MANILA, Philippines—I remember history lessons in high school and even in college where we were taught that the Spaniards came to the Philippines mainly in search of spices to perk up and preserve their food—and souls to convert.

There was more to Spain’s colonizing than spices and souls. The Boxer Codex, written in the 16th century shortly after the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines and filled with descriptions of the inhabitants, includes 75 colored illustrations of the natives, many showing the “indio” [native] wearing gold ornaments, and I don’t just mean earrings and necklaces. The Codex shows the natives wearing gold literally from head to toe.

The document is so named because it was eventually acquired by an American, Charles Boxer, who in turn left it to the Lilly University, where it is today. I have only seen reproductions of the document but looking at the facsimiles, I can imagine how dazzled the Spaniards must have been when they first arrived in the Philippines, looking at the natives as primitives and yet seeing them wearing so much gold. Visions of more of this gold jewelry, and gold mines, probably spurred Spanish expansion through the islands more than the spices and souls.

Over the centuries, those gold treasures have surfaced, sometimes by accident as in construction sites, at other times through systematic archaeological excavations—some of them eventually ending up in private collections.

The central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has a museum with a good collection of this gold jewelry. But year after year, when I’d ask my new students at the University of the Philippines if they’d seen the exhibit, most would say they had not been to the museum. Some actually said they were not even aware that the BSP has a small museum, much less one of gold from our prehistoric past.

Now I’m going to have to push my students to go for another, even more impressive, exhibit of gold—this one at the Ayala Museum in Makati City. As I explained in last Wednesday’s column, the Ayala Museum has expanded its exhibits beyond the dioramas of Philippine history. I still recommend going through those dioramas for a general overview of our history, and then going to the fourth floor for a new section called “The Crossroads of Civilization,” which shows some 600 Chinese and southeast Asian ceramics, clothing from the 19th century, and gold artifacts.

“Gold of Ancestors” consists of more than a thousand gold objects. The Ayala Museum boasts it is “the exhibit you’ve waited a thousand years to see.” Well, almost a thousand. There are more than a thousand objects on display, dated back to between the 10th and 13th centuries and excavated from all throughout the Philippines.

The Ayala exhibit, curated by Dr. Florina Capistrano-Baker, is very different from the BSP collection. Ayala’s is more varied, with many more labels for the exhibits, as well as poster boards that give the historical context. There’s also a widescreen video documentary, shown on the hour. The exhibit is more solemn, darkened rooms with lights positioned strategically to highlight the jewelry.

One poster explains that gold was part of the indio elite’s life, literally from birth to death. Gold was included in a bag with the umbilical cord of a newborn child that would be buried in a safe place. And when someone died, they would be buried with gold objects, including gold masks.

Samples of the gold death masks are in the Ayala Museum, together with artifacts found from grave sites. Don’t miss some of the exhibits on the floor, designed to recreate what a grave site, filled with glittering gold, might have looked like.

Extravagance

The exhibit concentrates on gold used through life, and the use can only be described as “maluho,” or extravagant. Gold was there to adorn: rings, bracelets, ear ornaments (these are actually earrings but are so large that “ear ornament” is more accurate), necklaces, neck chains and ornaments (again, from the size, “chains” and “ornaments” are a more apt term), diadems, cuffs, wrist ornaments, pectorals (worn on the chest), waistbands, anklets, finials (to hold clothing together)—and “chastity covers.” (I believe this is an English term reflecting western norms.) Really now, does wearing gold there deflect or draw attention?

Our ancestors seemed to have something about ears, given the number of gold ear jewelry. Historical accounts tell us men had one or two holes for earrings, while women had three to four. The Ayala exhibit has samples of different types of earrings. The “panika” were the largest earrings, worn on the lowest hole, which also had a name, “panikaan.” Smaller earrings, with finer floral designs, were called “palbad,” “pomara,” or “dinalopang,” were used in upper holes. There was even something called the “sangi,” worn on only one ear.

I found many of the small objects more impressive than the large ones because they showed how fine the craftsmanship could be, with filigree for example, where gold wires are soldered and fashioned into particular designs, or “repousee,” in which the artisan worked on the reverse side of the jewelry to create a raised design on the front.

The larger objects impress mainly by their size. I found myself noting down the weight of each object, initially impressed with a 26-gram ring but the awe there giving way as other larger objects came to view: here, a neck ornament, consisting of 10-12 chains, weighing 439 grams; there, a 571-gram waistband. And then, there it was, the famous Gold Thread from Surigao. A poster explains the idea of an Upavita, a sacred thread, is from Hinduism, but “thread” is the understatement of the year. This is a halter, worn around the body, 150-centimeter long and weighing 3.8 kilos. That’s eight pounds of opulence.

Not only were the indios extravagant, they also were masters at conspicuous consumption. Gold cord weights, used on headdresses, had pellets inside that made sure you knew someone of status was coming your way.

I’ll leave it to you to discover the other objects. Besides body adornment, gold was used as well for bowls, cups, goblets. There are also figurines, including a Kinnari, half-bird, half-woman.

The exhibit tells us about how much we shared with our neighbors. For example, many ornaments have the Garuda theme, the mythological bird used by the Hindu god Vishnu. But many other designs are unique to the Philippines. Gold sashes, for example, have so far been found only in the Philippines. There’s material in the Ayala exhibit for anthropologists and historians to analyze in the years to come, telling us more about our ancestors’ lifeways and helping us understand ourselves, today.

Visit www.ayalamuseum.org for more information.

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