Red Gold of Alchemy

According to the Chinese historical text Shiji, the 2nd century BCE wizard Li Shaojun advised the Qin Emperor to make food vessels of cinnabar turned into gold to help prolong life.

Li Shaojun learned the formula for "cinnabar gold" from Master Anqi of Penglai. According to later texts, cinnabar gold was "red gold." The Shiji states that when emissary Xu Fu was sent as an emissary to find Master Anqi, he encountered a 'great spirit' at sea that led him toward the southeast toward Sandao "Three Islands" of which Penglai was the most noteworthy.

Some 1800 years later, we hear of Japanese merchants who traveled to Mishima 三島 由 (Chinese: Sandao 三島), where they sought highly-prized jars. Mishima or the "Three Islands" at that time consisted of Luzon, Taiwan and Macau. Of these, Luzon was the most important in terms of its highly prized Ruson-tsubo wares.


Golden bird ornaments at Ayala Museum


While many years had passed between these two periods, I believe there is a connection between the cinnabar gold food and drink vessels of Master Anqi of Penglai, and the Ruson-tsubo wares used for tea ceremonies by the Japanese shoguns and emperor.

Now in terms of the location of Sandao and Penglai, as noted Xu Fu was lead by sea to the southeast and I discuss Penglai's location and related geographic areas in the post Qingtong, Lord Lad of the East.

Penglai continues to figure in historical and semi-historical texts into the late ancient period in which it is directly related to the region of Fusang -- a connection that was indirectly hinted at in earlier sources. In the Tang Dynasty, the area was known as Foshi, and in the Sung Dynasty, Sanyu (三嶼) and Sanfotsi were probably equated with Sandao.

The placename Sandao appears again in historical records during the Yuan Dynasty, as a kingdom along the Eastern Ship Route.



Transmuting to gold

In my post on tumbaga and alchemy, I suggest that the "transmutation" of metals like copper into gold may have been an ancient reference to depletion gilding. In the last posting on goldworking, I discuss the practice in the Philippines of using red earth mixed with salt for depletion gilding at the last stage to remove any silver at the surface.

We cannot assume that the ancients understood the chemical processes at work, and it may be that they actually viewed depletion gilding as a transmutation of an alloy into pure gold. As noted, early Europeans like Juan de Salcedo and Hernando Riquel commented that even the most skilled silversmiths during the Renaissance period could not distinguish such alloys. The touchstone assay did not work, and de Salcedo says that only melting down the objects, i.e., the fire assay, could reveal the truth.

The red earth, then, could have been seen as the Philosopher's Stone, the magical material that transmutes base metals into gold.

In reality, it is believed that the red earth contained ferrous sulphate that when sufficiently heated releases its sulfur. The sulfur combines with silver to form silver sulfate. The metal is cooled and the silver sulfate is polished off leaving a pure gold surface.

During the medieval period, the Philosopher's Stone was generally thought of as a red substance. Many Chinese alchemists believed that cinnabar was the Philosopher's Stone, while the Muslims used the name al-Kibrit al-Ahmar الكبريت الأحمر "red sulfur."

The idea of the red color may come from the notion of cinnabar changed into gold during the Qin Empire. What this may refer to is the process of depletion gilding in Penglai that was taught by the Master Anqi. The technique may have used the same red earth that was mentioned some 2,000 years later in the same region.

Red earth gets its color normally either from the presence of iron or cinnabar in the soil or clay. In many cultures, red earth or red ochre is viewed in relation to blood, the fluid of life. In ancient China, it was cinnabar-rich earth rather than red ochre that was thought of in this manner.

So, the ancient Chinese alchemists may have viewed the red earth used for depletion gilding as cinnabar -- the Philosopher's Stone that transmutes base metals into gold.



The color red

Red ochre, red clay and the red color have a very important role in Philippine archaeology and ethnography. The archaeologist Jesus T. Peralta wrote a book" "The tinge of red: prehistory of art in the Philippines," the title of which highlights the importance of this color.

Red ochre was used in some of the earliest burials in the country such as those found at Tabon and Arku caves. The ochre was used to paint burial pottery, and skeletons were painted with red ochre before secondary burial. In some cases, skeletons were completely buried in red ochre. In Pila, Laguna, basins of red ochre (adobe) were used for cremation rites.

The color red was used for the clothing of warriors and their wives, and for the clothing of chiefs and nobles. To this day, indigenous peoples in the Philippines still use red as an important ritual color. The Kalinga see red as the color of health, strength and power. José Semblante Buenconsejo writes concerning the Manobo of Mindanao that the color red represents ritual blood, which in turn gives "fire, life, vitality to those persons and objects" involved in the ritual. The ancient Bisayans were said to have painted their bodies with red clay.

Blood of sacrifices was often smeared on sick people by the local healers due to its perceived health-giving property. And blood along with clay have an important role in the stories of creation in the Philippines and throughout the Southeast Asian region.

Damiana Eugenio gives 15 examples of Philippine myths in which humans, animals or other living things are formed out of clay. In one of these, the clay is mixed with blood. Among the Igorots of Sagada, red clay receives its color from mixture with human blood. In nearby Borneo, there are many myths in which blood is used as a temper for the clay used to form humans and other living things.



Volcanic clay and blood

Mt. Pinatubo's name can be interpreted as the "One that causes birth, sprouting, growth, conception, originating, beginning...," as opposed to Mt. Arayat to the east, also known as Mt. Sinukuan. The latter name comes from suku, which refers instead to death, surrender and ending.

The name of Pinatubo's deity (Apo Namalyari) can be interpreted as "One who enables" or "One who makes possible," and is in-keeping with the idea of Apo Namalyari as the creator god. In many regional myths, creation takes place after catastrophic events. For example, in a Bontoc Igorot myth, Lumawig creates the plants, animals and humans after a great battle between the Earth and Waters in which great stones are hurled through the air and the world is covered by a great flood. In a Bukidnon myth, the great Magbabaya gods allow themselves to be killed so their bodies and blood can be used for creation. A great rain of blood from one Magbabaya sinks into the ground and becomes animals, fish and plants.

Pinatubo's eruptions, I have suggested, were seen by ancient observers as a type of cosmic birth pangs and delivery -- originally of the entire creation and subsequently of the new golden age. The volcanic ash and lahar would then be the cosmic afterbirth.

Volcanic ash slowly weathers into clay at the rate of about 1 meter every 200 years, but the process begins immediately. Thus, witnesses to an ancient eruption could see thin layers of clay arising from weathered volcanic ash. Such clay was considered the building block of living things and this may not be too far from the scientific truth. A recent theory suggests that life, or at least the amino acids necessary for life, may have originated in volcanic clay. Such clay usually contains all the elements necessary to create life plus a volcanic gas, carbonyl sulfide (COS), that may have acted as a catalyst for the formation of amino acid chains.

Ancient observers would have been particularly interested in red clay, since they could have seen the red color as representing the cosmic uterine blood, the life fluid of red-blooded creatures like humans. In this red clay, one could reasonably expect to find the "secret ingredient" to health and longevity.

The red clay on its own was significant enough, so that if we add the added quality of its apparent ability to transmute other metals into gold -- the most stable of metals -- we can see how easily this red earth could be interpreted as the Philosopher's Stone. And how jars and other vessels made from this red clay would have certain "magical" qualities.

Thus, we find that the Philippine goldsmiths also used red earth to give gold a reddish tint, and maybe also with the idea that the red earth could help preserve golden heirlooms. The purer types of gold were handed down as heirlooms and relics. These heirlooms were considered sacred and were connected with the ancestors, and one's fate on the earth.

Even lowland Christianized Filipinos have kept such heirlooms until recent times. In Pampanga, heirloom jewelry is usually called tumbaga, interestingly enough, regardless of what it was made of. My paternal grandmother had a tumbaga heirloom that she had melted down and turned into rings for her children.

Red gold must have been ancient because one of the Proto-Austronesian reconstructions for "gold" *bulaw-an suggests a metal of a reddish color (bulaw "reddish, reddish gold"). Indeed, in the Philippines, the term pula in Ilocano and Tagalog refers primarily to tinting gold into a reddish color with red ochre (Tag. gintong pula "red gold"). Givin that there is another suggested Proto-Austronesian word for gold *emas, it may be that *bulaw-an referred originally to an ancient gold that was colored with red earth. The oldest archaeological gold in the Philippines is estimated to date to at least 450 BCE to 250 BCE, although the actual sites involved, like those at Duyong Cave were not dated. We will probably have to wait for further discoveries to get the oldest dates for gold in the country.

Possibly ancient Chinese alchemists confused the use of sacred red clay jars and symbolic red gold, for the idea that metals changed into gold with red earth, i.e. cinnabar, could be used to create live-giving vessels for food and drink. Or the original practice drifted in this direction. At a latter date, this idea morphed into a belief that the "elixir of life" was colloidal gold made with mercury extracted from cinnabar.


Sacred jars

Earthenware jars were among the ancient heirlooms kept in Pampanga and the surrounding region. Among the Kapampangans, these were known as balasini, and they were still being kept during late Spanish times. However, the people were beginning to lose the old ways, and the balasini were often sold at spectacular prices to merchants from Japan and elsewhere. As people became "modernized," they no longer shared the values that motivated their ancestors to keep these heirlooms. In the same way, many tumbaga jewelry heirlooms, which tended to last longer because of more practical value, were eventually sold or melted down.

The "Luzon Jars" were known for their unique ability to preserve tea leaves and tea stored in them. Jean Mallat, writing in the 1840s, tells of the red clay water jars in Cebu that "impart great freshness to the water they held."

Indeed even many people still alive today can attest to how the old clay water jars seem to keep water fresher and sweeter than other sources. In ancient times, when there were no water purification plants, refrigerators, etc. such a quality could not be underestimated.

Now, the red clay jars high is sulfur would be the best types in this regard since sulfur is a natural preservative agent and would inhibit the growth of microbes, fungi and mold. Thus the red clay used for depletion gilding, known in Pampanga as sapo, would be the very best because of its high sulfur content. Some volcanoes, like Mt. Pinatubo, release high sulfur volcanic ash that becomes high sulfur volcanic clay. However, red clay containing ferrous sulphate would have been valued for use as sangag, the mixture of red earth and salt, used for "transmutation" purposes since ferrous sulphate has a fairly low combustion point. At about 600°C or well below the melting point of gold, ferrous sulphate releases sulfur as sulfur trioxide gas, which reacts with silver allowing the resulting compound to be polished off from the surface.

With these qualities, the red clay jars would indeed match the spiritual and mundane significations of the color red and the primordial clay ingredient of life. Such jars would have been highly valued and never traded originally, but instead handed down as heirlooms.


Gold elixir

In China, alchemy took two directions. One was toward "aurifiction," the creation of an artificial "gold." Interestingly, the related gold alloy was actually known as "purple sheen gold" and had a purple or violet surface rather than a gold-colored one. The outward tinting was created by a patina consisting of a coating of various substance including cinnabar, mercury and realgar that is pickled in vinegar (acetic acid) and copper salts.

The other type of metallurgical alchemy involved the creation of colloidal suspensions of gold particles and other elixirs of colloidal minerals. These elixirs used mercury to dissolve gold and other metals, and the practice apparently developed in China from whence it spread throughout Asia into Europe and Africa.

Most of this diffusion happened during the "Tantric period" of the Middle Ages when there was a great exchange of culture between South Asia and East/Southeast Asia. With the Muslim conquests, many ideas were absorbed by the Muslim invaders and transmitted by them to Europe and Africa. The Muslim alchemist Geber apparently was primarily responsible for relaying the alchemy of gold elixirs into Europe.


Diane de Pointers, mistress of 16th century king Henry II of France died of poisoning from gold elixirs, scientists have discovered (Source: Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6865939/French-kings-mistress-poisoned-by-gold-elixir.html)


The alchemist "Nagarjuna" who is said to have imported the goddess Tara and mercury from "Mahacina," into India may have come originally from Vietnam or somewhere else on mainland Southeast Asia.

In addition to the metallurgical alchemy, aspects of "inner alchemy" also arose during this period of Tantric exchange. Some ideas originated from Daoist meditation practices. Aspects of hatha or kundalini yoga might be termed "volcano yoga" in that they use volcanic imagery in describing the efforts to generate internal "heat" through meditation. In Tibet, this is known as tummo yoga and was imported by Naropa at around the same time that the Kalacakra doctrine arrives in that country.

The inner union of "mercury" and "sulfur" may be compared to the geologic co-mingling between Pinatubo and Arayat before an eruption. In the myths of the battles between these two mountains, the fighting always accompanies courtship between the gods of the two peaks. The eruption creates the clay of Sun (Arayat) and Moon (Pinatubo) providing the substance for the creation of life or the start of a new golden age. The red clay represented the substance that unites all living things with the Earth (and Sky).

In internal alchemy, the union of the two principles creates "heat" sometimes symbolized as a fiery pearl. In Kapampangan parlance, we can call this pearl Mutia (Mutya, Mukti), the fire or spirit that creates life or drives the New Age on the cosmic scale, and on the personal level helps the practitioner unite with the pantheistic whole.

Serlingpa, the king of the "Golden Island," included elements of internal alchemy in the Kalacakra Tantra, and also possibly in the Vimalaprabhu commentary, which according to John Newman he may also have authored. The Kalacakra promoted pluralism and universalism by focusing on the interconnection and interdependence of all things, particularly as revealed by the cycles of time.



Philosopher's Stone for sale

As the people of the Luzon adopted a new religion, the value of the ancient clay jars became limited to their practical usage as water or beverage containers. The importance of ancestral heirlooms faded as the culture changed. Certainly the jars in their mind were not worth the astounding sums offered for them.

However, the indigenous people along with groups from afar still seemed to recognize the ancient value assigned to these jars. In many cases, it is otherwise impossible to explain the fact that owners would not part with these jars for any price, or that buyers would offer to pay extravagant prices for wares that were old and fragile.

The most valued Luzon Jars in Japan were the old ones made of earthenware described as reddish-brown, brown, red or dark in color.

Interestingly, the sulfurous products have again become prominent in local commerce after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. Pinatubo Lake is rich in sulphates and tour guides advertise the healthy benefits of bathing in the sulfurous waters. At a nearby Korean-owned spa, facials or full body treatments in sulfur-rich ash and mud are offered to tourists, again for their claimed benefits to skin and health.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento


References

Buenconsejo, José S. Songs and Gifts at the Frontier: Person and Exchange in the Agusan Manobo Possession Ritual, Philippines (Current Research in Ethnomusicology, Outstanding
Dissertations, vol. 4), Routledge, 2001, 147-8.

Gerrard, John. Mountain Environments: An Examination of the Physical Geography of Mountains. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1990, 201.

Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 2. London: C.U.P., 1974.

Raedt, Jules de. Kalinga Sacrifice. Cordillera monograph, 04. Baguio City: Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines College Baguio, 1989, 92.

White, David Gordon. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Goldworking in the Philippines

The Moros [of the Philippines] understand the laws of gold better than we do.

-- Francesco de Sande, 1577


They mix it [gold] with copper so skillfully they will deceive the best artisans of Spain.

-- Hernando Riquel, 1573

Upon their arrival, the Spanish noted the importance of gold in Philippine cultures. Gold was highly abundant in the soil, including native gold of very high grade. The quantity of gold possessed by the people was very great and everyone regardless of their place in society seemed to possess abundant gold jewelry and heirloom gold. The indigenous people were also highly skilled at gold working.

So important was gold trading that the third governor of the Philippines, Francisco de Sande, writes that most people could determine the relative value of gold:

Should a Spaniard buy food or anything else from a native, the Moro immediately takes out the touchstone which he carries with him; and, even if the value be not over two reals, he takes great pains to see if the gold be conformable to the aforesaid standard. Although it may be stamped and assayed, the Indian will trust to no reckoning but his own. Neither is there any rule by which to pay, beyond the weight and value of the gold; this applies likewise to the orejeras or panica, for all the gold which is used in trade is mixed with other substances, to make the other grades of base gold. Although I have intended and tried to remedy this, it is impossible, as the majority of them are silversmiths for this very purpose; and if any restrictions were made, they would think that they were about to be ruined. It has seemed to me that the country is very new for establishing any other currency than gold, which here is like the king's fifth of silver in Nueva Espana.

A good illustration of the abundance of gold in these islands is given by Francisco Alcina in 1664 or about a century after the beginning of Spanish colonization:

I do remember that once when I was solemnizing a marriage of a Bisayan principala, she was so weighed down with jewelry that it caused her to stoop — to me it was close to an arroba or so (1 arroba = 25 lbs.), which was a lot of weight for a girl of twelve. Then again, I also heard it said that her grandfather had a jar full of gold which alone weighed five or six arrobas. Even this much is little in comparison to what they actually had in ancient times.”

By Alcina's time, the craft of goldmaking had deteriorated markedly as he found that ancient works like the kamagi were of "higher gold content and craftmanship than what is being made now," and that "one who knows how to make them today is hard to find." The kamagi was one of the complex types of jewelry found on the islands. William Henry Scott describes the kamagi:

The most spectatular item in the Visayan inventory was the kamagi, a heavy gold chain of such tightly interlocked links it hardly looked like a chain at all, but rather as solid and sinuous as a gold serpent. These included both what are now called "gear-bead" necklaces and multiple "loop-in-loop" chains...A single large kamagi strand called, saay, but the the long thin barbar could reach 4 meters and so swing grandly to the ground even when doubled or tripled...[kamagi] contain hundreds of links and rods and wires.

A royal gold chain of the Makassar Gowa dynasty in Sulawesi is said to have come originally from Manila and is of the kamagi type.

The importance of gold can be seen in the vast terminologies applied to gold and gold-making, and in Marcos de Lisboa's Bicol dictionary alone there are more than 300 such words.


Gold reckoning

There were various systems of valuing gold that existed in the Philippines at the coming of the Spanish. Here are a few examples:

Guinogulan -- 22 carats, not traded
Panica -- 16-18 carats, 5 pesos per tael
Linguingui -- 4 pesos per tael
Bielu -- 3 pesos per tael
Malubai -- 2 pesos per tael

-- Gov. Francisco de Sande (1577)

Ariseis -- 23 carats three granos, 9 eight-real pesos per tael
Guinogulan -- 20 carats, 7 pesos per tael
Orejeras (Panica) -- 18 or 19 carats, 5.5 pesos per tael
Linguin -- 14 - 14.5 carats, 4 - 4.5 pesos per tael
Bislin -- 9 - 9.5 carats, 3 pesos per tael
Malubay -- 6 - 6.5 carats, 1.5 - 2 pesos per tael

-- Martin Castanos, Procurator-General (1609-1616)


Guinuguran -- not traded
Ylapo -- not traded
Panica -- not traded
Linguinguin -- four pesos a tael
Malubay -- two pesos a tael
Bizlin -- two pesos a tael

-- Andres de Mirandaola (1569-1576)

Idelfonso de Santos found the following terminology used in the Tagalog language for reckoning gold purity:

Ginugilan -- 22 carats
Hilapo -- 20 carats
Palambo -- 20 carats
Wasay -- 20 carats
Urimbuo -- 18 carats
Panika -- 16 carats
Panikang bata -- 14 carats
Lingginging -- 12 carats
Lingginging bata -- 10 carats
Bislig -- 8 carats

And from William Henry Scott, also using Tagalog sources:

Dalisay -- 24 carats
Ginugulan -- 22 carats
Hilapo -- 20 carats
Panangbo -- "Somewhat less than 20 karats"
Panika -- 18 carats
Linggingin -- 14 carats
Bislig -- 12 carats

Furthermore, each of the above categories could be divided into "senior" (matanda) or junior (nabata) sub-divisions. Thus, dalisay nabata was less pure than dalisay matanda.

Traditionally, Filipinos traded only gold at about the panica level and below, with the purer gold kept only as heirlooms to be passed on from one generation to the next.

People carried small portable scales and weights for trading purposes. The base of the Philippine system was the saga or rosary bean (Abrus precatorious), which was the basic weight used to measure gold. The term saga is also found in the Malay system.

There were three palay (rice grains) in a saga, and three saga in a bahay. According to the modern Malay system, there are 3 saga in a kupang, and 12 saga in an amas. Thus, the bahay is the same as a kupang, and there were 192 saga to a tael or to a Chinese liang. In the Visayas, the saga was known as bangati. The term "kupang" may come from the cupang tree, which is also known as the copang, and which produces a large, heavy, dark bean.

Piloncito gold coins may have been patterned after the beans, seeds and stones used to weigh gold.




The gold belts like the one above, and the gold sash below at the Ayala Museum in Manila are made of pure gold.




Gold mining

Natural gold of exceptional high purity could be found in the Philippines. Tomas de Comyn, writing in 1810, says that natural gold of up to 22 carats could be found in the mines of Caraga, a province of Mindanao. Possibly the high quality of native gold was one reason that early European explorers thought these islands might be identical with the Biblical land of Ophir. According to St. Jerome, there were seven grades of gold and the gold of Ophir was the purest.

Most gold mining in the country was placer mining conducted along streams and rivers. Wooden pans, often called dulang, were used to sift through the sand. The gogo vine (Entada purseta) was used to help during the sifting. Gogo contains saponins that cause the soil and other materials to suspend in water. The plant was also used as a soap and shampoo by the local people for bathing purposes.

Sometimes pits or mines were excavated and some on the island of Masbate were said to be up to 15-18 feet deep. The extracted rocks were broken into smaller pieces and then crushed by a sort of stone mill driven by water buffalo. The crushed stone mixed with water became muddy in consistency and was then sifted like alluvial sediment.


Gold refining

Gold was refined in clay crucibles using the salt process. Into the molten gold, the goldsmith added salt, rock salt, and/or saltpeter to form compounds with other metals, including silver, and separate them from the gold. The process could be repeated until the desired purity was reached. A touchstone was used to test for gold levels. However, observers noted that most people, and even children, could estimate the relative value of a gold object by observation alone.

In some cases, the goldsmiths purposely combined gold with other metals including silver, copper, brass and tin. Among some of the names for alloys found in the Philippines are:

tumbaga -- gold mixed with copper
sumbat -- gold mixed with silver
hutok -- gold mixed with copper and silver
malamote -- gold mixed with silver
sombat -- gold mixed with various metals including copper, brass and silver
lauc -- any gold alloy

Ramon N. Villegas notes that to give an outward appearance of gold to alloys like tumbaga, the smiths often used plant acids to burn off the copper at the surface. However, for alloys that contained silver, a metal that is very stable like gold, other processes had to be used to achieve a golden lustre.

Pasaoli -- La ultima operacion que hace el platero para dar color al oro (The final operation of the silversmith in giving a golden color.)

-- Lorenzo Fernández Cosgaya (1661-1731)

The last operation referred to in the Pangasinan term above is the use of red earth mixed with salt to reduce silver on the surface of the alloy. Dampierre, writing in 1687, stated that the smiths of the Philippines would smear gold-silver alloys with a paste of red earth when the metals lost their luster. There are various terms used for this paste mixture in Philippine languages including sangag: salt and tierra roja "red earth" -- Pampanga; and polog: tierra colorada "red earth" -- Bisaya. After being smeared with the paste, the object was heated in fire until red hot and then submerged in water. The red earth is believed to contain ferrous sulphate, which breaks down into sulfuric acid in heat and dissolves the silver. A similar process was used in ancient Peru where they mixed yellow clay containing nitrates and sulphates with salt to remove silver from the surface of tumbaga.

As noted in the previous post, this practice of giving an outward appearance of gold to alloys including tumbaga was already a developed art in the Philippines, as noted by the earliest visitors including Juan de Salcedo and Hernando Riquel. Both of these men accompanied Legazpi's armada, so this technology was not brought by the Spanish Galleons as suggested by Blust.

Red earth or red ochre (porog in Bisayan) was also added to gold alloys to impart a reddish color.


Gold crafting

Filipino goldsmiths used a wide variety techniques to create gold jewelry and other items to include the cire perdue moulding method, annealing, filigree and granulation. In the area of granulation, they were particularly skilled and Scott says that in this technique "ancient Filipino goldsmiths have never been surpassed."

Granules of gold (daou in Bisaya, sibug in Pampagan, sinnabug in Ilocano) were created in two ways. In one method, gold and charcoal were placed in alternate layers in a crucible. When sufficiently heated, the gold in the charcoal would melt and form into tiny balls. Later the charcoal is washed off leaving the granules. In the other method molten gold is dropped on a smooth stone or piece of metal. The granules are sorted by size using gauged sieves.

An organic adhesive said to be made from fish was used to attach the granules to a base surface, sometimes mixed together with a copper salt. Metallic materials used for soldering were known as pidal and ampay in Bicol, and as piral in Tagalog. The same glue was used for filigree decoration using tiny wires soldered to a base with heat. In many cases, hundreds of granules could be placed on a square centimeter and in some cases up to 1600 granules could be used on the same surface area.

The smiths also beat gold dust into extremely thin gold foil for gilding, or created "ropes" by intertwining very thin filigree wires.

Using moulds with the lost wax method was known as limbag in Pampanga, bosog in Bicol, bobo and bosog in Hiligaynon, and silog in Waray. Repoussé and chasing were used to create designs on gold surfaces, and a great number of motifs and themes were used.



Gold repousee from the Surigao Treasure at the Ayala Museum.


Medieval accounts tell of gold collars used for dogs and monkeys in this region (Wak-wak), and the Spanish mention gold bowls, and even gold that was used to decorate homes.

Interestingly, Bergano lists the word bascal as a dog collar, possibly used in ancient times, that apparently was made of gold. The related word cabascalan (ca-bascal-an) means the gold sufficient to make a bascal. In connection with this there is also the myth of Apung Sinukuan in which the animals of Arayat were adorned with gold jewelry. Among the many gold artifacts held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Manila is a gold bowl weighting between 600 and 700 grams.


Gold bowl from the Surigao treasure

The following condensation by Edward William Lane of notices on the islands of Wakwak from the works of al-Kazwini and al-Wardi is probably exaggerated but also undoubtedly contains a fair degree of truth.

"...navigation to them [Wakwak islands] is by the stars. They are said to be one thousand and seven hundred in number, and governed by a woman, named Demharah, who wears a robe woven with gold, and has shoes, (or sandals) of gold. No one walks in all these islands with any other kind of shoe : if he wear any other kind, his feet are cut. The Queen rides amid her slaves and troops with elephants and standards and drums and trumpets and beautiful female slaves. The place of her abode is an island called Amboobeh, the inhabitants of which are skillful in manufactures, so that they weave shirts of one piece each, sleeves and body together, and make great ships of small pieces of wood, and make houses of wood that move upon the face of the water.

'Eesa (or Moosa), the son of El-Mubarak, Es-Seerafee, relates, " I went in to this Qneen, and saw her sitting naked upon a couch of gold, with a crown of gold upon her head, and before her were four thousand maid-servants, beautiful virgins....No one knoweth what is beyond it save God. From one of these Islands of Wak-Wak there issueth a great torrent like pitch, which floweth into the sea, and the fish are burnt thereby, and float upon the water.—The islands of Wak-Wak contain gold in such abundance that the inhabitants make the chains of their dogs and other beasts, and the collars of their apes, of that metal; and the great men make bricks of gold, and build with them palaces and houses, well and skilfully

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento


References

Alcina, Francisco Ignacio, Cantius J. Kobak, and Lucio Gutiérrez. History of the Bisayan people in the Philippine Islands: evangelization and culture at the contact period. Manila, Philippines: UST Pub. House, 2002.

Bergaño, Diego. Vocabulario de la lengua pampanga en romance. Reimpreso: Manila: Impr. de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1860.

Carro, Andrés. Vocabulario de la lengua ilocana. Manila: Establecimiento tipografico del Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1849.

Encarnacion, Fr. Juan Felix de, and Fr. Jos Sanchez. Diccionario Bisaya-Español. 1885.

Fernández Cosgaya, Lorenzo. Diccionario Pangasinan-Español (y Vocabulario Hispano-Pangasinan). Manila: [s.n.], 1865.

Ganzenmüller, Wilhelm, Gmelins Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie, System Nummer 62, GOLD, Lieferung 1 und 2, Verlag Chemie GMBH, Weinbaum, 1950.

Jagor, Fedor. The Former Philippines Through Foreign Eyes. Teddington, Middlesex: The Echo Library, 2007.

Lane, Edward William. The Thousand and One Nights', Commonly Called The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. A New Translation from the Arabic, with Copious Notes, vol. 1. New York: Bigelow, Smith & Co, 1900. Lisboa, Márcos de. Vocabulario De La Lengua Bicol. 1865, , 480-1.

Alonso de Méntrida, and Joaquín García-Medall. Vocabulario de la lengua bisaya, hiligueina y haraya de la isla de Panay y Sugbú y para las demás islas : 1637. Tordesillas (Valladolid): Instituto Interuniversitario de Estudios de Iberoamérica y Portugal, Universidad de Valladolid, 2004.

Sánchez de la Rosa, Antonio. Diccionario Español-Bisaya (y Bisaya-Español) : para las provincias de Sámar y Leyte. Manila: [s.n.], 1914.

Scott, William Henry. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City, Manila, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1997.

Villegas, Ramon N. Ginto: History Wrought in Gold. [Manila]: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Gold Collection, 2004.

__. Hiyas: Philippine Jewellery Heritage. Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines: Guild of Philippine Jewellers, 1997.

__. Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition. Manila: Central Bank of the Philippines, 1983.

More on Tumbaga

I received a message drawing attention to Robert Blust's theory on tumbaga, an alloy of copper and gold, written about here in previous posts.

Blust's theory is published in the following article:

Blust, Robert. "Tumbaga in Southeast Asia and South America," Anthropos 87/4-6, 1992, 443-457.

He argues that the tumbaga word traveled from the Philippines to the Americas, and that the gold-copper alloy technology traveled the opposite direction from the Americas to Southeast Asia. In the Americas, the word "tumbaga" replaced previous words or was adopted alongside of them by many different Amerindian cultures and by the Spanish. In Southeast Asia, the gold-copper alloy was adopted by native peoples and the local word "tumbaga" or its cognates, referring to copper or copper alloys, was attached to the new metal.

Blust suggests that all this happened during the "Manila Galleon" trade, which he says starts in 1565.


Blust's evidence

I won't present all of the arguments offered by Blust here, but the main thrust of his article as I see it depends on the following points:

• The tumbaga alloy, involving gold and silver, and sometimes together with other metals, did not exist in Southeast Asia before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
• The word "tumbaga" or its cognates did not exist in the Americas before the Spanish discovered the Philippines, whence Pigafetta first records the word in written form.
  

Now, these points can quickly be refuted right off the bat:

• Tumbaga has been discovered at pre-colonial sites in the Philippines. For example, barter rings made of tumbaga and dated to the 15 century and the pre-colonial part of the 16th century have been found at Samar. Ramon N. Villegas also mentions tumbaga from pre-colonial sites in Malaysia and Indonesia.
• Columbus in his diary as preserved by Las Casas mentions tuob -- suggested as a cognate of tumbaga -- during his first voyage.
  

In addition to the discovery of tumbaga at pre-colonial sites, there is some textual evidence suggesting the presence of this alloy since at least the Sung Dynasty.

Zhao Rugua (Chau Ju Kua) mentions the use of huojin "trade gold" in the kingdoms of Mayi, Poni and in the islands around Poni. Now Mayi is almost certainly the island of Mindoro, which till this day is known as Mait by the indigenous people of southern Mindoro, and by the fishermen in nearby Aklan on the island of Panay. According to Zhau Rugua, Mayi was south of Sanfotsi (Sanfoqi) and north of Poni.

The same text by Zhao Rugua tells of huoyin "trade silver" that was made in the kingdoms of Sukitan and Toupo, the latter asserted by me to refer to kingdoms around modern Cotabato. The type of money in both places was the same and was called Toupo-jin "Toupo money." An alloy of silver, copper, "white copper" (copper-nickel) and tin was cut into small bits the size of "dice."

These coins were stamped with a seal and sixty were said to equal in value a "tael of gold." A tael or tahel is the Chinese ounce. However it took only six of these coins to equal a tael of "trade gold." Obviously the "trade gold" or huojin of Mayi, Poni and the nearby islands was not pure gold, and we can suggest that it was a gold alloy just like "trade silver" or huoyin of Toupo and Sukitan.

Toupo money sounds like the piloncitos -- the tiny coins found in Java but especially in the Philippines at locations in Samar, Leyte, Marindique and Mindanao, and dating possibly from the 10th to the 12th century based on the inscriptions on the coins. These inscriptions or stamps are thought to represent the character ma possibly standing for Mayi or for the weight of the coin.

Now when Juan de Salcedo accompanied the Spanish invasion fleet to the Philippines in 1565, he mentions the making of impure gold -- apparently tumbaga -- at Mindoro for he mentions seeing the people had "given two hundred taels of impure gold, for they possess great skill in mixing it with other metals. They give it an outside appearance so natural and perfect, and so fine a ring, that unless it is melted they can deceive all men, even the best of silversmiths." The "ring" mentioned by de Salcedo is apparently a barter ring like the ones found on Samar that were made of tumbaga.

Hernando Riquel, the government notary of the same armada, makes clear that the gold alloy was tumbaga when he says in 1573: "They mix it [gold] with copper so skillfully they will deceive the best artisans of Spain."


Tuob of the Caribs

Blust mentions native words for tumbaga from the Arawakan languages like guanin and karakoli, but he misses one important word that could easily have been derived from "tumbaga" or its cognates.

Columbus' journal of his first journey is known only from the abstract published by Las Casas who had witnessed the discoverer's return from that voyage. Here is Las Casas summary of Columbus' entry for January 13 of his first voyage:

The Admiral asked him about the Caribs and he made signs to the east, near there, which the Admiral says he saw yesterday before he entered that bay: and the Indian told him that there was a great deal of gold in that country, pointing out the poop of the caravel which was very large and indicating that there were pieces as large as that. He called gold tuob and did not understand it by caona as it was called in the first part of the island nor by nozay as it is called in San Salvador and in the other islands. On Espanola they call copper or a base quality of gold tuob. That Indian told of the island of Matinino and said that it was all settled by women without men and on it there was a great deal of tuob which is gold or copper, and that it is farther to the east of Carib. He also told of the island of Goanin where there is a great deal of tuob.

Now the "gold" referred to that is called caona (guanin) and nozay (nucay) on the other islands was in fact tumbaga.

Blust argues that the word tumbaga is not used in Spanish to refer to a gold-copper alloy until 1817 using as his source the Spanish etymological dictionary of Corominas and Pascual written in 1983. However an article in Anuario de lingüística hispánica (v. 12, no. 1 - v. 13, no. 1 - 1996) suggests that tumbaga and tumbagas referring to gold-copper alloy was already common in Seville and also apparently in the Americas by the 1700s: "Fue familiar pues, el uso de la voz tumbaga en Sevilla -- y, al parecer, tambien en America --, a durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII..."

A number of examples are given including the early reference to the choir screen in the Mexico City Cathedral made by Geronimo de Balbas in 1730 of tumbaga, an alloy described as consisting of equal parts of gold and copper, together with silver. The tumbaga in this case was made in Macao and shipped through Manila.

These examples indicate that either Corominas and Pascual are incorrect, or Blust has not interpreted them correctly. As I do not have a copy of their etymological dictionary, I'll have to leave that as an open question.

Of course, nothing definitive can be said as to the first occurrence of tumbaga or similar words in Spanish until an exhaustive study of the vast hoards of documents in the Archivos Espanoles is conducted.


Manila Galleons

Blust suggests that the metal tumbaga and apparently also the technology to manufacture the metal only crossed over to Southeast Asia with the Manila Galleon trade starting in 1565, albeit from Cebu and not Manila.

However, as noted above neither Juan de Salcedo or Hernando Riquel, who were members of the armada of 1565 make any mention of such a cargo of tumbaga, and furthermore they both testify that this technology was already known in the Philippines.

Riquel, as the government secretary, would have handled all the documents of exchange, including valuing trade items, and would have been quite familiar with cargo going to and fro. However, both he and de Salcedo appear unfamiliar with tumbaga coming from the Americas, and both make it clear that the natives in the islands were already skilled at making gold alloys.

Governor Francesco de Sande adds his voice in 1577 saying: "In this island [Luzon] there is much gold, in sheets, among the natives; and, although they trade but little, they understand the value of the gold, and know how to adulterate it by mixing it with silver, tin, copper, brass, and other metals brought from China."

So it is quite clear that the peoples of the Philippines were already familiar with gold alloys including those involving copper. Piloncitos or barter rings made of tumbaga were probably the "trade gold" or huojin mentioned in medieval texts describing Sung Dynasty trade. These barter rings were probably similar in form to the rings used for trading known as panica by the locals and orejeras (earrings) by the Spanish that were made of gold from 16 to 19 carats in purity.


Origin of tumbaga

The suggestion that tumbaga is borrowed from Sanskrit tamra "copper" is problematic at best. First the supposed Prakrit form of the borrowing is only speculative. And the sound changes from that Prakrit form are not clear at all.

Indeed, there may be only a coincidental resemblance between these words. Firstly, tumbaga often is only a secondary word for "copper" in Southeast Asian languages.

While Blust gives many examples of where the word means "copper" the earliest definitions favor the suggestion of a copper alloy of one kind or another.

Blust, for example, mentions the word tambaycke recorded in British sources from Sumatra dating to 1602 for gold-copper alloy. The earliest Portuguese example dates to 1603 mentioning tambaca or tambaque as an alloy of copper with zinc or tin.

He cites Marcos de Lisboa's Bicol dictionary that was compiled by 1618 and states for the entry tumbaga: "a metal more refined than brass, (somewhere) between brass and gold; it is said that gold can be extracted (from it) through a great deal of refining."

Lorenzo Fernández Cosgaya's dictionary of Pangasinan compiled between 1661 and 1731 mentions under its definition for gambang "copper":

Gambang: Cobre: de este metal derretido mezclado con oro, hacen el llamado "tumbaga: que otros llaman "Champurado"

Gambang: Copper: this metal mixed with gold is called "tumbaga"...

From 1727, there is tambac and tambaqua from Siam referring to the gold-copper alloy. And Bergano's Kapampangan dictionary that was first published in 1732 gives the definition "bronze, like copper but harder."

In fact, the oldest listing Blust gives for a cognate of tumbaga (tambaga) that simply means "copper" is from Hardeland's dictionary of Dayak dating to 1859. However, Henry Ling Roth and Hugh Brooke Low give "brass" as the definition for tambaga among the Sarawak Dayak. Blust states that Pigafetta gives the definition of "copper" for tumbaga in the earliest reference to the latter word but in fact Pigafetta uses al metalo "metal" and not al rame "copper" in defining tumbaga. The Old Javanese tambaga means not only "copper" but also "bronze."

Such evidence would suggest that tumbaga and its cognates are more likely originally words for copper alloys rather than pure copper. Among the alloys covered by such terms are gold-copper, bronze, brass, bronze-like metal, and copper-colored metal.

While the sound changes for a borrowing from Malay as suggested by Blust do not jibe in most cases, tumbaga does make sense as an inheritance from *tembaga "copper alloy" in which the /e/ may be the schwa sound, and would have been inherited as schwa in Malay, as /a/ in Javanese, and as /u/ or /o/ in most Philippine languages.

Blust has the Sumatran form tambaycke from 1602 as borrowed from Spanish traders, but most likely at such an early date a borrowing would have involved the word guanin -- as found in many early Spanish documents -- and not any cognate of tumbaga. If we assume that the Sumatran word was inherited from speakers of Philippine languages then it should have had an /u/ or /o/ in the initial syllable rather than an /a/. Clearly the Sumatran along with the Thai words are inherited from the forms in western Insular Southeast Asia like Javanase tambaga "copper, bronze."

Suggesting a very wide diffusion during the Renaissance age of both a word on the one hand, and a metal technology on the other, without any observers noting and documenting this diffusion is a complex explanation. However, Blust does not fully consider the major alternative and much simpler explanation -- that both the tumbaga word and technology were already in place in both the Americas and Southeast Asia at the time of European contact.


Pre-Columbian explanation

Suggesting Pre-Columbian contacts across the Pacific is almost taboo in some mainstream circles, but fortunately it has been discussed.

Wilhelm Solheim stand as one of today's most outspoken advocates for such contacts between the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture and the Valdivian culture of South America. He basically follows the late James Ford on this issue, both of them modifying the earlier views on transpacific contacts held by Betty J. Meggers, Clifford Evans and Emilio Estrada.

Links between the cultures may have began as early as 3000 BCE according to Solheim and Ford, and lasted until 1000 BCE or 500 BCE. The correspondences include many similarities in design, motif and form found in Sa-Huynh-Kalanay and Valdvian pottery. Also the use of shells for tools, fish hooks, ornaments, etc. was prominent. In Valdivian culture, the Spondylus and Strombus were widely used, and both also feature in Austronesian cultures.

Such links were not one way cultural highways. Indeed, the earliest dates for tumbaga in the New World actually predate those in Southeast Asia. However, it seems likely that the first contacts would have been made by Austronesian seafarers, whose transoceanic abilities are well-documented, I think, even for the dates like 3000 BCE. Obviously a lot more research needs to be done to piece together the details of the transfer to tumbaga but I feel the evidence strongly points to Pre-Columbian contacts.

However, my next posting will deal with the level of goldworking in the Philippines when the Spanish arrived, which is also pertinent to the subject of the current posting.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Fernandez Cosgayam, Lorenzo . Diccionario Pangasinan-Espanol and Vocabulario Hispano-Pangasinan, Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1865.

Roth, H. Ling, and Hugh Brooke Low. The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo: Based Chiefly on the MSS. of the Late Hugh Brooke Low, Sarawak Government Service. London: Truslove & Hanson, 1896, cxxxiv.

Thacher, John Boyd, and Samuel Eliot Morison. Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains As Revealed by Original Printed and Manuscript Records, Together with an Essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and Bartolomé De Las Casas, the First Historians of America. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1903, 643-4.

Villegas, Ramon N. Hiyas: Philippine Jewellery Heritage. Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines: Guild of Philippine Jewellers, 1997.

__. Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition. Manila: Central Bank of the Philippines, 1983.

Wicks, Robert Sigfrid. Money, markets, and trade in early Southeast Asia: the development of indigenous monetary systems to AD 1400. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell Univ, 1992, 285-90.

Tumbaga and Alchemy

Men marvel at the alchemy which converts copper into gold; regard the copper that every instant fashions alchemy!

-- Rumi

Although ancient alchemy involved attempts to change all types of base metals into gold, the transmutation of copper into gold stood out as the alchemist's ultimate goal.

Changing copper into gold was important in both metallurgical and spiritual alchemy. Democritus mentions such transmutations, but it was during the medieval age that the phrase "copper into gold" became closely equated with alchemy.

The Daoists of China, the Tantrics of both India and China, the Arabs, and the European alchemists during medieval times all used the copper to gold transmutation to stand for the highest accomplishment in their science. Even into modern times, many practitioners in yoga claim that their perfection of the art is proven by their ability to change the metals copper into gold -- apparently a sign of their spiritual transformation.

From the metallurgical standpoint, we know that such transmutation was impossible. Therefore many theories have been put forth as to what the alchemists were trying to achieve. The most frequent explanation is that "gold" had different meanings in early times and alchemists were simply attempting to make other metals appear like gold -- something known as "aurifaction."

However, I think the case of tumbaga needs to be examined quite closely in relation to alchemy and especially to the idea of changing copper into gold.


Tumbaga, gold-copper alloy

Tumbaga is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and copper, and also often of silver. What is unique about tumbaga is that goldsmiths in Insular Southeast Asia and across the Pacific in the Americas did perform a transmutation "trick" with tumbaga.

The process known as depletion gilding made it seem like non-gold was transmuted into solid gold. Basically tumbaga was an early form of gold plated object. The depletion gilding on both sides of the Pacific was accomplished using the acidic juices or saps of certain plants that dissolved the copper from the surface of the tumbaga. The coating was then burned away in the furnace leaving a pure or near pure gold surface.

Writing in 1577, then governor of the Philippines Francesco de Sande mentions that "there is a very base gold that has no name, with which they deceive." In fact, latter Spanish chroniclers mention the name as "tumbaga" or by related cognates. In "Relation of the Voyage to Luzon," (1569-1576) Juan de Salcedo mentions witnessing the local people had "given two hundred taels of impure gold, for they possess great skill in mixing it with other metals. They give it an outside appearance so natural and perfect, and so fine a ring, that unless it is melted they can deceive all men, even the best of silversmiths."

In his dictionary of the Kapampangan language, Bergano mentions this art:

Belatan -- Oro falso, alquimia, ó cosa mal dorada...(False gold, alchemy, or something of poor gold.)

Maŕcos de Lisboa's dictionary of the Bicol language of southern Luzon (1628) gives another related term:

Sombat -- hacer uno como oro de alquimia mezclando una parte de oro fino, otra de calongcaqui, y otra de tumbaga...(to make like the gold of alchemy mixing one part of pure gold with another of calongcaqui, and another of tumbaga.)

Sinombat -- este oro asi de alquimia...(this is the gold of alchemy.)

Whether tumbaga was made to actually deceive is unlikely. The fact that tumbaga was used to make barter rings as found on the island of Samar suggests the product was highly-valued.


Barter rings and coins used in the pre-Hispanic Philippines (Source: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/bspnotes/evolution/page2.asp)


In the Americas, the production of tumbaga was thought to awaken the camay, or living spirit of inanimate objects, which was seen in the form of the gold that appeared to rise to the surface. Tumbaga stood for the sacred and temporal power in both objects and people.

The fact that the word alquimia "alchemy" is used in the above definitions rather than the more ordinary definitions for metallurgy mentioning mixing or smelting of metals can be seen as indication that the process was considered magical or sacred in these regions. Unfortunately, there is little other information in this direction that I've been able to find so far.

In the Philippine context, two words may be related to the concept of transmutation -- mutya and tubo. Grace Odal-Devora in noting the different physical forms related to the word mutya states:

These forms of the mutya give birth to a concept of the mutya as an unusual natural occurrence. This concept seems to spring from a collective perception of something extraordinary emerging from nature, functioning as an offspring, a child, an outgrowth and an excrescence from nature. However, though it comes as basically a natural emergence from nature there is usually something unusual about its coming into being, something like a freakish appearance, a unique , rare and unusual phenomenon. It variously comes in the form of a round or spherical outgrowth, an excrescence, a seed, a kernel, a grain, a fruit, a child, a flower, a boil, a cyst, a bezoar stone, a fragment, piece, a pulverized or powder form of a whole stone, rock, plant, tree, animal, person or thing...the inherent powers and virtues of the various mutya objects can be the basis for conceptualizing on the nature of the self – that starts from discovering the innate powers and inherent virtues within and using them to transform oneself and one’s society – like the transformation of the pearl from slime, mud, sand or dirt into a gem of light , beauty, healing and purity.

While mutya refers to more unusual types of transformations, the words tubo or tubu as found in derived words like Pinatubo "causing to be born, grow," or tibuan "place of conception, birth, origin," speak toward the more natural concepts. Both mutya and tubo involve a form of vivification in which the life spirit arises.

Certainly, the apparent transmutation of tumbaga to gold, that would pass the test of a touchstone, could have been viewed in a manner similar to what was found in the Americas. Gold after all was among the most durable of metals -- resistant to corrosion and chemical reactions and dissolved mainly with mercury. Gold thus is a prime metal symbolic of longevity and immortality.


Tumbaga trail

Tumbaga has been found at pre-colonial sites in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. In the Americas, tumbaga seems to appear first with the Moche culture that lived along the coast of Peru. And the coastal bias of the distribution of tumbaga in the Americas has led some researchers to suggest a mainly maritime diffusion to other countries throughout South and Central America.

Wilhelm Solheim has proposed that the Nusantao seafaring network extended to the west coast of the Americas staring in 3000 BCE and that voyages across the Pacific occurred periodically for "hundreds of years." Whether this would take us to a date for the transmission of tumbaga is not clear, but in earlier works Solheim has discussed Heine-Geldern's theory that tumbaga, along with the mise en couleur technique (depletion gilding), cire-perdue casting, and granulation were carried across the Pacific by Dongson seafarers.

Actually the dates of tumbaga might be older in the Americas than in Southeast Asia, but the practice of gold granulation appears to originate from early pottery practices in the latter region. In both regions, small gold balls or spheres were used to create decorations or designs on a gold base plate. These gold balls may be the origin of the piloncitos, tiny gold coins that like the barter rings were used as a type of currency in the pre-Hispanic Philippines. As depletion gilding is not archaeologically attested for Dongson culture, and granulation was a characteristic of both the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay and the entire Philippine goldworking tradition, the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture would seem to be a better candidate as an agent for this cultural transmission.



Piloncitos, gold coins from pre-Hispanic Philippines. (Source: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story2.asp)



Alchemy Isles

According to the Shiji, the Qin Emperor sent missions to Penglai in search of alchemists skilled in the "transmutation of cinnabar and other substances into gold." I have tried to show that Penglai was an island nation located to the southeast or south of South China. The Biblical and Muslim traditions place the origin of alchemy in Nod or Mount Budh to the east of Eden where it was brought by Adam.

I have suggested earlier that alchemy was originally linked with a "yin-yang" type of philosophy that sought to harness the creative or life-giving principle to extend longevity or to attain immortality. Seafarers and merchants in the Nusantao network came to connect these concepts on a cosmic scale with the volcanoes Pinatubo and Arayat, which I have suggested constitute the alchemical Mt. Penglai of Chinese texts.

The seeming transmutation of a metal like copper -- subject to corrosion and reactive to the acids of plants -- into gold, the durability and stability of which can be equated with long life and immortality, may have been seen as a fitting allegory for the process of vivification. The vivifying or revivifying concepts of mutya and tubo could have been viewed as symbolized by the transmutation of tumbaga.

At a latter date, this symbolism may have evolved into an idea that transmuted metals themselves conveyed immortality through a confusion with what I suggest was the Nusantao belief that volcanic ejecta from the sacred mountains was a form of life-giving cosmic placenta.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Far-Eastern Prehistory Association. Asian Perspectives v. 22, 1979. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1957, 179, 194.

Hosler, D., 1988, Ancient West Mexican Metallurgy: South and Central American Origins and West Mexican Transformations, American Anthropologist, 90(4), pp. 832–55.

The Philippine Islands 1493-1803: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and their Peoples, their Hist. and Records of the Catholic Missions, as related in contemporaneous Books and Ms., showing the Political ... Conditions of those Islands ... ; Transl. from the originals : With maps, portr. and other ill. Cleveland, Ohio: A. H. Clark Co, 1903, vol. 3, 81.

Miksic, John N. Earthenware in Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the Singapore Symposium on Premodern Southeast Asian Earthenwares. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003.

Shimada, Izumi. Pampa Grande and the Mochica Culture. Austin, Tex: Univ. of Texas Pr, 1994, 105.

Villegas, Ramon N. Hiyas: Philippine Jewellery Heritage. Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines: Guild of Philippine Jewellers, 1997.

__. Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition. Manila: Central Bank of the Philippines, 1983.

Video: Gold of the Ancestors, the Surigao Treasure

This video shows part of a broadcast program featuring the story behind the Surigao Treasure discovered in northern part of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The Surigao Treasure is the most impressive collection of gold artifacts found in the country and dates back to the 10th - 13th century. The collection includes extraordinary gold belts and one items known as the "Sacred Thread" that may be the single most impressive solid gold personal ornament in the world. The Surigao Treasure is located at the Ayala Museum in Makati, a business district in Metro Manila, and also at the Central Bank of the Philippines.

Gold of Ophir

One of the most spectacular museum exhibits in the Philippines is display at the Ayala Museum in Makati (Metro Manila).

"Gold of Ancestors: Pre-Colonial Treasures in the Philippines," is found in the Special Collection Room of the Ayala, the country's finest museum. The display consists of mostly 10th to 13th century gold artifacts, particularly those belonging to the private collection of Leandro and Cecilia Locsin.

"Many of the precious objects were recovered in association with tenth to thirteenth century Chinese export ceramics."

Many of the gold items show Indic or Tantric influence.



Garuda ornaments based on the mythical bird from Hindu-Buddhist mythology.





Object described as "anthropomorphic plaque" of a Lady or "Binibini"


One item, considered one of the most stunning artifacts, is called an upavita referring to the sacred thread worn by brahmins in India. However, from my knowledge the upavita or sutra is actually a thread, while the gold object is a large tubular sash-like object that could not go around the groin like an upavita.




The "upavita" from the Ayala Museum (photo from Manuel Quezon III's album on Flickr).


Some other objects in the Ayala exhibit from Manuel Quezon III's album and from the Ayala Museum site:




Gold belt




Described as a "kinnari," a half-woman, half-bird creature.

Setsuko Matoba: Zipangu and the Philippines

Setsuko Matoba has written a book Zipangu and Japan, after doing extensive primary research of sources in Europe, that suggests that Marco Polo's Zipangu (Cipangu) was actually the Philippines rather than Japan. I had missed the announcement of this book when first released about seven months ago.

Independently, I had come to the conclusion that Zipangu was a confused European conception of a continent that spanned the area from Japan, or at least southern Japan, southward through the Ryukyus, Taiwan, the Philippines all the way to the nutmeg and mace producing lands of the Moluccas.

The "Golden Land" or Suvarnadvipa region of Zipangu would refer to the region now known as the Philippines.

Here is the review of Zipangu and Japan that was published in the International Herald Tribune (Herald Asahi) last September.

29 September 2007
The International Herald Tribune (Herald Asahi)


Although he never visited it, the Venetian voyager wrote about a land that was laden with gold

It turns out he may have been wrong about the location

Setsuko Matoba, a Madrid-based author, raises the intriguing theory that Zipangu could be a reference to the Philippines in her book "Zipangu and Japan" published last month by Yoshikawa Kobunkan Inc. Matoba arrived at the new interpretation after analyzing archives and maps from the Age of Geographical Discovery (the 15th century through the first half of the 17th century) that she came across during visits to libraries and convents in Spain, Portugal and Italy over the past 10 years. Most of the documents dated back to the 16th century. "I published the book because I hoped to bring to attention documents that were not familiar in Japan," she said. "Giving my own opinion was not what I intended to do." "The Travels of Marco Polo" was based on Polo's experiences and observations during his journeys across Central Asia and China

Polo (1254-1324) was thought to have handed down the stories orally in Genoa, Italy, in 1298. They were then compiled into a manuscript, which was later translated into many European languages in and after the 14th century

About 150 original manuscripts of Polo's renditions survive. But there is no mention of "Zipangu" in the earlier versions, according to Matoba

Instead, the island that captured the imagination of medieval Europe was spelled in several ways, including Cipangu, Cipango, Zipangu, Siampagu and Cyampagu

"The Travels of Marco Polo," published in Japanese by Heibonsha Ltd. in its Toyo Bunko (the Eastern Library) series, employs the term based on the spelling of Cipangu. "Zipangu" apparently appears in documents for the first time in the early 17th century. In "Chronicle of Churches in Japan," written in the 17th century, Jesuit missionary Joao Rodrigues of Portugal said there was no question that the Zipangu mentioned in "The Travels of Marco Polo" referred to Japan. He noted that Zipangu derived from "Jepuencoe" or "Jiponcoe," the Chinese way of pronouncing Japan. Rodrigues spent many years in Japan from the late 16th century

Subsequent Jesuit missionaries accepted Rodrigues' view at face value. In turn, it became a mainstream theory in Europe, according to Matoba. Japanese scholars later subscribed to it

To back up his claim, Rodrigues cited the fact that a huge armada of Mongolian ships under Kublai Khan had come to grief in waters off Japan during a terrible typhoon. The incident, one of two attempted Mongolian invasions of Japan, was mentioned by Polo in his book But details do not match historical facts

Matoba offers this viewpoint: "Mongolia dispatched its fleet elsewhere as well." She said Polo could easily have been referring to an incident in Southeast Asia

So where was Zipangu? The documents Matoba gathered suggest the island known by the name of Zipangu is in the tropics

She noted frequent references to the Philippines, which Spain colonized in the 16th century with the lure of gold being a major factor. In contrast, there was no mention of gold in Japan. Moreover, ancient maps put Japan much further north. It was believed to be a peninsula, part of the Asian land mass, not an island nation, according to Matoba

Her findings spurred her to postulate that "Zipangu" actually referred to the Philippines and its far-flung archipelago

Takashi Gonoi, professor emeritus of the history of Christianity in Japan at the University of Tokyo, said he accepted her theory in principle. "It makes more sense if we think that (the island with gold) was a reference to a place other than Japan," Gonoi said. Charlotte von Verschuer, professor of Japanese history and philology at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, said Matoba's theory could answer longstanding questions among European scholars as to the location of gold-laden island if it was not Japan. But Masaaki Sugiyama, professor of the Mongolian history at Kyoto University, disagrees

"The compilation of 'The Travels of Marco Polo' was completed in the latter half of the 14th century, not in the end of the 13th century," he said. "Under the name of Marco Polo, experiences of other people and stories they had heard were incorporated into it." "That is why there are contradictions in it," Sugiyama said, referring to incidents that are at odds with historical facts

"It is possible that reports on Mongolia's expedition to the island of Java got mixed in with it. Still the outline matches that of the Mongolian expedition against Japan of 1281. There is no doubt that the island with gold was a reference to Japan." Sugiyama said that maps and documents pointing to the Philippines as the site of Zipangu referred to another location with a huge reserve of gold since Japan no longer produced the metal during the Age of Geographical Discovery. Matoba's theory has sparked a debate that may not die down easily. Even so, historians appear to agree on one thing: It raises questions about the veracity of the established theory.

Chryse (Glossary)

Chryse, the "Golden One," is the name given by ancient Greek writers to an island rich in gold to the east of India.

Pomponius Mela, Marinos of Tyre and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mention Chryse in the first century CE. It is basically the equivalent of the Indian Suvarnadvipa the "Island of Gold." Josephus calls it in Latin Aurea, and equates the island with biblical Ophir, from where the ships of Tyre and Solomon brought back gold and other trade items.

Chryse is often coupled with another island Argyre the "Island of Silver" and placed beyond the Ganges. Ptolemy locates both islands east of the Khruses Kersonenson the "Golden Peninsula" i.e. the Malaya Peninsula. North of Chryse in the Periplus was Thin, which some consider the first European reference to China.

In addition to gold, Chryse was also famed for having the finest tortoise shell in the world according to the Periplus. Large ships brought trade goods back and forth between Chryse and the markets at the mouth of the Ganges.

Chin-lin

In ancient Chinese literature, a mysterious region beyond their southern border in Annam was known as Chin-lin "Golden Neighbor" and the Southeast Asian border was also called the "Golden Frontier."

When China invaded Annam (northern Vietnam) in the first century BCE, the kingdom of Champa fortified villages along the old caravan trail. This path became Route Colonial 9 during the French colonial period, and it was used by the Americans to build the McNamara Line of fortified bases during the Vietnam War.

With this fortified line, the rugged Central Highlands and a policy of constant piracy, the Champa kingdom held the Chinese at bay for a thousand years. After the fall of the Chin dynasty in the 5th century, Cham raids on Tongking became so frequent that the governor appealed to the emperor for assistance. A war of attrition between China and Champa began that lasted until the rise of the T'ang dynasty.

During this time though, China was well aware of the golden lands far to the south. The Buddhist pilgrim I-Tsing mentions Chin-Chou "Isle of Gold" in the archipelago south of China on his way back from India.

Zabag and Wakwak

In this blog, I have suggested that the kingdoms of Zabag and Wakwak, famed among the medieval Muslims as rich in gold, referred to the eastern islands of the Malay archipelago i.e. the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia.

Zabag was based in what would later become the kingdom of Lusung.

In this sense, the Philippines fits the bill as a gold-rich realm.

The country has consistently ranked second in the world behind only South Africa in gold deposits per land area. The Philippines has historically been the largest producer of gold in Asia despite its relatively small size and the fact that until 1980 most gold was obtained only through small alluvial deposits.

Although some ancient gold artifacts have been found in this region, they don't match the age suggested by linguistic reconstruction. Gold may have been mostly handed down from generation to generation rather than being used as a burial good item.

In about the second century CE, there arose a practice of using gold eye covers, and then, gold facial orifice covers to adorn the dead resulting in an increase of ancient gold finds. More than a millennium later, the popularity of dental gold to decorate the teeth significantly increased the amount of gold found at archaeological sites.

When the Spanish came they discovered an abundance of gold used among the people of the Philippine islands. Here are some relevant quotes:

Pieces of gold, the size of walnuts and eggs are found by sifting the earth in the island of that king who came to our ships. All the dishes of that king are of gold and also some portion of his house as we were told by that king himself...He had a covering of silk on his head, and wore two large golden earrings fastened in his ears...At his side hung a dagger, the haft of which was somewhat long and all of gold, and its scabbard of carved wood. He had three spots of gold on every tooth, and his teeth appeared as if bound with gold.

--- Pigafetta on Raja Siaui of Butuan during Magellan's voyage

For brass, iron and other weighty articles, they gave us gold in exchange...For 14 pounds of iron we received 10 pieces of gold, of the value of a ducat and a half. The Captain General forbade too great an anxiety for receiving gold, without which order every sailor would have parted with all he had to obtain this metal, which would have ruined our commerce forever.

--- Pigafetta on gold trade in Cebu


Sailing in this manner, for some time, in 16° of north latitude, they were obliged by continual contrary winds, to bear up again for the Philippine islands, and in their way back, had sight of six or seven additional islands, but did not anchor at any of them. They found also an archipelago, or numerous cluster of islands, in 15 or 16 degrees of north latitude, well inhabited by a white people, with beautiful well-proportioned women, and much better clothed than in any other of the islands of these parts; and they had many golden ornaments, which was a sure sign that there was some of that metal in their country.

--- Antonio Galvão in 1555 describing the journey of Bartholomew de la Torre in 1548


"...the ore is so rich that I will not write any more about it, as I might possibly come under a suspicion of exaggerating; but I swear by Christ that there is more gold on this island than there is iron in all Biscay."

--- Hernando Riquel et al., 1574

In this island, there are many gold mines, some of which have been inspected by the Spaniards, who say that the natives work them as is done in Nueva Espana with the mines of silver; and, as in these mines, the vein of ore here is continouus. Assays have been made, yielding so great wealth that I shall not endeavor to describe them, lest I be suspected of lying. Time will prove the truth.

--- Hernando Riquel et al. on island of Luzon, 1574


There are some chiefs in this island who have on their persons ten or twelve thousand ducats' worth of gold in jewels--to say nothing of the lands, slaves, and mines that they own. There are so many of these chiefs that they are innumerable. Likewise the individual subjects of these chiefs have a great quantity of the said jewels of gold, which they wear on their persons--bracelets, chains, and earrings of solid gold, daggers of gold, and other very rich trinkets. These are generally seen among them, and not only the chiefs and freemen have plenty of these jewels, but even slaves possess and wear golden trinkets upon their persons, openly and freely.

--- Guido de Lavezaris at al., 1574


About their necks they wear gold necklaces, wrought like spun wax, and with links in our fashion, some larger than others. On their arms they wear armlets of wrought gold, which they call calombigas, and which are very large and made in different patterns. Some wear strings of precious stones--cornelians and agates; and other blue and white stones, which they esteem highly. They wear around the legs some strings of these stones, and certain cords, covered with black pitch in many foldings, as garters.

-- Antonio de Morga, 1609

"... the natives proceed more slowly in this ,and content themselves with what they already possess in jewels and gold ingots handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. This is considerable, for he must be poor and wrethced who has no gold chains, calombigas, and earrings."

-- Antonio de Morga, 1609

The Portugese explorer Pedro Fidalgo in 1545 found gold so abundant on Luzon the inhabitants were willing to trade two pezoes of gold for one pezo of silver.

When the Portuguese first arrived, most of the gold traded into Brunei came from Luzon. That island was known as Lusung Dao or "Golden Luzon" to the Chinese who also traded for gold in this region.

A golden Garuda dagger handle from Surigao, Philippines.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Legeza, Laszlo. "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug. 1988, pp.129-136. (Mentions gold jewelry of Philippine origin in first century CE Egypt)

Peralta, J.T. "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1981, no.4, p.54.

Villegas, Ramon N. Ginto: History Wrought in Gold, Manila: Bangko Central ng Pilipinas, 2004.