By Vic Sevilla
FROM September 11, 2015 to January 2016, New York will have the enviable opportunity to witness Filipino ingenuity in the ancient art of gold-jewelry design via a rare exhibit, entitled Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms. The exhibit, to be held at the Asia Society Museum, 725 Park Avenue, New York City, features some 120 intricately designed ornaments, with select ceremonial implements, as well as everyday utility objects, dating between the 10th and 13th centuries.
For the first time, prized collections from the Ayala Museum and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), as well as additional loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, the Lilly Library in Indiana and a few objects from the personal collection of Leandro and Cecilia Locsin, have been put together to bring to light the high level of culture of early Filipinos—long before Western colonization subdued many indigenous traditions and practices.
DEBUNKING AN OLD MYTH
AS late as the early 1900s, when Western powers were flaunting their superiority over the rest of the world, human zoos existed in New York to amuse the public. Recently unearthed black-and-white photos from the era showed Filipino tribesmen in loincloth huddled in a circle at Dreamland in Coney Island.
These indigenous tribes were reportedly put on display in human zoos where they were made to go about their daily lives in full view of the paying public. Surely, such displays only reduced what little regard uninformed Americans had for Filipinos back then—further encouraging the misguided notion that early Filipinos “lived in trees”.
Hopefully, the exhibit will allow the American public, New Yorkers, in particular, a peek into a golden age in Philippine history before the arrival of Western powers. Indeed, the superior craftsmanship of each piece to be put on display reflects the Filipino’s vast knowledge of metallurgy, thriving gold mining and gold jewelry-making industries, and a society that functioned on a well-organized system of hierarchy from an era prior to the arrival and eventual colonization of the archipelago by Spain.
“This exhibition is important, because it provides stunning evidence that the Philippines had a sophisticated culture before Western contact. The superior quality of the gold ornaments also dispels the Western stereotype of precolonial Filipinos as ignorant and primitive savages before the civilizing influences from Spain and America,” says Florina Capistrano-Baker, former director of Ayala Museum and curator of the museum’s Gold of Ancestors exhibit.
For his part, Ayala Museum’s Fernando Zobel de Ayala believes that the exhibit will instill a greater understanding of Filipino culture, and a better appreciation of Filipino ingenuity from both Americans and Filipinos living in America. He says, “We are delighted to have this opportunity to exhibit this exceptional Filipino 10th- to 13th-century gold from the Ayala Museum and the Bangko Sentral collections at the Asia Society in New York. It will give Americans and visitors to New York the opportunity to get to know more about our rich culture, and I have no doubt that it will also give Filipino-Americans great pride to see these pieces from their country.”
Owing to the little historical background on these archaeological gold finds, Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Asia Society Philippine chairman, believes that Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms could inspire more study on Philippine culture, in particular. With the Philippines hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in November, the exhibit couldn’t have been timelier.
“While the Philippines has a lot of press coming out on economic issues, we thought there could also be a cultural story,” she says. “These artifacts are also very little known scholarship-wise, so with the opportunity to bring them to New York, we are holding symposiums that place the collection in the whole realm of historical scholarship in the Austronesian context.”
GOLDEN SPECTACLE
Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms is a veritable treasure trove of some of the most spectacular gold jewelry and implements this side of the planet. Referencing the detailed illustrations of various Philippine ethnic groups, known collectively as the Boxer Codex (circa 1595), Philippine ornamentation seems to indicate a well-structured society. In those days, the pecking order dictated who wore gold: primarily the royalty and the ruling class.
Thus, the vast number of the precolonial gold treasures included in the exhibit are the accouterments of royalty and nobility, such as necklaces and chains made of thick gold ropes, and diadems from hammered gold sheets. There are waistbands and belts fashioned out of braided gold with buckles embellished with gold granulation and shallow reliefs. One royal halter incorporates precise twisting, braiding, and the use of minute gold beads…executed in pure gold and weighing more than an incredible 4 kilos.
Part of the exhibit seems to indicate that gold was also the metal of choice for religious functions.
There are ritual bowls, implements and ceremonial weapons, as well as death masks and orifice covers used on corpses.
While these finds have been gathered from known sites of ancient Philippine polities, such as Butuan in northeastern Mindanao, Samar, Cebu, Leyte, Palawan, Mindoro, Marinduque and Luzon, they also reveal a thriving maritime trade with other countries in the Asian region, exemplifying the influence of Indians, Indonesians and the Chinese, among other peoples.
Organized by Asia Society Philippines, Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms opens with a gala dinner, to be followed by a lineup of activities designed to inspire greater awareness on Philippine culture. Surrounding programming include academic lectures, a pop-up Philippine food bar, musical events, art and design exhibitions, a film festival and live cultural performances.
BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. says, “This exhibit is an excellent opportunity to showcase our precolonial cultural heritage. This is going to be the first time that the Philippine pre-Hispanic gold will be seen in the States. This is an opportune time for other people to know more about the Philippines and get to know the rich cultural heritage of our country.”
ASIA SOCIETY AND ITS UNDERTAKINGS
Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III, Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. The society provides insight, generates ideas and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future in the fields of arts, business, culture, education and policy.
In arts, the Asia Society Museum presents a wide range of traditional and contemporary exhibitions of Asian and Asian-American art, taking new approaches to familiar masterpieces and introducing under-recognized art and artists.
Image credits: From the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Collection, From the Ayala Museum Collection. Photographed by Neal Oshima