A seated figure in gold, about 178 mm tall and about 2 kg of 21-carat metal, found in 1917 on the bank of the Wawa river near Esperanza in Agusan by a Manobo woman, after a storm and flood (Wikipedia, 'Golden Tara', read in this pass; it now stands in the Field Museum, Chicago).
What it is, is disputed: Beyer read a Shaivite goddess, Francisco a Buddhist Tara, and later work the offering goddess Vajralasya. When it was made is disputed too: the Wikipedia article gives the ninth and tenth centuries, and a Field Museum catalogue entry it cites gives AD 1000 to 1300. So it may be older than 1200 or about contemporary with it. It shows that the gold river of Butuan had an Indic image of high quality, with a link to Java (the article reports Bosch tying it to bronze images from Nganjuk), and nothing else: no temple, monastery, priest or endowment is known, and no source says where or how the figure was used.
Who holds it
- Title
- No priest, temple or patron is known
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing written names a shrine, a priest or a patron for this image. It is known only as an object found in 1917 on the Wawa river bank near Esperanza, upstream of Butuan.
What it holds
- Nothing is shown: no estate, village, toll or revenue belongs to it in any record
How it was acquired
Not known. Found in 1917; the place of use is not known.
Allies and rivals
If the image belonged to the religion of the Butuan court, its patron would be the lord of Butuan. That is an inference.
How things stand that morning
Not shown. If the image is of the earlier dating it is already old on 1 January 1200; if of the later, it may be new or not yet made. Only the find spot is known, not the place where it was kept.
Wealth
Gold only, as an object. No income is known.
Threats
- None recorded
Places of note
- Esperanza, Wawa river bank: Find spot of the gold figure (1917); the exact spot is not given in what we read.
Where the sources disagree
- The Wawa here is the river of Agusan, not the Wawa of Lumban on Laguna de Bay where the Laguna Copperplate was found.
- 'Tara' is a label of the 1920s, not an identification: Beyer, Francisco and the later reading disagree.
- The page 'Butuan' quotes a Chinese record calling Butuan 'a small Hindu country with a Buddhist monarchy' without naming the record; we treat it as a hint only.
Evidence: One object with two dating schools and three readings of what it shows. The find is twentieth century.
On the map: A point only: a find spot, not a holding.
Primary sources for Butuan
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Golden Tara' (read in this pass): found 1917 on the Wawa river bank near Esperanza, Agusan; about 2 kg of 21-carat gold, now in the Field Museum, Chicago; identity and date disputed (9th-10th century in the article, AD 1000-1300 in a Field Museum catalogue it cites)
- Wikipedia, 'Butuan' (read in this pass): the Libertad balangay concentration, the 1001 contact with Song China
- Wikipedia, 'Rajahnate of Butuan' (read in this pass): the Song shi missions, the ivory seal, the balangay finds; several statements on that page are marked unsourced
- The OMNIA board (September 2026) note for this place: a lead only, not a source
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.