Agusan image

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Agusan image
The Agusan image, 2016
Material	gold, copper and silver
Height	178 mm (7.0 in)
Weight	2 kg (4.4 lb)
Created	9th–10th Centuries AD
Discovered	1917 Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines
Present location	Field Museum of Natural History
Culture	Indigenous Philippine folk religions, Hinduism, Buddhism (disputed in regards to Hindu & Buddhist identity)

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The Agusan image (commonly referred to in the Philippines as the Golden Tara in allusion to its supposed, but disputed,^[1] identity as an image of a Buddhist Tara) is a 2 kg (4.4 lb),^[2] 21-karat gold statuette, found in 1917 on the banks of the Wawa River near Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, Mindanao in the Philippines,^[3] dating to the 9th–10th centuries. The figure, approximately 178 mm (7.0 in)^[4] in height, is of a female Hindu or Buddhist deity, seated cross-legged and wearing a richly-adorned headdress and other ornaments on various parts of the body. It is now on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.^[5]

Since its discovery, the identity of the goddess represented by the gold statuette has been the subject of debate.^[6] Proposed identities of the gold figurine range from that of a Hindu Sivaite goddess to a Buddhist Tara. Recent scholarship suggests that the image represents the offering goddess Vajralāsyā of the Tantric Buddhist tradition.^[7][8]

Although the statue was likely first made as either a Buddhist or Hindu deity, it has also been worshipped as an Animist deity and even provided an altar until it was stolen from its place of worship in Agusan del Sur in the early 20th century.^[9]