Kulam: the Philippines' version of black magic?
The folk tradition of the hex, the mangkukulam who is said to cast it, and the everyday ways Filipinos have long guarded against both.
6 min read · Published 28 August 2026
The short answer
Kulam is a Filipino folk tradition of sorcery or hexing — the casting of harm, illness or misfortune on a person by supernatural means. The practitioner is a mangkukulam, often pictured working on a doll or effigy to send pain into the victim's body. It overlaps with barang, a Visayan counterpart usually described as sending insects into the body, though the two names and methods vary by region. People have traditionally sought protection through folk healers, prayer, amulets and diagnostic rituals, and the belief remains widely held in the provinces today, held comfortably alongside Catholic faith.
What kulam is
Kulam (the act is *pangkukulam*) is the Filipino tradition of causing harm to a person through supernatural means — inflicting illness, pain, misfortune, madness or death from a distance, without ever touching them. It sits in the family of beliefs that most cultures have some version of, and in English it is usually rendered as sorcery, witchcraft or black magic.
In the popular image the practitioner works on a doll, effigy or photograph that stands in for the victim. Pins pushed into the doll, or the figure burned or bound, are believed to visit the same pain on the living person — a sudden stabbing ache, a swelling, a wasting illness that no ordinary remedy touches. Other accounts describe harm sent through food, through hair or nail clippings, or through something the victim once owned. Accounts of the exact method vary widely from telling to telling and from province to province.
The word carries real weight. To say someone was *kinulam* — was hexed — is to name a specific cause behind a misfortune, and in many communities it is a serious accusation, not a figure of speech.
What a mangkukulam is said to do
The practitioner is a mangkukulam. In folklore the mangkukulam is a person believed to hold the power to curse others, sometimes for a fee, sometimes out of a grudge of their own. They are not the same figure as the albularyo, the folk healer — the healer more often stands on the other side, called in to undo a hex rather than to cast one.
Traditional accounts describe the mangkukulam living quietly, often at the edge of a community, their reputation known but rarely spoken of directly. Motive matters in the telling: a curse is usually said to follow an offence — a betrayal, an unpaid debt, a jealousy, a wrong done to the practitioner or to whoever paid them. This is part of why the belief endures. It offers an explanation for suffering that otherwise has none, and it names a reason.
It is worth saying plainly that mangkukulam has also long been an accusation levelled unfairly — most often at older women, outsiders, or anyone living apart from the community. The label has a hard social history as well as a folkloric one.
Kulam and barang: the same idea, different regions
Kulam is the term most associated with Tagalog-speaking regions, but it is not the only word for the tradition, and the practices behind the words are not identical. In the Visayas the more familiar counterpart is barang.
Barang is commonly described as harm worked through insects — beetles, ants or other creatures believed to be magically sent into the victim's body, where they cause the pain and swelling of the illness from within. The practitioner is a barangan or mambabarang. Where kulam is often pictured through the doll and the pin, barang is pictured through the creature under the skin, and some accounts hold that the insects can be drawn back out by a healer as proof of the cause.
The honest picture is that these are regional strands of one broad belief rather than two neatly separate systems. Names, methods and the line between them shift across the islands and from one account to the next. Treating kulam and barang as fixed, tidy categories flattens a folklore that has always been local and varied.
| Kulam | Barang | |
|---|---|---|
| Region most linked to | Tagalog areas of Luzon | The Visayas |
| Practitioner | Mangkukulam | Mambabarang / barangan |
| Typical image | Doll, effigy or photo pierced or bound | Insects sent into the victim's body |
| Sign in the victim | Sudden pain, swelling, wasting illness | Pain and swelling attributed to the creatures within |
How people guarded against it
Belief in kulam has always come paired with belief in protection from it, and the protection is where the tradition is most alive in daily life. Several practices recur across the islands.
- The albularyo. When an illness is suspected to be more than natural, the folk healer is often the first person consulted — to confirm the cause and to work the counter-remedy. The albularyo is the tradition's practitioner of healing, the counterweight to the mangkukulam.
- Pagtatawas. To find out whether a sickness is ordinary or the work of a curse, a healer may perform pagtatawas, the tawas divination — reading shapes in melted candle wax dropped into water to name the cause.
- The agimat. Many carry an agimat, a protective amulet, believed to shield the wearer from curses and harm. The anting-anting is its close cousin, and both are worn precisely as a guard against the unseen.
- Prayer and the sacred. Catholic prayer, blessed objects, holy water, salt and the invocation of saints are folded into protection against kulam — the sacred marshalled against the malicious.
Is kulam still believed today?
Yes — and this is the part outsiders most often get wrong. Kulam is not a museum piece. It is a belief still held across the Philippines, most strongly in the provinces and rural communities, though far from only there.
What surprises people is how naturally it sits beside Catholicism. The Philippines is one of the most Catholic countries in the world, and for many Filipinos there is no contradiction in holding both — attending Mass on Sunday and consulting an albularyo when a strange illness will not lift. The two are not rivals in daily practice so much as layers of the same worldview, one inherited from Spain and one older than it. Anthropologists call this kind of blend syncretism, and Filipino folk belief is a rich, living example of it.
That is the register to keep. Kulam is heritage and worldview before it is superstition, and the people who observe it are not credulous — they are carrying a tradition that has answered real questions about suffering, fortune and blame for a very long time.
Common questions
- What is kulam?
- Kulam is a Filipino folk tradition of sorcery or hexing — causing harm, illness or misfortune to a person through supernatural means, without physical contact. It is often pictured as a curse worked on a doll or effigy standing in for the victim.
- What is a mangkukulam?
- A mangkukulam is the person in Filipino folklore believed to be able to cast a kulam, or curse. They are distinct from the albularyo, the folk healer, who is more often called on to diagnose and undo a hex than to cast one.
- What is the difference between kulam and barang?
- Both are Filipino traditions of harmful sorcery, but they differ by region and method. Kulam is most associated with Tagalog areas and often pictured through a pierced doll, while barang is a Visayan counterpart usually described as sending insects into the victim's body. The details vary from account to account.
- How do Filipinos protect against kulam?
- Traditional protections include consulting an albularyo (folk healer), the pagtatawas divination to identify the cause, carrying an agimat or anting-anting amulet, and Catholic practices such as prayer, holy water, blessed salt and the invocation of saints.
- Do Filipinos still believe in kulam today?
- Yes, especially in the provinces, though the belief is found across the country. It is commonly held alongside Catholic faith rather than in opposition to it — an example of the syncretism, or blending of traditions, that runs through Filipino folk belief.