cultural centre from 1292 to 1478 in Southeast Asia. Both empires supplemented their otherwise austere practice of Theravāda with the rituals of Vajrayāna in the 7th century. In and of itself not a school of Buddhism, Vajrayāna, literally meaning "adamantine" or "diamond vehicle" and also known as Tantric or Mantrayāna Buddhism, is instead practiced as a tradition on top of Theravāda or Mahāyāna Buddhism. Ritual practice rather than meditation is the distinguishing mark of Vajrayāna. In addition, its esoteric teachings may only be conveyed through dharma transmission. Archaeological findings The Philippines's archaeological finds include a few Buddhist artifacts. The style exhibits Vajrayāna influence, and most of them dated to the 9th century. The artifacts reflect the iconography of the Śrīvijayan empire's Vajrayāna and its influences on the Philippines's early states. The artifacts' distinct features point to their production in the islands, and they hint at the artisan's or goldsmith's knowledge of Buddhist culture and literature because the artisans have made these unique works of Buddhist art. They imply also the presence of Buddhist believers in the places where these artifacts turned up. These places extended from the Agusan-Surigao area in Mindanao island to Cebu, Palawan, and Luzon islands. Hence, Vajrayāna ritualism must have spread far and wide throughout the archipelago. In 1225, China's Zhao Rugua, a superintendent of maritime trade in Fukien province wrote the book entitled Zhu Fan Zhi (), in which he described trade with a country called Ma-i in the island of Mindoro in Luzon, which was a pre-Hispanic Philippine state. In it he said: The gold statue of the deity Tara is the most significant Buddhist artifact. In the Vajrayāna tradition, Tara symbolizes the Absolute in its emptiness as the wisdom heart's essence that finds its expression through love and through compassion. The Vajrayāna tradition also tells about the outpouring of the human heart's compassion that manifests Tara and about the fascinating story of the Bodhisattva of Compassion shedding a tear out of pity for the suffering of all sentient beings when he hears their cries. The tear creates a lake where a lotus flower emerges. It bears Tara, who relieves their sorrow and their pain. The Agusan image was discovered in 1918 in Esperanza, Agusan, and it has been kept in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois since the 1920s. Henry Otley Beyer, the Philippines' pioneer anthropologist-archaeologist, and some experts have agreed