Why read Philippine Ancestral Gold?

Book cover of Philippine Ancestral Gold

Book description

Philippine Ancestral Gold is a spectacular publication in full-color that features more than 1,000 gold objects that were recovered in the Philippines from the 1960s to 1981 and now form part of the collection of the Ayala Museum in Manila. Many of these treasures were found in association with tenth-to-twelfth…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Philippine Ancestral Gold as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Olivia Milburn

Author

Thanks to the brutal robbery of ancient tombs across the Philippines during the colonial era, vast quantities of their ancestral goldwork was torn from graves to be melted down and shipped to Spain, as indigenous art traditions and skills were stamped out and the descendants of these highly skilled people forced into poverty. This wonderful book, featuring pieces currently on display at the Ayala Museum in Manila, focuses on some scattered surviving remnants of this once-vibrant artistic tradition, mostly obtained from tombs on the southern island of Mindanao. A fascinating fusion of Indian, Southeast Asian, and Chinese techniques and artistic…

From Olivia's 3 favorite reads in 2025.