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Precolonial gold treasures from Surigao in Ayala Museum, BSP exhibit

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Andrea Taguines

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:900px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1715909860127Ayala Gold 4.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public in the Ayala Museum. <em>Photo from the Ayala Museum</em></span></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA -- A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public starting this May 17, 2024 at the Ayala Museum in Makati.</p><p>Titled &quot;Reuniting the Surigao Treasure,&quot; the new exhibition adds a select 38 goldworks loaned from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to around 1,000 gold items on permanent display at the Ayala Museum.</p><div><strong>Origins of the Surigao Treasure</strong></div><p>On April 27, 1981, Edilberto “Berto” Morales, a heavy machinery operator working on an irrigation project in Sitio Magroyong, barrio San Miguel, Surigao del Sur, unexpectedly unearthed golden objects scattered along a 100-meter stretch of landfill quarried from a nearby mountaintop.</p><p>Morales found objects as varied as a golden bowl and golden accessories such as bangles, necklaces, and waistbands. </p><p>But as word came out, the artifacts got scattered across the country and destroyed after they fell into the hands of treasure hunters, dealers, and collectors.</p><p>“A lot of them were melted and hacked by treasure hunters. For them, they see the gold and it’s just gold, money. But in these objects are buried our history. We need to keep the objects intact because it tells our story,” said former Ayala Museum director Dr. Florina Capistrano-Baker who curated the exhibit.</p><p>“We were not nothing before the colonizers came.”</p><p>Among the objects included in the exhibition is a massive, four-kilogram gold chain believed to be a Hindu upavita, or sacred thread with its pronged finial.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:500px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1715910027768Ayala Gold 3.jpg" style="width:500px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public in the Ayala Museum. Photo from the Ayala Museum</span></span></span></span></div><div> </div><p>Also reunited are intricately woven gold waistbands with seven complete belts from the BSP collection and several partial and complete sashes and buckles from Ayala’s collection.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:500px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1715910072186Ayala Gold 7.jpg" style="width:500px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public in the Ayala Museum. Photo from the Ayala Museum</span></span></span></span></div><div> <span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:500px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1715910100069Ayala Gold B.jpg" style="width:500px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public in the Ayala Museum. Photo from the Ayala Museum</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:500px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1715910203410Ayala Gold 6.jpg" style="width:500px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public in the Ayala Museum. Photo from the Ayala Museum</span></span></span></span></div><p>Capistrano-Baker said these are all proof that even before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, indigenous Filipinos already had a flourishing culture, their own set of religious beliefs, and even wealth as shown in how the elite of the ancient polity of Butuan in northeastern Mindanao could afford stunning gold accessories.</p><p>Capistrano-Baker added that other artifacts also showed that Filipinos back then were able to establish a trading network with South Asians and Southeast Asians.</p><p>“So it kind of upends all our previous misconceptions that were fed to us by our colonial textbooks that describe us as uncivilized, uneducated until the colonizers came,” she said.</p><p>“We had our own civilization that, unfortunately, has been erased. That’s what I refer to as our collective amnesia,” added Capistrano-Baker.</p><p> Capistrano-Baker hopes the exhibit will give Filipinos today a sense of pride and help dispel what she calls our “collective sense of inferiority” towards Westerners.</p><p>“We kind of lost our way a little bit because being Spanish became the thing. If you speak Spanish, it’s like you’re from an elevated society, people are generally not proud of speaking Tagalog,” she said.</p><p> “Tagalog and Visayan are such eloquent languages. We do not have to be ashamed of it and say oh, we only speak English. And, Tagalog and Visayan, oh, the maids speak that. That is so wrong,” she added.</p><p>The exhibit will run for three years until 2027.</p>

<p>A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public starting this May 17, 2024 at the Ayala Museum in Makati.</p>

A new exhibit showcasing the once-dispersed precolonial gold treasures from Surigao Del Sur in the Philippines is now open to the public starting this May 17, 2024 at the Ayala Museum in Makati.

Precolonial gold treasures from Surigao on display in Ayala Museum, BSP exhibit

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Precolonial gold treasures from Surigao on display in Ayala Museum, BSP exhibit

Andrea Taguines,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 17, 2024 10:13 AM PHT

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Ayala Museum

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