The Pearl of Allah

Brookes’ Point, Southern Palawan. If the world’s largest pearl was indeed found in Palawan in 1935 by a certain Wilbur Cobb, then it must have come from here in the southern tip of the province. In fact, the town prides itself with the possession of the tridacna giga clam where the pearl was supposedly discovered. (Click here for my full story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer of 10/16/2007)

Here’s a picture I took of the clam housed at the tourism building of the municipal government. Alongside is the Pearl of Allah, reportedly kept in a bank vault in Colorado, USA. It measures 9.4 inches long and weighing about 14 lbs. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the San Francisco Gem Laboratory valued the pearl at $40 million.

Researchers from this municipality claim they have documented narrative evidence indicating that the Pearl of Allah, also referred to as the Pearl of Lao Tzu was not handed to a foreigner as a gift, as generally documented and as claimed by Cobb, but was actually taken away to be sold and never returned.

Raul Quijano Jr., an engineer who also acts as the town’s tourism officer, coordinates a local research on the history of the Pearl and claims that his team has found and documented the descendants of Panglima Pisi, the indigenous chieftain who accordingly gave the pearl to a certain Wilburn Dowell Cobb on May 7, 1935.

George Pisi, who claims to be a direct descendant of Panglima Pisi, possesses half of the shell where the Pearl of Allah was found. The other half in possession of the municipal government was donated by a local official of Barangay (village) Oring-oring where the pearl was reportedly found.

Last year, George Pisi was certified by the Mayor of Brooke’s Point, as an authentic descendant of Panglima Pisi.

Quijano said that based on the account of Pisi’s descendants handed down through two generations verbally, Panglima Pisi had asked Cobb to find a buyer for the pearl but the latter never returned to the village.

A certain Victor Barbish, who now reportedly owns 66 percent of the pear, had claimed he received an offer in 1999 from Osama bin Laden’s group for $60 million purportedly to give to Saddam Hussein.

He also claimed that an emissary of former President Ferdinand Marcos offered to buy the pearl but the deal did not push through when Marcos was ousted from Malacanang in 1986.

Barbish, in his account on the pearl, also told of a Chinese merchant, a descendant of Lao Tzu, who reportedly claimed that the pearl dates back to the Sui dynasty.

According to the legend, Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, wanted to spend his final years far from civilization. As he prepared to depart, he handed to a nephew a small amulet who was asked to place it in a clam, where it grew to become the Pearl of Lao Tzu.

Eventually, the legend continues, the pearl was lost in a shipwreck centuries ago, then found in 1934 off by a diver who drowned when he reached into a huge clam to take it.

Share/mark this post

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::