Agusan image

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Agusan image
The Agusan image, 2016
Materialgold, copper and silver
Height178 mm (7.0 in)
Weight2 kg (4.4 lb)
Created9th–10th Centuries AD
Discovered1917
Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines
Present locationField Museum of Natural History
CultureIndigenous Philippine folk religions, Hinduism, Buddhism (disputed in regards to Hindu & Buddhist identity)
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The Agusan image (commonly referred to in the Philippines as the Golden Tara due to its earliest and most-common association with, but disputed,[1] identity as an image of a Buddhist Tara) is a 2 kg (4.4 lb),[2] 21-karat gold statuette,[3][4][5] found in 1917 on the banks of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, Mindanao in the Philippines,[6] dating to the 9th–10th centuries. The figure, approximately 178 mm (7.0 in)[7] in height, is of a female Hindu or Buddhist deity, seated cross-legged and wearing a richly-adorned headdress and other ornaments on various parts of the body. It is now on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.[8][9]

Since its discovery, the identity of the goddess represented by the gold statuette has been the subject of debate.[10] Proposed identities of the gold figurine range from that of a Hindu Sivaite goddess to a Buddhist Tara. Recent scholarship suggests that the image represents the offering goddess Vajralāsyā of the Tantric Buddhist tradition.[11][12]

Identity

[edit]
See also: Hinduism in Southeast Asia, Buddhism in Southeast Asia, and Indianisation

H. Otley Beyer believed that the image was that of a Hindu Shaivite goddess, but with the religiously important hand gestures improperly copied by local craftsmen. If true, this suggests Hinduism was already in the Philippines before Ferdinand Magellan arrived, with early Filipinos adopting an imperfect version of Hinduism from the Majapahit Empire. Natives would not convert into Hinduism, rather, they absorbed its traditions while retaining their own indigenous Anitist religions. This golden Agusan image seems to be modelled after — or copied — Nganjuk bronze images of early Majapahit period.[3]

A study of this image was made by F. D. K. Bosch, of Batavia, in 1920, who came to the conclusion that it was made by local workmen in Mindanao, copying a Nganjuk image of the early Majapahit period — except that the local artist overlooked the distinguishing attributes held in the hand. It probably had some connection with the Javanese miners who are known to have been mining gold in the Agusan-Surigao area in the middle or late 14th century. The image is apparently that of a Sivaite goddess, and fits in well with the name "Butuan" (signifying "phallus").

— H. Otley Beyer, 1947[13]

Juan R. Francisco however questioned Beyer’s identification of the golden image in that: (1) "Butuan" means "phallus" (the origin is still under discussion); (2) that the King of Butuan, not being a Muslim, should therefore be a Hindu of the Shaivite persuasion; (3) that the existence of other Shaivite images discovered among the Mandaya (south of where the Agusan image was discovered) and in Cebu should support his conclusions regarding the female Shaivite goddess identity of the golden statuette. Regarding the last assumption, Francisco pointed out that the identity of the other supposedly "Sivaite" images mentioned by Beyer (all of which were destroyed by the fire that consumed the Ateneo de Manila Museum in the early 1930s) is also questionable, since John Carroll, who examined a photograph of the Cebu image, believed that it is an "Avalokitesvara, not a Siva".[4] Francisco, on the basis of the re-study of the gold statue, believed that it represents a Buddhist Tara.[5]

It seems likely that the image is a goddess of the Buddhist pantheon, in the Mahayana group. Its related to the concept of a female Boddhisattva, and at the same time the counterpart of the Hindu goddess (Sakti), as a Tara (or wife of a Buddhist god), which is a peculiar development of Buddhism in Southeast Asia.

— Juan R. Francisco, "A Note on the Golden Image of Agusan" (1963)[14]

Four bronze deities from a Vajradhātu Mandala and unearthed in Nganjuk, Java. These figurines share stylistic similarities with the Agusan image.

Another proposed identity of the Agusan image is the offering goddess Vajralāsyā, one four female deities located in the inner circle of a mandala called the Diamond Realm (Vajradhātu). Mandalas like the Diamond Realm Mandala in Tantric Buddhism are elaborate diagrams that represent the cosmos in a metaphorical or symbolic manner. Mandalas can be represented as two-dimensional (either temporarily drawn on flat surfaces, painted on cloth, or etched on metal plates), as three-dimensional sculptural tableaux, and large architectural constructions likeBorobudur in Central Java. Three-dimensional mandalas are thought to have been used for sacred rituals involving the offering of water, flowers, incense, lamps, unguents, etc.

The Diamond Realm Mandala is one of the well-known and well-documented of early Buddhist mandalas. Located at the center of such mandala is the Buddha Vairocana, surrounded by an inner circle of deities. The four cosmic Buddhas occupy the four cardinal points of the inner circle,[15] each of which is surrounded by four attendants, while the four offering goddesses sit at the inner circle's four corners. The four inner goddesses associated with offerings made to the Buddha Vairocana are Vajralāsyā ("amorous dance", at the southeast corner); Vajramālā ("garland", at the southwest); Vajragītā ("song", at the northwest); and Vajramṛtyā ("dance", at the northeast). In the outer circle are sixteen more deities, four arranged along each of the four cardinal directions, while at the interstitial corners are four more "outer" offering goddesses. The outer circle is surrounded by 1,000 more buddhas and 24 deities who guard the boundaries, while four guardian deities protect the four portals at the four cardinal directions.

The Tibetan scholar Rob Linrothe was one of the first to identify the Agusan image as Vajralāsyā, who is always shown with her hands on her hips.[16] Florina Capistrano-Baker agrees with this conclusion, noting the similarities in style between the Agusan golden image and the other statuettes belonging to a three-dimensional Diamond Realm Mandala set such as the four bronze deities discovered in Nganjuk, Java (believed to represent the four outer offering goddesses). The shared characteristics between the Nganjuk figurines and the Agusan golden image were already suggested back then in 1920 by the Dutch scholar F. D. K. Bosch; however, it was ignored at that time because no illustrations of the bronze figurines were presented. Recent scholarship is now re-evaluating the relationship between the Agusan golden image and the Nganjuk bronze deities as these are believed to have been made around the same time (10th–11th centuries). Identification of the gold figurine with the offering goddess Vajralāsyā also implies that it is part of a larger set of offering deities associated with the Diamond Realm mandala, the whereabouts of which remains unknown and is most likely lost.[17]

Although study of the relationship between the Agusan Vajralasya and the Nganjuk offering goddesses has been overlooked, it is clear that the Agusan image belongs to the same genre.

— Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, "Butuan in Early Southeast Asia", Philippine Ancestral Gold (2011)[18]

One of the factors that makes the identification of the image by scholars difficult is the fact that it has no specific iconographic attributes. The goldsmiths in the Philippines knew of Hindu and Buddhist artistic conventions, but did not include motifs to identify them as specific deities. Philippine goldsmiths may have done this intentionally to maintain their ethnic identity.[19]

History

[edit]

In 1917, the Agusan image was found by a Manobo woman along the banks of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan del Sur.[20] She kept the artifact as a manika (doll) until it was acquired by the then Agusan Deputy Governor Blas Baklagon,[21] after which it gained the name Buwawan ni Baklagon (Gold of Baklagon). However, according to Constancia Guiral, her grandmother Belay Campos had found the image and kept it as a manika (doll), placing it on an altar for worship until it was stolen from their traditional Manobo house.[22] It then ended up in the hands of Blas Baklagon.[23]

In 1918, Baklagon brought the artefact to the attention of Dr. H. Otley Beyer, who called it "the most spectacular single find yet made in Philippine archeology". Beyer, who was then the chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines and thus an honorary curator of the National Museum of the Philippines, attempted to convince the American colonial government in the Philippines to purchase the Agusan image for the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila. However, the government failed to purchase the artefact due to lack of funds.[23]

Ownership next passed to the Agusan Coconut Company, to which Blas Baklagon owed a debt. News of its existence eventually reached important people such as Louise Wood, whose husband Leonard Wood was the American Governor-General in the Philippines. Fearing the image might be melted down for its value in gold, Mrs. Wood conducted a fundraising campaign for the purchase of the gold artifact. She enlisted the help of Fay-Cooper Cole, the curator of Chicago Field Museum's Southeast Asian department, together with Shaler Matthews, a professor at the University of Chicago.[24] Their efforts paid off when the image was finally acquired for the museum in 1922 for ₱4,000.00.[25]

In 1922, the image was shipped to the United States and was finally housed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where it remains to this day. Since the 21st century, the site in Agusan where the image was found has become a pilgrimage site for Buddhists and animists alike.[25]

Reparation to Philippines

[edit]

See also: Repatriation (cultural property) and Looted art

Filipinos have demanded reparation of the Agusan image from the United States to Philippines. The artifact has been a source of conflict between Filipinos and Americans for many years, and many Filipino scholars have demanded its return. It is seen as a national treasure of the country, unreported during the time of its discovery, and sold to Americans during a period of national financial difficulty leading to the inability of the Philippine government to purchase the artifact when it was auctioned. Scholars have argued that if the reason the Field Museum took the artifact was due to fear of it may have been melted down, then the museum should return it, or at least allow the Philippines to purchase back the artifact since the scenario that involves the image being melted down for its gold is now unlikely.[26][27]

Also mentioned is how the artefact was bought by an American museum during a time when the Philippines was under financial duress and an American colony. One of the major advocates for the return of the Agusan image is former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who made his last privilege speech specifically supporting its repatriation to the Philippines.[26] The Field Museum has stated that it may return the golden image if it is "strongly requested" by the Philippine government.[26][27]

In April 2018, a documentary by GMA Network featured the Agusan image, this time showing the people of Agusan del Sur supporting the repatriation of the statue. Scholars in partnership with the government also found a document proving the Philippines' right to claim the artefact.[27]

See also

[edit]

Sources

[edit]
  1. ^ Francisco, Juan R. (1963). "A Note on the Golden Image of Agusan". Philippine Studies. 11 (3): 390–400. ISSN 0031-7837. JSTOR 42719871. The question of its identification is still undecided.
  2. ^ "109928 Agusan gold figure | Philippines | The Field Museum". philippines.fieldmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Description: Agusan gold image of Hindu deity [figure Devi, goddess. A.D. 1000-1300. 4 1/2 pound, solid gold figure of a Hindu or Buddhist deity]
  3. ^ a b "[Bronze statues from Nganjuk] OD-3577 | Digital Collections". digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl. Archived from the original on 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  4. ^ a b Francisco, Juan R. (1963). "A Note on the Golden Image of Agusan". Philippine Studies. 11 (3): 395. ISSN 0031-7837. JSTOR 42719871. The problem here is that the images referred to were destroyed in the fire that consumed the Ateneo de Manila Museum in the early 1930s. Their identity is at best questionable, since John Carroll, who examined a photograph of the Cebu image, believes that it is "an Avalokitesvara, not a Siva"
  5. ^ a b Francisco, Juan R. (1971). "Reflexions on the migration theory vis-à-vis the coming of Indian influences in the Philippines" (PDF). Asian Studies: 312. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2019-05-30. There is the now famous Agusan image, which was originally identified as Saiva in orientation by Beyer, but which I identified as a Buddhist Tara on the basis of a re-study of the image.
  6. ^ Francisco, Juan R. (1963). "A Note on the Golden Image of Agusan". Philippine Studies. 11 (3): 390–400. ISSN 0031-7837. JSTOR 42719871. It was found in 1917 on the left bank of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan, eastern Mindanao, following a storm and flood
  7. ^ Field Museum of Natural History. "FMNH 109928". collections-anthropology.fieldmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Statue [figure] is about 178 mm in height (FMNH A109928).
  8. ^ "109928 Agusan gold figure | Philippines | The Field Museum". philippines.fieldmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Manobo woman's kin want Golden Tara returned". www.philstar.com. August 13, 2018.
  10. ^ Capistrano-Baker, Florina H; Guy, John; Miksic, John N (2011). "Chapter 4 - Butuan in Early Southeast Asia". Philippine ancestral gold. Ayala Foundation; NUS Press. p. 251. ISBN 9789718551745. OCLC 724647223. From the time the Agusan image first came to light, the identity of the female portrayed has been the subject of conjecture and contention.
  11. ^ Orlina, Roderick (2012). "Epigraphical evidence for the cult of Mahāpratisarā in the Philippines". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 35 (1–2): 165–166. ISSN 0193-600X. Archived from the original on 2019-05-30. Retrieved 2019-05-30. This image was previously thought to be a distorted Tārā, but was recently correctly identified as a Vajralāsyā ('Bodhisattva of amorous dance'), one of the four deities associated with providing offerings to the Buddha Vairocana and located in the southeast corner of a Vajradhātumaṇḍala.
  12. ^ Weinstein, John. "Agusan Gold Vajralasya". Google Arts & Culture. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Scholars think that the statue may represent an offering goddess from a three-dimensional Vajradhatu (Diamond World) mandala.
  13. ^ H. Otley Beyer, "Outline Review of Philippine Archaeology by Islands and Provinces," Philippine Journal of Science, Vol.77, Nos.34 (July–August 1947), pp. 205-374
  14. ^ Francisco, Juan R. (1963). "A Note on the Golden Image of Agusan". Philippine Studies. 11 (3): 400. ISSN 0031-7837. JSTOR 42719871.
  15. ^ Capistrano-Baker, Florina H; Guy, John; Miksic, John N (2011). Philippine ancestral gold. Ayala Foundation; NUS Press. p. 253. ISBN 9789718551745. OCLC 724647223. The four buddhas who surround Vairocana are Aksobhya on the east, who gestures toward the earth; Ratnasambhava on the south, who displays the gesture of charity; Amitabha on the west, in meditation; and Amoghasiddh on the north, making a gesture indicating fearlessness.
  16. ^ Capistrano-Baker, Florina H; Guy, John; Miksic, John N (2011). "Chapter 4 - Butuan in Early Southeast Asia". Philippine ancestral gold. Ayala Foundation; NUS Press. p. 253. ISBN 9789718551745. OCLC 724647223. Tibetan scholar Rob Linrothe identifies the Agusan image as one of the four "inner" offering goddesses in a three-dimensional vajradhatu, or Diamond World, mandala.
  17. ^ Guy, John; Miksic, John N. (2011). Philippine Ancestral Gold. Ayala Foundation. p. 254. ISBN 978-9971-69-562-0. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2020-02-01. The recovery of a single offering goddess that is most likely part of a larger set brings up a number of intriguing questions. Where are the other figures?
  18. ^ Capistrano-Baker, Florina H; Guy, John; Miksic, John N (2011). Philippine ancestral gold. Ayala Foundation; NUS Press. p. 254. ISBN 9789718551745. OCLC 724647223.
  19. ^ Miksic, John Norman; Yian, Goh Geok (2016). Ancient Southeast Asia. Routledge. p. 415. ISBN 9781317279037. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2020-09-22. One of the most spectacular antiquities ever found in the Philippines is a gold statue found in Agusan in 1917. It closely resembles Indic deities, but has no specific iconographic attributes. Several objects in the Locsin Collection show that goldsmiths in the Philippines knew of Hindu and Buddhist artistic conventions, but did not include motifs which would identify them as specific deities. Philippine goldsmiths may have done this intentionally to maintain their ethnic identity.
  20. ^ Hontiveros, Greg (2004). Butuan of a thousand years. Butuan City Historical & Cultural Foundation. p. 21. ISBN 978-971-8860-02-1. OCLC 60754261. It was found in 1917 by a Manobo woman along the banks of Wawa River, not far from its confluence with Agusan River, in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur.
  21. ^ Beyer, H. Otley (1949). Outline review of Philippine archaeology by islands and provinces. Bureau of Printing. p. 301. OCLC 20115346. It was found by a woman who had entered the ravine, after the storm; and from her hands it passed into those of Bias Baklagon, a local official.
  22. ^ Mel Tiangco (host) (11 September 2011). Philippine Treasure (Television production) (in Tagalog). Philippines.
  23. ^ a b Capistrano-Baker, Florina H; Guy, John; Miksic, John N (2011). "The Aqusan lmaqe in the Field Museum of Natural History (Jamie Kelly)". Philippine ancestral gold. Ayala Foundation; NUS Press. p. 262. OCLC 1110166645. He implored the American colonial government to purchase the image for the museum. But his lobbying efforts were unsuccessful, as the government claimed it had no available funds to purchase it.
  24. ^ Capistrano-Baker, Florina H; Guy, John; Miksic, John N (2011). "The Aqusan lmaqe in the Field Museum of Natural History (Jamie Kelly)". Philippine ancestral gold. Ayala Foundation; NUS Press. p. 262. OCLC 1110166645. Fearing that the image might be melted down for its value in gold, Mrs. Wood raised funds to purchase it for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. She enlisted the help of Cole, then Southeast Asian curator at the Chicago museum, and Shaler Matthews, a professor in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.
  25. ^ a b "Tibetan Buddhists spot 'Holy Place' in Agusan del Sur - YouTube". YouTube. September 2015. Archived from the original on 2020-08-12. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  26. ^ a b c "Agusan Gold Vajralasya". Philippine Heritage Collection. Field Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original on 2017-10-01. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
  27. ^ a b c "Philippines Treasure Part II (GMA 7) feat. Golden Tara - YouTube". YouTube. 13 December 2012. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2019-05-19.