NJP Dos | A Golden Find in The Field Museum

Three years ago, I joined a leadership exchange program in the United States together with an all-Mindanao group of youth leaders—27 of us.

Aside from the enriching learning sessions on environmental preservation and peacebuilding, we also visited various sites, memorials, and other tourist attractions in the Chicago metropolitan area and in Washington, D.C.

On one sunny weekend, albeit chilly and windy, our group traveled to Chicago and visited the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History.

Welcoming us was its grandiose Neoclassical façade, facing away from Lake Michigan. At the time, I had not been inside the museum, nor had I any idea of the extent of its collections save for photos of some Egyptian mummies and the China collection from its brochure.

What I saw of the façade of the famous museum was not only its huge pillars that looked so imposing but, once inside, I saw its immense collection of artifacts.

For instance, the museum housed the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world named Sue, and a dozen more skeletons of dinosaurs in the Griffin Halls.

At the Eastern part of the Main Level, one would find the exhibit on The Ancient Americas, replete with totems and even a replica of the Aztec Sun Stone (Piedra del Sol).

Across the Stanley Field Hall in the museum’s Western part, one can see a diorama of an African village. As a matter of fact, it would be wise to spend a day or more in the museum to view all the exhibits to satisfy one’s curiosity at the same time, learn about these displays of the ancient past and our natural world.

A highlight of my museum trip was when I entered the Grainger Hall of Gems, a stunning collection of 700 gemstones. It was something to behold after I went across the hallway from the Hall of Jades. Every corner had a different mineral, from turquoises to garnets, to pearls and lapis lazuli. At the center of the room were gold crystals, and beside all that, I found a silent figure atop a square platform.

It was the Golden Tara!

I had known about the Golden Tara labeled as Agusan Gold Image and it bore significance of the extent of Hindu-Malayan influence in Mindanao and around Southeast Asia. The image was not that tall and I honestly thought she was bigger—the shimmering deity was barely bigger than my fist.

For a moment, the image and I faced each other. Indeed, the image carried this enchanting aura of wonder – of something found in the banks of the Wawa River in Agusan.

Ironically, it was now resting placidly in a foreign land.

There have been calls to return the Golden Tara to the Philippines like the successful return of the Balangiga Bells, but, I guess, only time will tell when she, the Golden Tara, will finally come home.

The author before the façade of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History

The Golden Tara inside the Grainger Hall of Gems

Piedra del Sol (Aztec Sun Stone) replica

Dinosaurs in the Griffin Halls

A jade rock

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This essay first appeared on the MCCWG Facebook page.

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NJP Dos was born in Pagadian City. He was a fellow to the 2020 Iligan National Writers' Workshop and the convener of the Pagadian Writers Workshop. He is a member of the Mindanao Creative & Cultural Workers Group, Inc.