Sunday, November 16, 2014

Golden Tara: The Agusan Image

National Treasure, The Golden Tara of Agusan
In the country that has to be the Philippines, the statues of Hindu Gods were hidden to prevent their destruction by a religion which destroyed all cult images.

One statue, a "Golden Tara", A 4-pound twenty-one carat gold statue of a Hindu-Malayan Goddess, was discovered in 1918 in Ezperanza,Agusan Phlippines by Bilay Campos ( A Manobo Tribeswoman).

The image is that of a Hindu-malayan female deity, seated cross-legged. It has a richly ornamented Headress and many ornaments in armas and other parts of its body.

Scholars date it to the late 13th 0r 14th century. It was made by a local artist, perhaps ciopying from an imported Javanese model. The gold that was used was from this area, since Javanese miners were known to have been engaged in mining in Butuan at this time.

The statue, denoted the Agusan Image, was eventually brought to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago by Louise Adriana Wood ( whose husband Leonard Wood, was Military Governor of the Moro Province in 1903-1906 and Governor General in 1921-1927)

1 comment:

  1. Philippines was a Hindu country sad the filipino has embraced Christianity and forgot who they really are and their ancistral roots to vedic empire. its for every literate filipino to make their children aware of their vedic past to undo the injustice served to their forefathers who was subjected to brutality by Spanish and Muslims and forcefully converted and destroyed evidences of their rich and vibrant vedic Hindu past

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