Bylines and Byways MEETING THE GOLDEN LADY It was not a previously scheduled trip, but the opportunity presented itself when our sons family decided to go to Chicago to attend the wedding of Connies cousin. It was also a chance to see a part of Indiana and western Ohio along the way. It turned out to be a very fruitful short trip that included a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, a chance to peek at a free outdoor concert of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Millennium Park, and a cheap cruise on the Chicago River, all in one day and a half. But the very reason to hitch a ride to Chicago was to finally see the Golden Image of Agusan at the Field Museum of Natural History. In 2008, the museum staff told us that due to the rearrangement of their major exhibits, the golden figurine was kept in storage. With the creation of the Grainger Hall of Gems, and the related Hall of Jade, the Golden Tara was once more on permanent exhibit. I was taking a photo of the figure, and perhaps because of my obvious excitement, the docent in charge of the precious gem collections approached me and we had a very interesting talk. Ms. Sue Reinke comes from a family of silversmiths, and this is the reason that as a volunteer museum guide, she was to take charge of the Hall of Gems. The Golden Image of Agusan is on a prominent place in the hall, a testament to its significance, but it was the same concern that she asked me about our appraisal of the figure. I told her that the Golden Image is obviously a Buddhist goddess, and it is significant not because of its indigenous representation for our culture, but because it is an unmistakable link of pre-colonial Philippines to the Hindu-influenced kingdoms in Southeast Asia, which was indeed predominant in those times. Subsequent archaeological discoveries and documentary history confirm our role in the trading and cultural constellations in Asia that the Golden Images discovery portended. The Field Museum continues to fascinate me because of the heavy private sector participation, whether as major donors or as volunteers. Sue is one of them. It is also in the choicest real estate in town as it sits beside Lake Michigan and the citys largest stretch of parks, and its location affords the finest view of Chicagos beautiful skyline of soaring skyscrapers. The curator was not in his office at the time, so that Sue had to take my email address, and promised to establish valuable and long-term contacts with us. Whatever is in store for the future - perhaps a special exhibit in Manila and Butuan - will be best negotiated by the director of our National Museum. The biggest irony, of course, is not that the Golden Tara isnt in our hands, but rather it is the neglect of our government and society for the tremendous volume of valuable artifacts (as valuable as the Golden Tara) that are kept in private hands and beyond the appreciation of our public. Apart from the massive collections of dinosaur fossils from hinterlands of America, a huge bulk of the cultural materials on display - whether of pharaonic Egypt, of dynastic China, of the Pacific islands, etc. - are from other parts of the world. The same is true with other big museums in the U.S. and other Western countries; I remember seeing fantastic exhibits of Babylon, China, Egypt, etc., in the Smithsonian in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and in the Neues and the Pergamon museums in Berlin. I seriously doubt if there is a way that these will be brought home permanently, despite resolutions from UNESCO. A sad feeling when looking at these products of human genius from other lands. But we can begin to build on what we have or could reasonably acquire. Nowadays, museums of international repute have arrangements for special tours of their exhibits which should allay the pain of cultural separation with those items that define a nations past.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 02:43:11 +0000
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