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A Visit To The Ayala Museum
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The Crossroads of Civilization Tripartite Exhibit at the Ayala Museum was very interesting and definitely one of a kind. Just a few days before classes begun, I was able to watch part of a documentary by the Probe Team on the gold treasures of the Philippines. Most of the items in the Gold of Ancestors Exhibit were featured there. The exhibit was arranged according to the life theme… birth, life and then death. I was particularly fascinated by two types of objects: the chastity covers and the diadems.

The gold chastity covers were triangular in shape although it was inverted. The top of the triangle had the facility for it to be placed on a string. It had beautiful repousse design. The design was mainly of swirls and circles. Had the item not been identifies as a chastity cover, I would have thought it was the center of an amulet. It was obviously not created or worn to be hidden. What interests me however is that, there is already this concept of protecting chastity in pre-Christian times, and that this value warranted such importance that a gold ornament would be created to announce a woman’s purity. I say this because the chastity cover did not look like it could in fact protect a woman from a man’s misplaced advances. It was more for show or ceremony rather than practical use. It is intriguing to me, who was born at a time where clothes are supposed to protect our modesty that maybe this concept of purity associated with the west may not have been foreign at all. It may have in fact already been present albeit in a different form.

Unlike the chastity covers which were supposedly used by the living, the diadems were ornamentation buried with the dead. Diadems were headbands of sorts. Those in the collection were simple and did not have much repousse detail, Instead the design was of woven gold as in a basket and of bent gold. According to our guide, it depicted the status of the dead person. While I knew our ancestors probably had some sort of head ornamentation, I could not have imagined it to be something crown-like. The diadems on display reminded me of drawings of Queen Guinevere of Camelot normally wearing a diadem. Unfortunately we have nothing to lead us to believe that diadems were used in everyday life. I was still struck by its similarity.

The Embroidered Multiples Exhibit is also part of the Crossroads of Civilization Tripartite Exhibit. The item which caught my attention was the embroidered Chinese silk men’s drawstring trousers called sayasaya on loan from the Netherlands. The trousers shown were dark blue with light blue or white embroidery at the legs hem and at the opening of its pockets. It depicted leaves, flowers and dragons reminiscent of Chinese designs. It wasn’t a very highly constructed piece of clothing in the sense that it is like the modern form fitting men’s pants. This type of clothing is not something I see being sold as traditional Filipino costume in stores. It seems our traditional clothing for men is either the barong paired with slacks or the camisa paired with rolled up pants (suggestive of a farmer’s costume). These silk trousers show that there is a wealth of divergence in traditional Filipino male fashion which will probably never go mainstream.

It is fantastic that the Ayala Museum has continued in its work over the past 50 years. It appears that with the support of various private entities it will continue to do so. The Embroidered Multiples exhibit for example was embarked with support from companies Unilever, Shell and Philips. I am sure that the Ayala Museum has other corporate supporters. Monique Perrot-Lanaud’s article “Heritage: Everyone’s Business” identifies businesses and the individuals behind it as prime movers in the heritage scene. In the Philippines, these same heads of business are the private owners of many heritage pieces. Much of the gold pieces in the Gold of Ancestors collection have been with the family of the now-deceased National Artist and architect Leonardo Locsin who have been waiting for 25 years for the right conditions to unveil this treasure. Half of the items on display in the Embroidered Multiples collection is privately owned by Rina Ortiz. Heritage belongs to everyone, hopefully with the example of these private collectors more will be motivated to share their collections and on the flip side those who appreciate such heritage will be motivated to demand access to heritage which has been kept hidden.


This was a paper for my Cultural Heritage class with Dr. Zialcita submitted last July 2008.

December 3, 2008 | 12:18 AM Comments  0 comments

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