Bagakay

{{Short description|Filipino projectile weapon}} {{For|the species of bamboo it is named after|Schizostachyum lima}} {{Infobox weapon | name = Bagakay | image = File:Bagakays.jpg | image_size = | caption = | origin = Philippines | type = Projectile Dart, Spear | is_bladed = No | service = | used_by = Filipinos | wars = Spanish colonization of the Philippines | designer = | design_date = | manufacturer = | unit_cost = | production_date = | number = | variants =  | spec_label = | weight = | length = 6–10 inches | part_length = | width = | height = | diameter = | crew =  | blade_type = | hilt_type = | head_type = | haft_type = }}

The '''bagakay''' is an ancient Filipino weapon made of bamboo or wood.<ref>{{cite web |title=Intersections: The Philippines at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century. |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/monograph1/mintz_hunting.html |website=intersections.anu.edu.au |access-date=21 December 2021}}</ref> It is a dart-type of weapon sharpened at both ends and about six to ten inches in length<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sr |first1=Amante P. Marinas |title=The Art of Throwing: The Definitive Guide to Thrown Weapons Techniques (Downloadable Media Included) |date=10 December 2013 |publisher=Tuttle Publishing |isbn=978-1-4629-0551-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzXRAgAAQBAJ&dq=bagakay+as+a+dart+weapon+philippines&pg=PT65 |access-date=21 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> thrown at an enemy at close quarters and were generally thrown five at a time increasing the possibility of hitting the target.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mallari |first1=Perry Gil S. |title=The FMA and the Projectile Range |url=https://fmapulse.com/fma-corner/fma-corner-fma-and-projectile-range-2/ |website=Filipino Martial Arts Pulse |access-date=21 December 2021 |date=21 July 2009}}</ref> It can be made from small tree branches cut in the proper length and sharpened at both ends or made from hollow bamboo filled with clay for additional weight and easy throwing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sr |first1=Amante P. Marinas |title=The Art of Throwing: The Definitive Guide to Thrown Weapons Techniques (Downloadable Media Included) |date=10 December 2013 |publisher=Tuttle Publishing |isbn=978-1-4629-0551-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzXRAgAAQBAJ&dq=bagakay+as+a+dart+weapon+philippines&pg=PT65 |access-date=21 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> It is named after ''Schizostachyum lima'', a species of bamboo locally known as {{lang|ceb|bagakay}}.

== History == The bagakay was usually used to hunt birds before the Spanish Colonial period. It has evolved into a projectile weapon against the Spanish colonists during the colonization era.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robertson (1873–1939) |first1=Emma Helen Blair (d 1911) James Alexander |title=The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898: explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century, Volume XXIX, 1638–40 |page=259 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38748/38748-h/38748-h.htm#xd19e2909src |access-date=21 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

== Description == Bagakay is largely short-range but could effectively puncture thick objects.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wiley |first1=Mark V. |title=Filipino Martial Culture |date=2011 |publisher=Tuttle Publishing |isbn=9781462903474}}</ref> It differs from the ''sugob'', a similar disposable bamboo javelin weighted with sand, used for longer distances.<ref name="scott">{{cite book |author=William Henry Scott |url=https://archive.org/details/BarangaySixteenthCenturyPhilippineCultureAndSociety |title=Barangay. Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society |publisher=Ateneo de Manila University Press |year=1994 |isbn=9715501389 |page=}}</ref> It is not used like a javelin or spear but thrown overhand or underhand and made to spin in order to hit the target.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Marinas, Sr |first=Amante |title=Art of Throwing: The Definitive Guide to Thrown Weapons Techniques (Downloadable Media Included) |publisher=Tuttle Publishing |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4629-0551-5 |language=en}}</ref>

Bagakay may also connote a long bamboo spear.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mallari |first1=Perry Gil S. |date=21 July 2009 |title=The FMA and the Projectile Range |url=https://fmapulse.com/fma-corner/fma-corner-fma-and-projectile-range-2/ |access-date=21 December 2021 |website=Filipino Martial Arts Pulse}}</ref> An account also cited a variation of the weapon that is made of steel.<ref name=":0" />

In some parts of the Philippines, bagakay is said to be used by sorcerers and folk healers to "inflict pain" to their victims.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Mascuñana |first=Rolando V. |title=The Folk Healers-sorcerers of Siquijor |last2=Mascuñana |first2=Evelyn Fuentes |publisher=Rex Bookstore, Inc. |year=2004 |isbn=978-971-23-3543-3 |pages=84 |language=en}}</ref> In a ritual, the sorcerer uses bagakay to puncture a doll fashioned from wax. The victim is then thought to suffer the pain in the part of his body corresponding to the portion of the wax doll stuck with bagakay.<ref name=":1" />

A different weapon that uses the bamboo bagakay is called ''balatik''. It is long pointed pole that can be launched by a drawn bough of springy wood and was often used to hunt wild pigs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jocano |first=F. Landa |title=Sulod Society: A Study in the Kinship System and Social Organization of a Mountain People of Central Panay |date=2008 |publisher=The University of the Philippines Press |isbn=978-971-542-587-2 |location=Quezon City |pages=50 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also== *Sugob *Sibat *Sumpit

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Philippine martial arts Category:Weapons of the Philippines Category:Spears