Utux
Utux is the pivotal spiritual reality of Atayal religion. The word names at once the soul of a living person, the spirit of a dead one, the collective ancestral spirits (utux bnkis), and the highest supernatural power, sometimes distinguished as Utux Kayal, the spirit of the sky. The utux are not depicted in image and are rarely individualized; they are experienced as a watching, judging presence that upholds gaga, the interwoven code of custom, taboo and ritual by which Atayal groups live. Prosperity, illness, success in the hunt and the fate of the soul after death are all referred to the pleasure or anger of the utux, who receive the dead at the rainbow bridge and admit the worthy to the ancestral land. Offerings, expiatory rites and the reading of omens keep the living in right relation with them.
Domains
- ancestral spirits
- moral law
- death and afterlife
Powers
- enforces the ancestral law
- judges the souls of the dead at the spirit bridge
- sends fortune, sickness and misfortune
Epithets
- Utux Kayal — Spirit of the SkyWang Mei-hsia (王梅霞), Atayal (泰雅族), Sanmin, 2006 (secondary)
Relations
- companion: SiliqThe augural bird siliq carries the will of the utux to the living.Sayama Yukichi, Report on the Investigation of Formosan Aborigines: Atayal, 1918 — bird augury as communication of the spirits (primary)
- ally: Hongu UtuxThe rainbow bridge is the road to the ancestral spirits and the threshold they keep.Ho Ting-jui, A Comparative Study of Myths and Legends of Formosan Aborigines, 1971 (secondary)
Sources
- Utux is the central category of Atayal religion, denoting soul, ancestral spirit and supreme spiritual power, and the guarantor of the gaga.: Sayama Yukichi (佐山融吉), Report on the Investigation of Formosan Aborigines: Atayal (蕃族調査報告書 タイヤル族), 1918 (primary); Wang Mei-hsia (王梅霞), Atayal (泰雅族), Sanmin (三民書局), 2006 (secondary)