Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Agusan image" in English language version.
Scholars think that the statue may represent an offering goddess from a three-dimensional Vajradhatu (Diamond World) mandala.
The recovery of a single offering goddess that is most likely part of a larger set brings up a number of intriguing questions. Where are the other figures?
One of the most spectacular antiquities ever found in the Philippines is a gold statue found in Agusan in 1917. It closely resembles Indic deities, but has no specific iconographic attributes. Several objects in the Locsin Collection show that goldsmiths in the Philippines knew of Hindu and Buddhist artistic conventions, but did not include motifs which would identify them as specific deities. Philippine goldsmiths may have done this intentionally to maintain their ethnic identity.
Description: Agusan gold image of Hindu deity [figure Devi, goddess. A.D. 1000-1300. 4 1/2 pound, solid gold figure of a Hindu or Buddhist deity]
Statue [figure] is about 178 mm in height (FMNH A109928).
The question of its identification is still undecided.
The problem here is that the images referred to were destroyed in the fire that consumed the Ateneo de Manila Museum in the early 1930s. Their identity is at best questionable, since John Carroll, who examined a photograph of the Cebu image, believes that it is "an Avalokitesvara, not a Siva"
It was found in 1917 on the left bank of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan, eastern Mindanao, following a storm and flood
This image was previously thought to be a distorted Tārā, but was recently correctly identified as a Vajralāsyā ('Bodhisattva of amorous dance'), one of the four deities associated with providing offerings to the Buddha Vairocana and located in the southeast corner of a Vajradhātumaṇḍala.
There is the now famous Agusan image, which was originally identified as Saiva in orientation by Beyer, but which I identified as a Buddhist Tara on the basis of a re-study of the image.
Description: Agusan gold image of Hindu deity [figure Devi, goddess. A.D. 1000-1300. 4 1/2 pound, solid gold figure of a Hindu or Buddhist deity]
There is the now famous Agusan image, which was originally identified as Saiva in orientation by Beyer, but which I identified as a Buddhist Tara on the basis of a re-study of the image.
Statue [figure] is about 178 mm in height (FMNH A109928).
This image was previously thought to be a distorted Tārā, but was recently correctly identified as a Vajralāsyā ('Bodhisattva of amorous dance'), one of the four deities associated with providing offerings to the Buddha Vairocana and located in the southeast corner of a Vajradhātumaṇḍala.
Scholars think that the statue may represent an offering goddess from a three-dimensional Vajradhatu (Diamond World) mandala.
The recovery of a single offering goddess that is most likely part of a larger set brings up a number of intriguing questions. Where are the other figures?
One of the most spectacular antiquities ever found in the Philippines is a gold statue found in Agusan in 1917. It closely resembles Indic deities, but has no specific iconographic attributes. Several objects in the Locsin Collection show that goldsmiths in the Philippines knew of Hindu and Buddhist artistic conventions, but did not include motifs which would identify them as specific deities. Philippine goldsmiths may have done this intentionally to maintain their ethnic identity.
The question of its identification is still undecided.
The problem here is that the images referred to were destroyed in the fire that consumed the Ateneo de Manila Museum in the early 1930s. Their identity is at best questionable, since John Carroll, who examined a photograph of the Cebu image, believes that it is "an Avalokitesvara, not a Siva"
It was found in 1917 on the left bank of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan, eastern Mindanao, following a storm and flood
From the time the Agusan image first came to light, the identity of the female portrayed has been the subject of conjecture and contention.
This image was previously thought to be a distorted Tārā, but was recently correctly identified as a Vajralāsyā ('Bodhisattva of amorous dance'), one of the four deities associated with providing offerings to the Buddha Vairocana and located in the southeast corner of a Vajradhātumaṇḍala.
The four buddhas who surround Vairocana are Aksobhya on the east, who gestures toward the earth; Ratnasambhava on the south, who displays the gesture of charity; Amitabha on the west, in meditation; and Amoghasiddh on the north, making a gesture indicating fearlessness.
Tibetan scholar Rob Linrothe identifies the Agusan image as one of the four "inner" offering goddesses in a three-dimensional vajradhatu, or Diamond World, mandala.
It was found in 1917 by a Manobo woman along the banks of Wawa River, not far from its confluence with Agusan River, in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur.
It was found by a woman who had entered the ravine, after the storm; and from her hands it passed into those of Bias Baklagon, a local official.
He implored the American colonial government to purchase the image for the museum. But his lobbying efforts were unsuccessful, as the government claimed it had no available funds to purchase it.
Fearing that the image might be melted down for its value in gold, Mrs. Wood raised funds to purchase it for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. She enlisted the help of Cole, then Southeast Asian curator at the Chicago museum, and Shaler Matthews, a professor in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.
