I promised to post a photo of the golden statue discovered not to far from my home. First, a couple of corrections to my earlier info; the statue was discovered in 1917, not 1922. It is 22 karat gold, not "pure," which of course is 24 karat. The statue was discovered in the Wawa Creek, off of the Agusan River, just after a flood on that creek. The tribeswoman who discovered it was bathing but did not step on it as I had been told.
According to the historical narrative she was bathing and saw the golden visage shimmering through muddy water, reached down and pulled it out. It weighs nearl two kilos (about 4 pounds) and like most of this island's treasure has been stolen by white men, in this case Americans. It was taken almost immediately to the Field Museum in Chicago whose ethnologists and anthropologists were here working when it was discovered. The poor woman who found it was given a 50 pound sack of milled rice and probably thought she was the luckiest woman in the world.
It is known as the "Golden Tara of Agusan." Taras are female Buddhas popular in a form of Buddhism that was the predominant form in what is now Indonesia and the Southern Philippines. Unfortunately, all that remains of Buddhism and Hinduism, the latter a casteless synchrestic form similar to that of Bali today, is the Sanskrit vocabulary. "Guru" is still "teacher," "Rajah" is still "prince" and on and on and on.
According to the historical narrative she was bathing and saw the golden visage shimmering through muddy water, reached down and pulled it out. It weighs nearl two kilos (about 4 pounds) and like most of this island's treasure has been stolen by white men, in this case Americans. It was taken almost immediately to the Field Museum in Chicago whose ethnologists and anthropologists were here working when it was discovered. The poor woman who found it was given a 50 pound sack of milled rice and probably thought she was the luckiest woman in the world.
It is known as the "Golden Tara of Agusan." Taras are female Buddhas popular in a form of Buddhism that was the predominant form in what is now Indonesia and the Southern Philippines. Unfortunately, all that remains of Buddhism and Hinduism, the latter a casteless synchrestic form similar to that of Bali today, is the Sanskrit vocabulary. "Guru" is still "teacher," "Rajah" is still "prince" and on and on and on.