Sunday, June 14, 2009
Image grabbed from http://www.ayalamuseum.org/Today's trip to the Ayala Museum's worth a blog entry. I still cannot recover from the mixed feelings of shock, disbelief, and pride... upon seeing the over 1,000 gold pieces on display at the museum's exhibition entitled "Gold of Ancestors: Precolonial Treasures in the Philippines." I remember that I often felt sad and sorry for the Philippines upon seeing other countries' huge collections of intricate, priceless jewelry. I thought, there must be something from my country as well. Visits to government museums in the Philippines are almost always frustrating, seeing all those poorly maintained, if not broken, irreplaceable cultural artefacts. And suddenly, today, I see this magnificent, well-kept collection which I never thought existed. The "Gold of Ancestors" display is a glorious revelation to every Filipino!
What came as a huge surprise was this one glass box display showing a collection from my hometown, Nabua. In the box was a cup, four necklaces, a ring, and a pair of earring -- made of pure gold and in perfect condition. According to the labels, these treasures were made in the 10th to 13th century, long before the Spanish arrived in the town. I have never heard of the existence of an archaeological site in Nabua nor did it cross my mind that objects of such profound historical and cultural value have ALREADY been found in Nabua. Unfortunately, the label of this particular display did not reveal further information about the site where they were found or about the archaeologists who unearthed them. My interest in studying Nabua's culture and history has definitely soared upon seeing this part of the Ayala Museum exhibit. Too bad, photos were not allowed inside the museum. Nabuenos hoping to learn more about the town should see this part of our history.
While viewing the treasures, I thought, who in the world owns this? It was obviously a private collection otherwise it would have been available for public viewing ages ago in governement-run museums. I was confused and tried to read what little information written below each piece, but then again, they had only the catalogue numbers, an estimate of the time of production (which was the same most of the time, which is even more confusing), and the location where the pieces were found. Even the centerpiece of the exhibition was not accompanied by more generous explanations. I wish they had more data to feed the hungry minds of commoners such as myself.
Desperate for answers, I tried to look for more information about this exhibit and found Jessica Zafra's writeup at http://www.newsweek.com/id/134270. According to her article, the collection is owned by the Locsin family, who for two decades have "been sitting on the collection... waiting for the right conditions to publicly exhibit it." I thought again, could it be possible that only one family owns these items which come from almost all corners of the archipelago? If there's this gold collection, could there be more such as rubies, diamonds, pearls, and precious stones from centuries ago?
And my other questions are:
- How come unearthed items recently found are owned by private families? Don't we have laws about keeping treasures being state property? So is it a finders-keepers system here in the Philippines?
- The jewelry were similar to those found in Indonesia and India and other Asian countries. Were they made by our ancestors or were traded by our neighbors? Did the early peoples of the Philippines first see these items during trade and later made their own?
- What about the treasures traded overseas? Surely, there's more.
Labels: Nabua, Nabua Forum, proud to be filipino, travel
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