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‘Gold in the Philippines. Forms, Meaning and Metamorphosis’, in F. H. Capistrano-Baker (ed.), Philippine Ancestral Gold. Manila, Ayala Museum; Singapore, NUS Press, 2011: 162-188.

June 2020

In book: F. H. Capistrano-Baker (ed.), Philippine Ancestral Gold. Manila, Ayala Museum; Singapore, NUS Press, 2011: 162-188. (pp.162-188.)
Publisher: NUS Press Singapore

Authors:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Goldsmiths in Pidië (province of Aceh, North Sumatra) Photographer unknown, approx. 1910 Courtesy KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

…

Balance scales from the so-called Surigao Treasure Compare with those seen in Fig. 3.1. Similar scales have been recovered from a mid-10th century shipwreck cargo excavated in the Java Sea, the so-called Cirebon shipwreck. Cat. no. 81.LC.5124

…

a One-piece eye cover Probably Leyte Cat. no. 71.4039

…

Local sailing craft (balangay) of edge-pegged and lashed construction and 15 meters in length, during excavation in a riverine site at the estuary of the Agusan River near Butuan City, Agusan del Norte province, Mindanao Dated by association with Song period of Guangdong ceramics to 10th-12th century Courtesy the National Museum of the Philippines

…

Dish with iron-painted floral design Xicun, 10th-12th century Courtesy the National Museum of the Philippines

…

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Content uploaded by John S. Guy

Content may be subject to copyright.

Philippine Gold in Early Asian Trade

Adornment

Style and Dating

Goldworking Techniques in the Ayala Museum’s Collection

Ke n n e t h es g u e r r a

Chapter 3

Gold in the Philippines

Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Jo h n gu y

165

The Moros understand the laws of gold better than we do.

In this island there is much gold, in sheets, among the natives; and,

although they trade but little, they understand the value of the gold, and

know how to adulterate it by mixing it with silver, tin, copper, brass, and

other metals brought from China.…The best gold obtained is [a] grade called

guino-gulan, which means “the lord of golds;” it weighs about twenty-two

karats. From this is made the jewelry which they inherit from their ancestors,

with which they never part.1

So reported Francisco de Sande, the Spanish governor-general of

the newly claimed Philippines, on June 8, 1577.

Gold has long held a fascination for the peoples of Asia, and from

the earliest available records for the Philippines, these islands were no

exception. Since the beginnings of the history of metallurgy in Asia, gold

has been harvested, rst gathered as nuggets from riverbeds and other

alluvial sources and then extracted from mined ore. In the Philippines,

the rugged young land formations rich in gold ore are subjected to the

annual onslaught of the monsoon, causing them to yield up their riches

every year in the owing rivers and allowing rich harvests to be panned

through placer mining. Particles of gold have been panned from the

riverbeds and estuaries of these islands and wrought into ornaments

since at least the early centuries BC. Although Spanish accounts indicate

that mined gold ore was being extracted in the Cordillera mountain range

of Luzon island and elsewhere before contact, widespread subterranean

mining (lode) appears to be a later development. Larger scale mining was

encouraged by the Spanish in their desire to extract maximum wealth

from the “islands of Philip.” Both techniques of gold gathering are still

practiced in the Philippines today.2

Goldworking skills accrue over millennia. In the Philippines, a

person who masters important skills was known as panday, a generic

term applied to blacksmiths, goldsmiths, and other craftsmen in the

sixteenth century.3 Goldsmiths were probably peripatetic, moving among

communities in need of their skills and gravitating to the most powerful

centers of patronage. A set of small tools, scale, and touchstone was all

that was needed (gs. 3.1 & 3.2). Goldsmith’s touchstones have been

found archaeologically, and the early Spanish observers commented

with some surprise how common it was to see local villagers equipped

with such a tool. Governor-General Francisco de Sande wrote that

should any local person be paid in gold, he “immediately takes out

the touchstone which he carries with him” to ascertain the purity or

otherwise of the gold offered in the transaction.4

The Wu xue Bian (a non-ofcial history of Ming up to 1521) by

Zheng Xiao states that “Luzon produces gold which is the reason for

its wealth.”5 A distinctive type of gold punch coin, the piloncito, was

recorded in nds in Rizal and Laguna provinces, near Manila.6 This

type of coin is known from Srivijayan sites and found in two shipwreck

cargoes discovered in the Java Sea: the Belitung (Tang) shipwreck dated

to the second quarter of the ninth century and the late tenth century

Intan shipwreck. Clearly these early gold punch coins circulated widely

along the Southeast Asian intraregional trading system.

Philippine Gold in Early AsianTrade

Among the earliest archaeologically recorded gold nds are gold

earrings unearthed in association with a Novaliches pottery complex in

Luzon, dated from the early centuries BC to no later than the third or

fourth century AD. Gold beads of similar date have been recorded in jar

burial assemblages in Palawan island, an indication that the processing

of gold for personal adornment was established early in the history of

the Philippines.7 Other datable nds, such as those from Bohol, in the

Fig. 3.1 Goldsmiths in Pidië

(province of Aceh, North Sumatra)

Photographer unknown, approx. 1910

Courtesy KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute

for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

Fig. 3.2 Balance scales from the so-called Surigao Treasure

Compare with those seen in Fig. 3.1. Similar scales have been

recovered from a mid-10th century shipwreck cargo excavated in the

Java Sea, the so-called Cirebon shipwreck.

Cat. no. 81.LC.5124

Gold in the Philippines

Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Jo h n gu y

166 Philippine Ancestral Gold

167Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

central islands of the Visayas, include more complex assemblages of

gold artifacts, such as repoussé ornaments, beads, dental inlay, and

gold foil. Some of these items may date as late as 900 AD.8

These earliest Philippine archaeological records make clear that

gold was intimately associated with funerary practices. Gold was the

favored material for dressing the dead with items of adornment. In

addition, gold-sheet covers were placed over bodily orices as part of

the internment, a custom practiced throughout mainland and island

Southeast Asia (g. 3.3).9 The widespread use of sheet gold—cut,

repousséd, and chased—has its origins in the Bronze Age culture of

coastal China and Taiwan, where it was employed in the manufacture

Fig. 3.3a One-piece eye cover

Probably Leyte

Cat. no. 71.4039

Fig. 3.4 Local sailing craft (

balangay

) of edge-pegged and lashed construction and 15 meters

in length, during excavation in a riverine site at the estuary of the Agusan River near Butuan

City, Agusan del Norte province, Mindanao

Dated by association with Song period of Guangdong ceramics to 10th-12th century

Courtesy the National Museum of the Philippines

The nds of pre-Hispanic gold in the Philippines are largely

concentrated around the small area of sea bordered by the Butuan region

of northern Mindanao, Bohol, Leyte, and Samar. Other major sources

are Mindoro, Cuyo, and Luzon. The Chinese Song Shi (Song History) lists

Ma-i (Mindoro) among the foreign countries whose merchants were to

be regulated when they traded with China. The post of Superintendent

of Maritime Trade was established at Guangzhou in 972, linking the

Philippines directly to the international trading system of the late rst

millennium. Butuan (P’u-tuan, according to the Chinese), by contrast,

is listed as having regular trade with Champa rather than with China.

However, within 30 years Butuan was emboldened to bypass Champa

Fig. 3.5 Dish with iron-painted oral

design

Xicun, 10th-12th century

Courtesy the National Museum of the

Philippines

Fig. 3.3c Nose cover

Liloan, Leyte

Cat. no. 67.4026

Fig. 3.3b Mouth cover

Probably Leyte

Cat. no. 71.4041

of funerary masks and individual eye, nose, and mouth covers. The

earliest Philippine contacts were presumably with southern China,

or Nanyue, and Champa in central Vietnam. Although the meaning

attached to these burial accoutrements remains unclear, these objects

are presumed to assist in protecting the soul of the deceased.

In the late phase of the prehistoric period of Southeast Asia—

dened as the rst millennium BC to mid-rst millennium AD—there

already existed shared cultural practices linked with the burial of the

dead as well as the production of associated gold artifacts of a unied

concept and style. To explain such a degree of cultural homogeneity in

specic terms is difcult, but a general assumption can be made that

these practices reect some degree of common ancestry of which these

afterlife beliefs were a part.

Gold sources in the Philippines were rst systematically recorded

by the Spanish who, fresh from their conquests in Central America,

were intent on plundering these newly discovered islands. Antonio

Pigafetta reported in 1521 that his captain, Ferdinand Magellan,

prized the island of Cebu in the Visayas for its trade in gold and slaves.

The neighboring island of Bohol was said to be another rich source

of gold. The startling nds of spectacular gold jewelry in the past 30

years conrm the importance of nearby Samar and Mindanao as both

gold sources and manufacturing centers. The nds from around Butuan

City in Mindanao are of a consistently higher quality than those from

Samar, suggesting separate manufacturing centers.

and open direct relations with Song China. In 1003 the ruler of Butuan

sent the rst annual tribute mission to China, trading, among other

goods, camphor and cloves, which in turn must have been sourced from

eastern Indonesia. Butuan at the beginning of the eleventh century was

therefore actively connecting Sabah (for camphor), Sulu (for pearls),

Maluku (for cloves), and probably Timor (for sandalwood) with the

markets of China.10

The kingdoms that emerged and were sustained by this trade wealth

supported one of the most splendid chapters in the history of gold in the

Philippines, as the modern discoveries from Butuan testify. A clear link

between gold and trade was established with the excavation of several

local sailing craft, or balangay, in riverine sites near Butuan City (g.

3.4).11 These intraregional trading vessels were found in association

with tenth-to-twelfth century Chinese trade ceramics predominantly

produced in Guangdong in the Northern Song period (960-1127) and

southern Yue wares of the following two centuries, providing a reliable

indicator of dating of the sites and associated artifacts, including

processed gold. The kilns of Xicun, located a short distance upriver

from Guangzhou, are most heavily represented, though other southern

kilns of Guangdong are present, including Dongguan, Nanhai Guanyao,

and Meixian.13 A particularly distinctive ceramic for which secure tenth-

to-eleventh century dating exists is a Xicun dish with incised or carved

oral decor on the cavetto combined with iron spotting (g. 3.5).12

The iron-spotting decor is also applied to covered boxes assigned to

Xicun kilns, in direct imitation of Fujian and Jiangxi qingbai wares.

A 1981 excavation at Masago in Agusan del Norte near Butuan led

by Warren Peterson yielded examples of these wares in carbon-dated

burial contexts associated with processed gold, including both jewelry

(necklace chain, an ear ornament, and what appear to be gold appliqué

168 Philippine Ancestral Gold

169Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

discs and lozenges) and funerary eye covers (see Peterson, in this

volume). Two gold items are particularly valuable nds in this dated

context, a chain necklace of “gear” beads and an ornament presumed

to be an ear decoration. These nds demonstrate the existence of

complex goldworking techniques in this period.

Two other securely datable archaeological contexts for Five

Dynasties (907-960) and early Northern Song ceramics and gold

artifacts have appeared in recent years. These are the Intan (1997)

and Cirebon (2004-5) shipwrecks, both found in the Java Sea and both

assignable on numismatic as well as ceramic evidence to the mid-tenth

century. Both vessels were of lashed-lug and doweled construction, a

Western Austronesian tradition of boatbuilding.14 Both also are in the

same maritime tradition of ship architecture as the balangay of Butuan.15

The cargo mixes of the Java Sea wrecks are likewise comparable, with

large volumes of Chinese southern kilns ceramics and lesser quantities

of West Asian trade goods and regional products.

The Intan’s Chinese lead coinage was issued by the Southern Han

(Nanhan) kingdom of Guangzhou and was in circulation for much

of the century from 917.16 The Cirebon’s lead coinage is identied as

belonging to the Qian Heng Zhong Bao era of the Nanhan kingdom

(917-971). The ceramic cargoes are the largest corpus of evidence we

have of Chinese ceramic production for the tenth century export trade.

Many of the glaze types—white wares, Yue wares—are represented in

the National Museum of Indonesia’s historical collection, indicating

that other cargoes of this time frame also circulated in Indonesia.

Both cargoes included not only large volumes of utilitarian bowls and

dishes, but also select luxury wares, such as Yue glazed ceramic pillows

and incense burners. The ceramic nds from tenth-century Mindanao

appear less varied, being conned largely to Guangdong wares.

The Cirebon wreck had a signicant number of gold objects and

a set of goldsmith’s scales. Precious metal objects include jewelry,

some set with semi-precious stones, a gold hinged box, and two highly

ornate hilt xtures (g. 3.33). The Intan wreck had a consignment

of 97 Chinese silver ingots, presumably representing payment to a

merchant for a major order, perhaps of aromatics, delivered to the

markets of Guangzhou. Both the Java Sea wrecks had high-value

components to their cargoes.

The balangay excavations in Butuan yielded traces of raw and

wrought gold and some tools associated with gold processing and

working. These suggest that the vessels played a role in the distribution

of gold around the Philippines and perhaps beyond, and that goldsmiths

traveled on these crafts. The nds point to this region being established

early—some time in the rst millennium—as a gold producing and

processing center with regional and perhaps international connections.

Indian traders, for instance, were already operating at the kingdom of

Kutei on the eastern coast of Borneo, days sailing from Mindanao. 17

These centers of goldworking in the southern Philippines must

have become part of the Asian trading boom around the end of the

rst millennium. At the beginning of the eleventh century the kingdom

of Butuan was recognized by the Northern Song government of China

as an important trading partner. The ceramic nds associated with the

balangay of Butuan and those associated with the Masago burial sites in

Agusan del Norte, upriver of Butuan on the Agusan River (see Peterson,

in this volume) give substance to these claims.

While many gold discoveries in the southern Philippines are found

with grave goods, the most dramatic and signicant hoards discovered

in modern times appear to be associated with royal citadels. The nds

in the Butuan region were retrieved from a number of habitation and

burial sites, some of which included tools and materials associated with

goldworking.18 The scale of these hoards, however, suggests something

more. No goldsmith would have had such a store of wealth, nor would

individual graves have yielded such concentrations of riches. Rather,

we may be looking at nds that indicate a palace treasury. One of these

nds, the so-called Surigao Treasure was uncovered in nearby Surigao

del Sur province by accident and dispersed by looters, so its precise

nature cannot now be determined. It comprised some 10 kilograms of

gold jewelry and weapons. The objects, discovered during construction

work in 1981, were recovered from a localized area in Magroyong, in

the township of San Miguel.19

It is possible that the Surigao hoard represented the treasury of the

Butuan kingdom, and the site, now destroyed, its citadel. The location

of a local ruler’s fortied citadel on the high ground overlooking a

major river estuary is typical of a pattern of early Southeast Asian

urban settlement seen throughout the rst millennium. It is the norm

in the coastal kingdoms of early Champa and is repeated in Borneo,

Sumatra, and at numerous locations in Southeast Asia. Such locations

had the dual advantage of controlling access to the hinterland—the

source of a region’s mineral and forest products—and allowing access

to the maritime trading system that desired such commodities. This

provided the model for the transition from clan polities to larger

political units and the emergence of kingdoms, often cloaked in the

trappings of Indian kingship and statecraft. The Surigao Treasure is

most substantial evidence that the Butuan kingdom was centered

there, as few architectural traces remain. Unlike their counterparts in

coastal Champa, for example, which built in red brick, the Butuan

rulers appear to have constructed their citadel in timber, no doubt

fortied with a bamboo palisade, of which nothing survives.

Early Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, is largely devoid of

a written history, and it is to neighboring cultures that we must turn for

the earliest descriptions of gold in the region’s societies. Indian texts

that have their origins in the early centuries BC refer to the island regions

to India’s east as Suvarnadvipa, or Island of Gold, and Suvarnabhumi,

or Land of Gold.20 Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts contain references

to Indian merchants venturing east to these distant lands to secure

supplies of gold. Chinese silk was imported at Pompuhar, the ancient

port of Kaveripattinam in coastal Tamil Nadu, South India, in the

early centuries AD, according to the romance-drama Cilappatikaram,21

probably by Tamil merchants operating via entrepôts in the Malay

Peninsula. Western Indonesia, in particular, yielded a steady supply of

gravel—and river-borne alluvial gold. Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay

Peninsula all played a role in this trade.

Was the Butuan region of Mindanao also linked to this trading

system? Evidence of goldworking activity in Borneo conrms that

Tamils were active in this process. By at least the fth century, Indians

of South Indian origin were an established part of the community at

Kutei, located at the estuary of the Mahakam river system in eastern

Kalimantan. This is evidenced by the presence of seven Sanskrit yupa

stele inscriptions found at Muara Kaman, dedicated by a local ruler who

assumed the Indic-form name of Mulavarman to record the performance

of Vedic sacrice rituals. The Kelai-Segah river system north of Kutei is

noted by the Dutch Borneo Expedition of 1925 as being a particularly

rich source of alluvial gold.22 Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula were

also key centers of this early gold trade activity, along with others in

Borneo itself, such as Sarawak.23

A goldsmith’s touchstone found at one of the earliest identied

entrepôts of peninsular Thailand—Wat Khlong Thom, Krabi province—

bears a newly deciphered inscription in Tamil-Brahmi script of the

third or fourth century: Perumpatan kal (“[This] is the [touch]stone of

Perumpatan”), patan or pattan meaning goldsmith.24 This is the earliest

known Brahmi inscription in Southeast Asia and clear evidence that

Indian merchants ventured early to the region to secure gold. A fth

or early sixth century stone stele erected in the Lembah Bujang river

estuary in Kedah, Malaysia, records thanksgivings for a safe journey

expressed by a Buddhist merchant calling himself “Buddhagupta,”

probably a resident of another entrepôt in the region.25 Three such

commemorative steles have been recovered from the river valley,

indicative of sustained activity by Indian Buddhists.

The activities of these Indian traders and artisans may have been

the catalyst for commercial-scale extraction of alluvial gold from the

rivers of Sumatra, West Java (Sunda), the Malay Peninsula, and Borneo.

Certainly Indian gold traders have left evidence of their activity in

many of these places.26 Although we have no direct evidence of their

presence as far north as the Philippines, the importance of such centers

as Kutei raises the possibility that gold-rich regions like Mindanao were

engaged in supplying gold to the Indonesian trading network.

The discovery in 1917 of the “Agusan image,” most probably a

Buddhist goddess, from the Agusan-Surigao area of northeastern

Mindanao, is rare but not unique; Buddhist bronze images have

reportedly been found in Cebu.27 The goddess is a solid-cast gold

image of a seated female deity weighing 1.8 kilograms. As discussed

170 Philippine Ancestral Gold

171Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

in Chapter 4, the image may be identied as a Buddhist Tantric female

divinity associated with Vajradhatu mandala ensembles known in

Javanese Buddhism of the late tenth to eleventh century.28 Comparison

with Javanese bronze images indicates the type: a gure in meditative

posture, adorned with a torque, armbands and bracelets, and a body

cord that passed between the breasts; a diadem and tiered chignon,

with nimbus, complete the representation (g. 4.75). The prototype is a

Vajrabodhisattva, possibly belonging to the Tattvalokakari Vajradhatu

mandala, composed by Anandagaraba , a scholar-monk probably based

at Nalanda mahavihara, or monastery, in Bihar, eastern India, in the

tenth century (g. 3.6).29 This Tantric mandala was rapidly disseminated

throughout the Buddhist diaspora and is known in Java from the late

tenth century.

Its Hindu-Buddhist associations alert us to the possibility of trade

between Mindanao and the Java Sea realm. While this image belongs

to the Hindu-Buddhist tradition of Java, it may have been made locally

based on an imported model or at a regional outpost known for its ob-

servance of these traditions, most notably one of the small kingdoms

in eastern or southern Borneo. As noted, the kingdom of Kutei was a

major producer of alluvial gold since at least the fth century, support-

ing a community of Indian Brahmin priests for their spiritual needs.

The site of Muara Kaman, where the yupa stones were recovered, also

yielded in 1840 a small, gold seated Buddha and a gold standing Vishnu

image (gs. 3.7, 3.8 & 3.9). This ancient Vishnu image has been mount-

ed on a garuda wings setting in later times and is seen being worn as

part of royal regalia at Kutei around 1883.

Another seated Buddha was found near Tabang, Kutei. This may

be compared with the Agusan image.30 The Dutch archaeologist F.D.K.

Bosch, who rst described the Tabang nd, insightfully compared it

with Nganjuk-style bronzes of eleventh century Java, though he missed

the prototype, that of a Buddhist goddess from a Tantric mandala.

Kutei, then a major historical gold supplier with links both to the

Hindu-Buddhist realm of the Java Sea and to Mindanao via the Sulu

archipelago, is a likely contender for the source of the Agusan image

or as an intermediary for a Javanese import. A Chinese Yuan source,

Fig. 3.6 Seated Esoteric Buddhist Deity

Indonesia (Java), Eastern Javanese period, ca. second half of the 11th century

Bronze with traces of gold lacquer, 6 3/5 in. (16.8 cm) height

1987.142.58 Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Gift of Samuel Eilenberg, 1987

©The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource, N.Y.

Fig. 3.8 Vishnu amulet found in 1840 at

Muara Kaman, Kutei

Attributed to the 10th century

Solid gold, ca. 10 cm height

Kutei Museum, Tenggarong, Kabupaten Kutei,

East Kalimantan

Photograph courtesy E. Edwards McKinnon

Fig. 3.7 Crown-prince of the Sultanate of Kutei,

wearing the Vishnu amulet (Fig. 3.8)

East Kalimantan (the former East Borneo)

Photographer unknown, ca. 1883

Courtesy KITLV/ Royal Netherlands Institute for

Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

Fig. 3.9 Seated Buddha in earth-touching

posture (

bhumisparsamudra

)

Found in Muara Kaman in 1840 and formerly

part of the Kutei Sultanate Regalia

Attributed to the 10th century or later

Solid gold, ca. 6 cm height

Kutei Museum, Tenggarong, Kabupaten Kutei,

East Kalimantan

Photograph courtesy E. Edwards McKinnon

the Nanhai Zhi of ca. 1300, acknowledges the ongoing existence of this

kingdom as Ku-ti.31 This same source recognizes a number of Philippine

polities.

The Cham kingdoms are presumed to have had close trading

links with the Philippines from the rst millennium, although the

archaeological record to support this dates only from later times as

witnessed by the recent excavations at the Go Sanh ceramic kilns in

southern Binh Dinh province in Champa, which were active from the

fourteenth century through the later sixteenth century. Ceramics from

these kilns were recovered from the Pandanan shipwreck found in

Philippine waters.32 Nonetheless, earlier connections seem highly likely,

172 Philippine Ancestral Gold

173Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Fig. 3.10 The Laguna copper plate inscription

Dated Saka Era 822, equivalent to AD 900

Recovered in 1900 during the dredging of the Lumbang River,

Laguna de Bay, Luzon

Photograph courtesy the National Museum of the Philippines

as the Chinese sources suggest. A signicant and early link has been

postulated on the basis of shared linguistic characteristics of Cham

and Tagalog, which point to the possibility of shared ancestry.33 Added

to this is the presence of Sanskrit loan words in Tagalog, which must

have been transmitted via prolonged interaction with the western

Indonesian world. The Srivijaya kingdom of Sumatra used Old Malay,

and the Central Javanese and Majapahit kingdoms employed Old

Javanese, both languages laden with Sanskrit words. This linguistic

indebtedness points to the early Philippines as having strong and

sustained contacts with both mainland and insular Southeast Asia.

This has major implications for the role of gold in early Philippine

culture and supports the interpretation of the use of gold in these early

societies as reecting a shared ancestry and culture.

The oldest record to afrm the material value of gold in Philippine

society, as opposed to its symbolic value, is the Laguna copper plate

inscription, dated Saka Era 822, equivalent to 900 AD (g. 3.10).34 This

is both the oldest dated inscription yet known from the Philippines and

a unique document, the only Philippine record written in the Early Kawi

script associated with Java of the eighth to tenth century. That it was

locally produced and not imported from Java has been demonstrated by

the identication of place names, most notably Pulilan, a former name

Northern Song period in Butuan, the kingdom probably used Guangzhou

as the preferred port of entry. According to the Song Shi, the rst mission

arrived on March 17, 1003, from Butuan, which the Chinese called P’u-

tuan, trading both local products such as tortoiseshell and exotic birds

and others that suggest links with West Asian trading systems, such

as glassware, sugar, and rosewater. Islamic-period West Asian glass

and ceramics recently recorded in ninth and tenth century shipwreck

cargoes from the Java Sea adds credibility to such accounts.39 Three

years later the Butuan mission was denied payment in precious metals,

suggesting that the Chinese authorities recognized that the outow of

gold and silver had reached an unacceptable level.40 In the course of

the next two centuries, Chinese awareness of the numerous kingdoms

of the Philippines grew, as did trade, so that by the beginning of the

thirteenth century, regular exchange took place between south China,

increasingly via the Fujian port city of Quanzhou, and Luzon, Mindoro,

Palawan, Basilan, Cebu, and Butuan. A Sulu chief, Paduka Batara, died

in China in 1417 while on a trade mission, underscoring this ongoing

relationship.41

These early commercial exchanges between the Philippines and

China open up the possibility of both the circulation of processed gold

and stylistic exchanges. Yet there is scant evidence of either. Chinese

gold was certainly sought by Southeast Asian traders in the eleventh

century, but whether these included Filipinos is not stated. What is clear

is that the bulk of the goldwork produced in the Philippines prior to the

fteenth century shows little stylistically that suggest an indebtedness

to Chinese models, save when direct copies were being made of Chinese

vessels, such as a footed cup and stemmed bowl (cat. nos. 69.3309 &

81.5166). One notable exception is an openwork container depicting a

kilin, or a mythical quadruped, on one side and a phoenix on the other

(Cat. no. 81.5180).

The discovery of a number of gold items in a Chinese shipwreck, the

Nanhai I, off the coast of Guangdong in 1987, raises some interesting

evidence in this context. The vessel is a Chinese junk and was, judging

from its surviving cargo of ceramics from the Jingdezhen, Longquan,

Dehua, and Cizao kilns (the latter two centers particularly famous

for export production to the Philippines), on its outward journey. The

vessel can be dated on numismatic and ceramic evidence, to the second

quarter of the twelfth century, the early phase of the Southern Song

period.42 The cargo included a gold chain, of what appears to be loop-in-

loop chain construction with a squared prole similar to the Philippine

chains known as pinarogmok, and with granulated triangular designs

for the Laguna de Bay lake area east of Manila. In his Zhufanshi or

Description of Barbarian Peoples (1225), Zhao Rugua, the superintendent

of Overseas Trade at the cosmopolitan port city of Quanzhou in Fujian,

refers to “P’u-li-lu” as an island near Luzon.35

The copper plate was discovered in 1990 at Laguna de Bay, having

been dredged from the Lumbang River bed in Laguna province. Its

importance lies in part in its contribution to an understanding of the

linguistic complexities of Old Tagalog—which point to a merging of

shared elements of Old Malay and Old Javanese, with a sprinkling

of borrowings from Sanskrit transmitted via Old Javanese.36 In the

context of the present discussion, this remarkable document provides

two important insights. First, it links the northern Philippines at the

close of the rst millennium with the Malay realm powers of the

day, most notably Srivijaya, and the Sailendra dynasty of western

Indonesia, and implies substantial commercial contacts with them. The

second signicance lies in the inscription’s stated purpose: to exempt

a named individual from a commercial debt, expressed in weight of

gold (su or suvana in Sanskrit). This is the earliest reference in the

Philippines to the role of gold as a form of currency, an agreed measure

of value. It contradicts statements made by Spanish commentators of

the late sixteenth century, such as de Sande, who wrote that the local

population source and process gold only to the extent that they need it

to satisfy requirements of personal adornment. The Laguna inscription

suggests that a major debt warranted the production of a complex

legal document (constructed following an Indian model, a jayapatra, no

doubt imported via Java) to record its cancellation, expressed in units

of gold. The signicance of this document for the status and ascribed

value of gold is beyond question: Gold in tenth century Luzon served as

a measure of value, the beginnings of monetized transactions.37

This coincides with the rst Chinese records to mention the islands

of the Philippines. In 972 an ofce supervising maritime trade was

established at Guangzhou to regulate merchants from the Nanhai, or

Southern Seas. Ma-i, or Mindoro, was listed as a trading partner. These

foreign merchants brought the forest and sea products of Southeast

Asia to exchange for Chinese silk, ceramics, and base and precious

metals, including gold and silver.38 Whether these Filipino traders

solicited gold is unclear. If they did, it was not because of a lack of local

sources; rather, they sought it because it was a commodity they could

acquire inexpensively and sell protably. Some 30 years later, Butuan

began sending a series of tribute missions to China in the years 1003-

1011. Judging from the concentrations of Guangdong ceramics of the

on the terminals.43 Whil e other aspects of the chain’s construction are

undocumented to date, there is a high probability that this chain is

of Philippine origin (Fig. 3.11). A second item of gold jewelry from

the same shipwreck recovery is a hollow bangle bracelet with twisted

wire ligree, both construction techniques practiced in the Philippines

(g. 3.12). The decor is repousséd with raised ve-petaled owers

alternating with claw settings, one of which still contains a pearl.

The Sulu region was famous for its supply of pearls to China in this

period. The strong technical and aesthetic associations with Philippine

goldworking strengthen the case for both the bracelet and chain being

of Philippine origin. If future analysis conrms this, then we would have

the rst evidence of Philippine gold jewelry being traded with southern

China.44 The presence of these items on a vessel embarking from China

raises other questions: Were these unsold stock of a merchant trading

with the Philippines? Or were these personal possessions of such a

merchant?

Fig. 3.12 Gold bracelet

Probably of Philippine origin. Excavated from

the Nanhai I shipwreck, Guangdong

Probably second quarter of the 12th century

Courtesy Guangdong Maritime Silkroad

Museum

Fig. 3.11 Gold chain

Probably of Philippine origin. Excavated from

the Nanhai I shipwreck, Guangdong

Probably second quarter of the 12th century

Photograph courtesy of Dr. Wei Jun

174 Philippine Ancestral Gold

175Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Adornment

The most complete account of the display of Philippine gold

jewelry comes from the illustrations that accompany the Boxer Codex,

a late sixteenth century compendium of contemporary sources.45 This

manuscript was probably commissioned in Manila by a wealthy and

learned Spaniard highly placed in the colonial government and with

access to condential reports. British historian C. R. Boxer suggests

that the patron may have been either the governor-general of the

Philippines at the time, Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, or his son, Luis. The

artist appears to have been Chinese (as is the paper used) and was

probably one of those known to have been working in the European

manner on ecclesiastical commissions in Manila.

The Boxer Codex’s illustrations of local dress and jewelry are highly

descriptive and may be taken to be based on direct observation. As such,

they may be assigned a high degree of reliability as historical sources.

Indeed, they provide a unique insight into traditional dress of this era.

They predominantly depict local chiefs, or datu, and their wives, who

dene their status and wealth principally through the display of gold

ornaments and weapons. To describe their accoutrements and compare

them with the spectacular gold nds from the Visayan islands and the

Butuan area of Mindanao is to present the case for both a strong Filipino

design repertoire in traditional gold jewelry and a powerful sense of

continuity in the centuries leading up to the Spanish intervention. The

question of dating adds a layer of complexity to this thesis as so little

of these nds have a recorded archaeological context. But the problem

of dating can be addressed, in part, by looking at historical context and

stylistic indicators.

Traditional adornment in Filipino society in the pre-Spanish

intervention era may be described as follows, using as our guide the

Boxer Codex paintings and extant examples:

From head to foot, the datu of sixteenth century Philippines chose

to signal his rank by wearing jewelry. That the Filipino word for jewelry,

hiyas, shares the same etymology as the Malay hias, meaning “well

dressed” or “beautied,” underscores both the meaning and purpose

of this lavish level of personal adornment. The concept is not so far

removed from the Indian concept of alamkara, best translated as

beautication through adornment. Lavish and sophisticated personal

adornment elsewhere in Southeast Asia tends to be associated with

what we might characterize as mature societies, that is, those that have

a high level of urbanization marked by major monumental architectural

legacies. This is a particularly European perspective that identied

Fig. 3.13 Diadem with crenellations

Northeastern Mindanao

Cat. no. 76.4815

Fig. 3.15 Openwork diadem

Northeastern Mindanao

Cat. no. 77.5007

Fig. 3.14 Diadem with buds

Northeastern Mindanao

Cat. no. 77.5071

town and temple builders as representing a higher level of development

than those who used bamboo and timber houses and boats as the tools

most appropriate to their needs. Nonetheless, what distinguishes the

Philippine goldworking tradition is that it displays a level of renement

matched only by the kingdoms of Java. Although gold jewelry played an

important role in mainland Southeast Asian kingdoms, such as those

of Champa, Angkor, and Dvaravati (central Thailand), these depended

mostly on simple sheet and repoussé methods of construction, rarely

displaying the technical complexity and level of skill evident in Philippine

workmanship.46 Only the Javanese goldsmiths rivaled their Philippine

counterparts in the use of complex construction and the combining of

multiple techniques in both fabrication and ornamentation.

Headbands of cloth are a recurring feature of the chiefs depicted

in the Boxer Codex, and diadems and coronets of sheet gold—cut and

sometimes repousséd—were favored, we assume, by both men and

women of rank (Cat. no. 76.4479). Most of the surviving diadems come

from presumed burial sites. They are thinly hammered sheet gold with

cutwork designs, often giving the appearance of being hastily produced.

Off-cuts and snippings of gold have been found in association with

some burials, suggesting that these were made in situ at the time of

burial expressly for funerary purposes.47 It is clear, however, from the

Boxer Codex depictions that diadems were also employed in daily use.

The hammered gold headbands display recurring patterns of

crenellations or ower bud upper borders with meander patterns of the

naga snake type in the central register (g. 3.13-3.15). These bear close

comparison with wood and bone carving traditions of the southern

Philippines and Borneo (Fig. 3.16). The foliate borders also occur on

funerary masks, implying that the diadem illustrated here is integral

to the mask concept (Cat. no. 76.4795). As the funerary masks are

understood to be among the oldest gold artifacts from the Philippines,

it follows that diadems share a similarly early origin since funerary

attire may be taken to reect the dress conventions of the day. In one

remarkable image in the Boxer Codex, a warrior chief from “Cagayanes”

(Cagayan, a province of Luzon), wielding a spear and shield, wears a

gold diadem of twisted construction afxed with pairs of human gures

and birds. Torque and leg bands complete his adornment (Fig. 3.17).

Ear ornaments were various and imaginative: gold earplugs for

the extended earlobe display a continuity with ancient bone, shell,

and ivory ear ornaments of the region.48 These are of both open and

closed discal form, constructed of thin sheet gold and decorated with

a combination of repoussé and masterfully manipulated granulations

176 Philippine Ancestral Gold

177Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

(cat. nos. 76.4322ab & 76.4192). The wearing of gold earplugs also has

a long tradition in western Indonesia, especially Java, where the subang

earplug has clear continuities with the Indian version, the kundala.49 A

damaged discal earplug in the Ayala Museum’s Gold Collection has a

pattern of owers known in Java as kawung (g. 3.18). This is sufciently

distinctive to suggest an awareness of Javanese gold designs of the

twelfth to fourteenth century. That gold jewelry circulated from the

territories of the east Javanese kingdom of Majapahit to the Philippines

is entirely likely. Not only were several kingdoms in Borneo probably

under Majapahit suzerainty—as proclaimed in the fourteenth century

text, the Nagarakertagama (1365)—providing one possible conduit, but

also Butuan and Sulu traders frequented these waters in the service of

the Maluku spice trade. The openwork discal ear ornament is not alone;

the Agusan image is another instance of a presumed locally produced

gold object signaling the presence of a Javanese import that would have

provided the necessary model—in this instance, an icon embodying

Vajrayana Buddhist iconography.

A remarkable repertoire of earrings survives, displaying various

combinations of casting, sheet work with repoussé, chasing, wire, and

granulation. Among the most prevalent is the simple elliptical form with a

return at the openings, a universal form in early jewelry types throughout

Southeast Asia. It can be traced to the Sa Huyhn culture of early central

Vietnam and has connections with the Taiwanese jade cutters who traded

worked stone ornaments in the region from around the early centuries

BC. This form, with its apparent allusion to female genitalia, was a design

generated in a variety of materials in the early Asian world. The ornament

was intended to be worn in the earlobe opening.

A distinctive gurative type is the garuda earring, in the form of a

crowned hybrid bird-human. Such earrings were modeled in the round

from sheet gold. The most famous is one recovered from Palawan,

which relates closely to examples in the collection.50 The treatment of

the garuda is precise—globular, rounded form, with an expressive face

and raised hands and talons— and surprisingly is less Javanese in feel

than might be expected (Cat. no. 76.4001ab). Rather, it has similarities

Fig. 3.16 Shield (

kelibit

)

Kenya, East Kalimantan

Polychromed wood, 133 cm height

Presented to Alfred Erskine by the Sultan of Kutei prior to 1918

Cat. no. E301837, Department of Anthropology,

Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Photograph by D.E. Hurlbert

Fig. 3.17 “Cagayanes”

A warrior chief from Cagayan, a province of Luzon,

wearing a gold diadem of twisted gold afxed with pairs of

human gures and birds, a neck ornament and leg bands

Boxer Codex (ca. 1590)

Courtesy The Lilly Library, Indiana Universtity,

Bloomington, Indiana

Fig. 3.18 Ear ornament

Eastern Visayas

Cat. no. 76.4319a

Fig. 3.19 Panel for a diadem depicting a garuda battling nagas

Cham, central Vietnam, ca.- 10th-12th century

Repoussé sheet gold set with rubies and an emerald

Private collection, London

178 Philippine Ancestral Gold

179Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

known for the unique Philippine kinnari. It must be accepted that it is

the product of an inspired goldmaster working in northern Mindanao at

the beginning of the second millennium who had some exposure to the

Indic-imagery of western Indonesia. Equally obscure is its function: Did

it serve as an oil lamp? The nearest analogous vessel is the Javanese oil

lamp shown, but this is not a conclusive model, so such an identication

remains speculative.

Although rare, kinnari are known from elsewhere in Southeast

Asia, notably from the Dvaravati culture of central Thailand. A unique

gold kinnari in the form of an ear ornament, recently excavated at U

Thong, Suphanburi province, survives from this culture (g. 3.22). The

creature’s head is tilted to one side in a bird-like mannerism, as seen

in the Butuan kinnari, and the body is likewise winged and feathered.

Datable to the eighth or ninth century, this is the oldest kinnari known

from mainland Southeast Asia. Elliptical Gupta-esque earrings identify

this style as coming from an earlier and different tradition than our

Butuan example, whose links are with tenth century Java.

Earrings of the saddle type, the interstices with pearl-string or

rope pattern (Cat. no. 75. 4231ab), are a form known in Java in the

Majapahit period.53 Others are of hinged construction, with spiked

projections reminiscent of Cham jewelry of the tenth to twelfth century

(g. 3.23; Cat. no.75.4229ab).54 As discussed, tenth century Butuan

had conrmed relations with the Cham territories, so this need not

be surprising. Given the international networks to which the coastal

polities of the Cham peoples had access, it may reasonably be assumed

that these design ideas owed from Champa to Butuan. Variant types

exist, such as a clip-on earring with a truncated pyramid as its pendant

(Cat. no. 76.4331ab).

Another type is an elliptical plate earring with suspended gold-sheet

owers and circular discs evoking pearl ornaments. These earrings have

close parallels in the late Hellenistic world, and we must be open to the

possibility that these articulated constructions, designed to shimmer

in the daylight when worn by a woman of rank, represent the legacy

of a long history of cultural interaction. The tenth century Cirebon

shipwreck cargo found in 2003 in the Java Sea, midway between West

Java and the southern coast of Kalimantan (Borneo), revealed a small

number of gold artifacts, including a remarkable ear ornament of an

uncut garnet set in gold with pearls suspended on gold wire (g. 3.24).

This is an unknown design for Java, and the closest parallels are with

jewelry produced in Sri Lanka, as comparisons with the famous Sigirya

earring suggest.55 This and a number of other gold and gemstone

items recovered from the Cirebon cargo were probably destined for

the rich urban elite of eastern Java.56 Many Buddhism bronze icons

were imported from Sri Lanka in this period, so the possibility of high-

quality jewelry being traded to Java is also plausible.

Goldsmiths employed a variety of complex techniques, using the

interlocking and jointed assembly of repeated elements to construct

neck chains. The Codex folios show a rich variety of chains, similar

to those represented in the Ayala collection, from open, interlocking

rings to complex interlocking “gear” bead necklaces called kamagi (gs.

3.25 & 3.26).The Codex features neck ornaments prominently, used as

adornment by both the Tagalog datu and the wives, dressed in ne

colorful textiles, and by the Cagayan warrior chief with shield and

spear (g. 3.17). “Chains of ofce” were favored among local rulers.

When a datu boarded a Spanish ship at Samar in 1543, the crew was

astonished to see him wearing heavy necklaces and ear ornaments that

the recorder of the event, Bernando de la Torre, estimated as being

worth more than 1,000 pesos. De la Torre added that even the datu’s

oarsmen wore “collars of gold.”57 Neck ornaments were indeed de

rigueur in traditional Philippine society. The 1883 photograph of the

Crown Prince of Kutei dressed in full regalia reveals him displaying

heavy gold chains similar to those from the Surigao Treasure (g. 3.7),

reinforcing the interpretation of this southern region, extending to

eastern Borneo, as a culturally interconnected and to some degree,

integrated zone, for many centuries.

Belts of gold wire worked in a complex loop-in-loop technique58

are a singular achievement of the goldsmiths of Butuan. The loop-in-

loop construction combined with segmented beads created belts of

stunning beauty. The patterns achieved in gold wirework recall textile

patterns found today in the Muslim silk ikats of Mindanao and Sulu,

most notably the tapestry weave sashes of the Tausug people (Cat. no.

81.5163).59 The belts are xed with paired buckles, presumably secured

with a split-pin fastener. These buckles provide a surface receptive to

embellishment with repoussé or granulation. On occasion, the design

has the symmetry associated with Hindu-Buddhist Java, a circle in a

square with tripartite corner ornaments. The total absence, however,

of Indic-style motifs on these buckles, such as the kirtimukha faces

favored in the Malay-Javanese world, is the clearest indication yet that

the goldwork of Mindanao represents a freestanding tradition. It draws

its inspiration from indigenous sources, including textile design and

technology. Indeed, nowhere else do we witness gold wire being used

literally like ber. The most spectacular nd to date has been from the

with the representation of garudas in Cham sculpture, and indeed

such parallels can be found in Cham gold jewelry (g. 3.19).51 The full

frontal orientation and the raised hands clutching nagas that dissolve

into vegetal ornamentation provide persuasive points of comparison,

which along with other instances of shared visual vocabulary point to

some sort of cultural dialogue with Champa. Similarly, parallels with

Javanese goldwork underscores that this region too made a signicant

contribution to the evolving style of southern Philippine goldworking

at the beginning of the second millennium. Ear ornaments modelled in

the form of Vishnu riding on the eagle Garuda (g. 3.21) was a popular

Hindu subject in Javanese gold work. Vishnu was well received in early

Southeast Asia, his popularity undoubtedly closely linked to virtuous

kingship. Hence the depiction of this noble deity became a popular

subject for regalia of various forms.

Not an earring, but a gurative item in the collection that

represents another bird-human conguration is a small vessel of

indeterminate function that is modeled with remarkable sensitivity

(Cat. no. 81.5189). It can best be described using the Sanskrit term

kinnari, a celestial bird-woman creature that occupies Himavanta, the

legendary forest at the base of Mount Meru, an intermediate heaven

in Indian cosmology. Kinnari and her male companions, the kinnara, are

thus highly auspicious motifs in a Hindu-Buddhist cultural context. The

kinnari’s presence in the Philippines is enigmatic: The quality is superb,

the object was undoubtedly “royal.” The bird-woman has a full body

with swelling breasts and beautifully engraved feathering. The gold-

sheet edges taper away into space, adding to the airborne feeling of

this creature of the heavens. She wears a ve-pointed diadem “tied” at

the back beneath a hair bun with a ower ornament. The combination

of ne modeling of form and the remarkable naturalism of the head

raise a challenging issue of provenance. A few gold objects of gurative

form have been reported, such as a male torso from Agusan del Norte

(Cat. no. 76.4481) and the famous Agusan image (g. 4.75). None,

however, can compare to the kinnari in either sophistication of concept

or realization of sculptural form. Parallels can be drawn with the kinnari

associated with temple imagery in Central Java and East Java, seen in

temple reliefs and in the form of metal oil lamps. A bronze hanging

lamp with its reservoir in the form of a winged kinnari demonstrates

the type of temple utensil that could have provided a prototype for this

gold kinnari (g. 3.20). Both are of the highest quality and share many

points of comparison: the full bodies with swelling breasts, the feminine

countenance, and the ve-pointed diadem.52 But no gold prototype is

Fig. 3.20 Hanging oil lamp in the form of a Kinnari

Indonesia (Java), Central Javanese period, ca. second half of the 9th-early

10th century, bronze, 6 in (15.2 cm) height

1987.142.24 Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Gift of Samuel Eilenberg, 1987

Photograph by Bruce White

180 Philippine Ancestral Gold

181Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Surigao Treasure in northeastern Mindanao, discussed in Chapter 1.

The Surigao belts demonstrate vividly both the technical and aesthetic

relationship of Philippine goldwork to weaving.

Bracelet, armbands, leg bands, and cord weights for waist-sashes feature

in both the archaeological nds and in the Boxer Codex depictions. The

cord weights attached to each end of a cord tied around the waist

represent a category of object that attracted the goldsmith’s desire to

create ornamentation. They are miniature tours de force of granulation,

plaited wire, and articulated form (cat nos. 62.1118ab & 75.4238ab).

Codex folios show clearly the use of such waist-sash cord weights, pairs

of gold cylinders secured with an end knot to the sash (g. 3.26). Other

extant examples are open longitudinally, allowing a cord or sash to be

inserted and secured before knotting at the end. Javanese cord ends

designed on the same principle are also known (g. 3.27).

Among armbands, styles vary from Luzon to Mindanao, with the

north favoring uted bangles and armbands of varying diameter (g.

3.28), and the south, sheet gold armbands with repeat spiral patterns in

repoussé (g. 3.29). These latter motifs are pervasive within a cultural

sphere extending from Taiwan to Borneo.

This category can also include an unusual genre: leaf-shaped

pendants recognizable from a Javanese context as a badong or caping

to cover the genitals of young children as so-called modesty covers.

The rarity of these suggests that they are a borrowing of a Javanese

idea. An example in the collection (Cat. no. 77.4954) has an elliptical

prole with a horizontal cylinder on the upper side for threading a

waist cord, the surface lled with a leaf tendril design framing a central

emblem suggestive of female genitalia—an appropriate motif given the

pendant’s function but one not seen in Javanese versions (g. 3.30).

Rings have been found in considerable quantities, typically of

solid gold and inset with uncut precious or semi-precious stones.

Occasionally they display an intaglio seal. These engraved stones are

known to have circulated widely along the early international trade

routes. Mediterranean and West Asian examples are known in early India

and were traded east. Signicant numbers have been found in western

Indonesia and most famously at the Oc Eo sites in the Mekong delta.

Local imitations were manufactured at centers in peninsular Thailand

and elsewhere. They circulated alongside the precious stone trade and

were mounted in gold rings. Some bear purely Indic motifs, such as the

Vase-of-Plenty (purnakalasha). More common are solid gold seal rings

with incised motifs that resemble the Javanese Sanskrit sacred syllable,

the so-called Sri rings, but appear to be purely talismanic in function.

Fig. 3.22 Kinnari in the form of a small ear ornament

Dvaravati kingdom, 8th-9th century

Recently excavated at U Thong, Suphanburi province, Thailand

Courtesy U Thong National Museum

Fig. 3.23 Pair of ear ornaments

Cham, central Vietnam, ca. 10th-12th century

Gold set with ruby and rock crystal

Private collection, London

Fig. 3.24 Earring of gold inset with garnet

and pearls

Unknown origin, possibly Sri Lanka

Excavated from the Cirebon shipwreck, Java

Sea, Indonesia, mid-10th century

Photograph by the author, 2004

Fig. 3.21 Ear ornament in the form of Vishnu

Riding Garuda

Indonesia (Java), Late Central Javanese period,

late 9th-early 10th century

Gold, 3/4 in (2 cm) height

1998.544.74 The Samuel Eilenberg-Jonathan P.

Rosen Collection of Indonesian Gold

Bequest of Samuel Eilenberg and Gift of

Jonathan Rosen, 1998

Resource, N.Y.

Fig. 3.25 “Tagalos”

A nobleman of Luzon, adorned in torque and heavy gold chain, and a gold hilted sword at

his side; noblewoman wears heavy gold earrings and gold braided robe and shawl

Boxer Codex (ca. 1590) Courtesy The Lilly Library, Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana

Fig. 3.26 Tagalog couple adorned in gold jewelry

Cord weights are attached to the ends of the nobleman’s waist sash

Boxer Codex (ca. 1590) Courtesy The Lilly Library, Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana

182 Philippine Ancestral Gold

183Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Javanese rings of the Central and early East Javanese periods (ninth to

fteenth century) must have been in circulation to provide the models

for these ring types.

Weapons are an important object category in a warrior-class society,

and gold hilted and scabbarded swords represent some of the most

amboyantly decorated discoveries of Philippine gold. Prowess as a

warrior was central to male identity in Philippine society, and some of the

nest workmanship was lavished on warriors’ costumes and weapons.

The Philippines shared with its southern neighbors a preoccupation

with the sword as a conspicuous display of wealth, on which the nest

artistry was deployed. The sword also served as an important indicator

of social rank, denoting either the bearer’s position as a datu or his

status earned through the display of exceptional bravery in battle.

Philippine swords attracted the attention of Spanish commentators,

and both short and longer swords of the broad blade type (Cat. no.

76.4471) feature prominently in the Boxer Codex. These swords have

classical hilts with symmetrical splayed pommels. Those found in the

Butuan region, on the other hand, may be assumed to be earlier styles.

These feature organic shaped pommels resembling the beak of the

hornbill bird that most famously occupies the forests of Borneo (Cat.

no. 76.4825). These bird-like hilts belong to a long tradition traceable

via Taiwanese aboriginal art to early China. A central motif is the

dragon (aso among the Kenyah people of Borneo), a protective presence

Fig. 3.27 Pair of cord weights

Indonesia (Java), Central Javanese period, 8th-early 10th century

Gold overall (each): 1 9/6 in (4 cm) height; 1 5/8 in (4.1 cm) diameter

1998.544.57a,b The Samuel Eilenberg-Jonathan P. Rosen Collection of Indonesian Gold

Bequest of Samuel Eilenberg and Gift of Jonathan Rosen, 1998

Fig. 3.28 Arm ornaments

Probably Kalinga Apayao

Cat. Nos. 75.4253-4254

Fig. 3.29 Wrist wrap

Probably Eastern Visayas

76.4349

Fig. 3.30 Genitalia cover or “modesty

cover” worn by young children

Java, Majapahit period, ca. 14th century

Repoussé gold

Private collection, London

184 Philippine Ancestral Gold

185Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

associated with the underworld that in East Kalimantan and Sulu

designs routinely metamorphoses into other living and plant forms. As

given expression in the art of southern Philippines and Borneo, they are

characterized by openwork spirals with feathered edges and bird-beak

proles. The legacy of these gold hilts is to be seen in later Mindanao

and Sulu examples of sword hilt and blade-guard designs in silver and

brass (Fig. 3.31). The Sulu-Borneo connections are attested in evidence

of later cross-settlements patterns with the southern Philippines.60

A rare Butuan nd is a nial for a sword hilt or a ladle in the

form of a tapering plant, resembling a fern leaf (g. 3.32). Recently

two sword handles of closely related design were excavated from

the mid-tenth century Cirebon shipwreck. The Cirebon examples are

larger in scale and still preserve traces of the iron blades that had

been embedded inside. They have a splayed base of octagon form that

extends up a “column” from which the fern-like projection emerges

(g. 3.33). In the Ayala collection xture, the intersecting column

is absent, suggesting that it served as a nial projection of a larger

object. Another smaller example is in the Eilenberg Collection of

Javanese gold in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; that

one more closely resembles the Philippine sourced example, though it

is more extravagant in its fern-like projections (g. 3.34). All appear

to be constructed of sheet gold over a core material, probably wood,

and have clay or resin inll. These gold hilts belong rmly in the East

Javanese tradition of this period, and their memory was preserved in

later eastern Javanese and Madurese kris hilts in a variety of media,

where the design retains its vegetal inspiration but undergoes partial

gurative transformations.61

Style and Dating

With much of the jewelry and weapons discussed, we see presence

of a strong Philippine style being pursued, which has compelling

continuities with local artistic activity in other media, notably textile

design, wooden sculpture, and brasswork. Local and intraregional links

undoubtedly also reinvigorated and promoted this process, introducing

ideas, imagery, and technologies. Demonstrable links with Java,

Champa, and China have been suggested.

The heyday for goldsmithing in the Philippines, as represented in

this collection by so many masterworks, was in all probability the period

from the tenth to the thirteenth century. The new levels of prosperity

and enhanced international connections, which began in the tenth

century as part of an Asian economic boom, stimulated a period of

Fig. 3.31 Dagger hilt with a silver pommel

Mindanao or Sulu

Royal Tropical Institute

Tropen Museum, Amsterdam

Fig. 3.32 Ladle handle

Butuan, Agusan del Norte

Cat. no. 77.4864

Fig. 3.33 Sword hilt, of sheet gold over a

wood and resin core

Excavated from the Cirebon shipwreck,

Java Sea, Indonesia

mid-10th century

Photograph by the author, 2008

Fig. 3.34 Dagger hilt nial of drawn and

soldered gold over a resin core

Java, 10th-11th century

5.5 cm height

1998.544.56 The Samuel Eilenberg Collection

Resource, N.Y.

unprecedented creativity and extravagance. As this golden age faded,

so did the compelling stimulus provided by astute and demanding

patrons. The rulers of Butuan lost power to the kingdom of Brunei, and

by the fourteenth century much of the trade wealth in the northern

Philippines was in the hands of the Chinese, a situation that was not

challenged until the coming of the Spaniards. No doubt ne goldwork

production continued into the fourteenth and fteenth centuries, but

with the Spanish intrusion and the economic insecurities that came

with it, the motivation to invest such wealth and creative energy was

lost. Indeed, the very desire to extract gold from the earth seemed less

compelling as the fruits of the Filipinos’ labors were so often taken by

others.

Gold is the most robust and durable of metals, impervious to

corrosion. Yet it is also the most vulnerable, readily melted down by

those desiring its metal value or wishing to make adornments of their

time. Much has been and continues to be lost to local “hunter-gatherers”

who systematically work every identiable pre-Hispanic burial site.

The historic collections of gold in the late sixteenth century

Philippines were also wasted, gathered by the Spanish and turned into

bullion or objects more tting to the taste of metropolitan Seville.

Governor-General de Sande wrote to the King of Spain in June 1577

that “since the death of the governor, Miguel Lopez, I have had made

from the gold that has been brought and given by the natives as tribute

and service, some jewels which I send to your royal Majesty.”62 So was

lost a vast treasury of Philippine gold artwork. The achievements of

these early peoples have come again to light through chance nds

resulting from development activity, through illicit diggings of historic

settlements and grave sites, and through the activities of archaeologists

who contribute an understanding of context that allows layers of

meaning to be added to this beautiful art form.

186 Philippine Ancestral Gold

187Chapter 3 | Gold in the Philippines: Form, Meaning, and Metamorphosis

Notes

1 F. de Sande, “Relation and

Description of the Phelipinas

Islands” (1577), in Blair &

Robinson, 1903, Vol. 4, pp. 99-101.

2 Caballero, 1996, Chapters V and VI.

3 Scott (1992, p. 81) cites the

translation of panday or blacksmith

in the earliest extant Tagalog

dictionary, and the Visayan term

panday sa bulawan or goldsmith in

other sixteenth century sources

(Scott 1994, pp. 67-68); Villegas

(2004, p. 39) introduces the term

panday-ginto for goldsmith without

citing any early sources.

4 Sande, in Blair & Robinson, 1903,

Vol. 4, 100.

5 Chen, 1966. This history spans the

Hongwu to Zhengde reigns, 1368 to

1512.

6 Flecker, 2005; Villegas,1983, p. 56.

7 Fox, 1970; Peralta 1983, p. 51.

8 Solheim, 2002.

9 Higham, 2002; O’Connor and

Harrison, 1971.

10 Conventionally identied as 1001, a

rereading of the original sources by

Peter Lam corrected this date year

to 1003; personal communication.

11 Clark, P., J. Green, T. Vosmer, R.

Santiago, 1983.

12 Watt, 1989, and Brown, 1989; see

also Bautista, 1990.

13 Lam, 1989: 47-49; Fung Ping Shan

Museum, 1985.

14 Manguin, P.-Y., 1980. The

Southeast Asian ship: an historical

approach. Journal of Southeast Asian

Studies 11, 253–69.

15 At least eight examples of balangay

have been identied in the

southern Philippines, and three

excavated. They average fteen

meters in length and three meters

across the beam. Radiocarbon

analysis has placed them in the

tenth century. See Ronquillo, 1989:

62-63.

16 Twitchett and Stargardt, 2002.

17 Guy, 2010a.

18 Burton, 1977; Report, 1986.

19 The Magroyong nds are discussed

in F. Capistrano-Baker, Chapter 4,

this volume.

20 Dube, R. K. “Suvarnabhumi and

Suvarnadvipa: Origin, Identity and

its Richness in Gold in Ancient and

Medieval Times,” in Bulletin of the

Metals Museum, vol. 36, 2003, 3-22.

21 Wolters, 1967, pp. 82-83.

22 Bosch, 1927, p. 115.

23 Harrison, 1949, p. 1955.

24 Shanmugan, 1996, p. 101.

25 Guy, 2009.

26 Guy, 2001.

27 Francisco, 1971, p. 39.

28 Rob Linrothe rst proposed the

identication of the Agusan image

with the Vajradhatu mandala in

a personal communication with

F. Capistrano-Baker, discussed in

Chapter 4, this volume.

29 Fontein, et al, 1981, cat. nos. 45-

49.

30 Edwards McKinnon, 2000, p. 226.

31 Courtesy of Geff Wade, cited in

Edwards McKinnon, 2000, p. 218.

32 Aoyagi and Hasebe, 2002; for

Philippine sourced ceramics, see

Diem, 1996.

33 Wade, 1993.

34 Postma, 1991, Francisco, 1995.

35 Hirth and Rockhill, 1911, p. 160;

‘Gold in the Philippines. Forms, Meaning and Metamorphosis’, in F. H. Capistrano-Baker (ed.), Philippine Ancestral Gold. Manila, Ayala Museum; Singapore, NUS Press, 2011: 162-188.

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