, but they are part of the lives of Filipinos. Those who live outside the big cities—in places where belief in spirits and the spirit world take precedence over what's obvious to the senses—know for a fact that the world is not always what it seems.

Take this strange werewolf planter décor in a house in Bicol. It seems to have been carved from a single trunk of a tree with a fork. It's a quaint piece of art that shows a funny werewolf grinning at you from behind a tree. We would assume that it's a werewolf since it stands on two feet and seems bipedal. In the Philippines, werewolves are called aswangs. Aswangs are ordinary people who use a mystical salve to transform into an animal such as a dog or a very big bat. While in animal-form, they do their dirty deeds—like feed on human flesh—or whatever it is they do at night.

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In the classic Filipino movie, Mga Bata ng Lagim, actress Chichay's character (left; screen photo from Q channel) found a salve in an old house which she rubbed on herself. She grew bat wings and turned into an aswang while she slept. Unfortunately, that was cut out and the version sometimes shown on television does not have that scene.

This werewolf planter is by no means the only one of its kind in Bicol. It's said that there's another sculpture in the house that has a werewolf on it's haunches. I didn't get to take a photo of that one because it's missing. Somewhere in Bicol, there's a sculptor who likes werewolf themes. If you can find him, you can ask him why he likes to sculpt werewolves.

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