Ukkil Motifs on Church Bells in the Philippines, 1854-1896)

In the course of this author’s field research on church bells in the Philippines, a number of photographs of the crosses on the bells show the said crosses resting on bases that curiously resembled motifs related to the art of southern Philippine Islamized peoples. This art is collectively called ukkil (in the Sulu Archipelago) or okir (in many places in Mindanao). When tabulated, the data show that these bells were cast from about the middle of the 19th century to the 1890s. This article tries to find out how these ukkil motifs found their way to church bells.