Tulì is a Filipino rite of male circumcision. It has a long historical tradition and is considered a rite of passage;[1] boys who have not undergone the ritual are labelled supót and face ridicule from their peers.
Circumcision is not considered a religious rite as most Filipinos subscribe to Roman Catholicism, which does not require it. A theory posits that the prevalence of the rite is due toIslam, which arrived in the islands 200 years before Christianity.
More affluent parents opt to have their children circumcised as neonates in hospital, but the majority prefer that their sons undergo the tradition at around 5–7 years of age. Boys of the same age group would either go to government-sponsored missions, hospitals, or to a local circumciser.
The Philippines Department of Health sponsors an annual Operation Tuli project to circumcise boys; others assist and provide the service for free.
The traditional circumciser would tell the patient to chew guava leaves and then simply cut off the foreskin of the boy with a sharp knife. The boy is then to wash off in the cold waters of a nearby river and to apply the masticated guava leaves as a poultice on the wound.
Newly-circumcised boys usually wear housedresses or loose skirts to help in the healing. The swelling that might occur during this period is termed pangángamatis, literally, "becoming like a tomato (kamatis)" owing to the reddish appearance of the penis.