Patotoqe, Determiner of Fate of the Upperworld
Bugis · deity · Bugis traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Patotoqe, also called Datu Patoto and by the epithet To Palanroe ('the Creator'), is the highest deity of the pre-Islamic Bugis pantheon as preserved in the Sureq I La Galigo of South Sulawesi. Enthroned in the Upperworld Boting Langiq, he is the apportioner of fate (toto) for gods and mortals alike. When his counsellors report that the Middleworld lies empty between sky and sea, Patotoqe summons the rulers of the realms and resolves that it must be inhabited by beings of divine descent; he sends his eldest son Batara Guru down to the land of Luwuq to become the first human ruler, and arranges a bride for him from the Underworld. He stands at the head of the genealogy from which the entire human world of the epic descends.
Children
Names and tradition associations
- La Patiganna Aji’ Sangkuruwira Andi’ Zainal Abidin, The Emergence of Early Kingdoms in South Sulawesi (1983), pp.456, 460–461 and 465, sections IV.2 and V.2 (secondary)
Domains
- fate and destiny
- sky and upperworld
- creation and cosmic order
Powers
- to apportion the fates and destinies of gods and humankind
- to decree the peopling of the empty Middleworld
Epithets
- To PalanroéChristian Pelras, The Bugis (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), chap. 3. (secondary)
- Datu PatotoéSirtjo Koolhof, 'The La Galigo: A Bugis Encyclopaedia and its Growth', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 155, no. 3 (1999): 362–387. (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: Datu Palingeq, Queen of the UpperworldDatu Palingeq is the queen of the Upperworld and the mother of his son Batara Guru.Sirtjo Koolhof, 'The La Galigo: A Bugis Encyclopaedia and its Growth', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 155, no. 3 (1999): 362–387. (secondary)
- sibling: Sinaung Toja, Queen of the UnderworldAndi’ Zainal Abidin, The Emergence of Early Kingdoms in South Sulawesi (1983), pp.456, 460–461 and 465, sections IV.2 and V.2 (secondary)
Sources
- Patotoqe (Datu Patoto, To Palanroe) is the supreme fate-determining creator god who rules the Upperworld Boting Langiq in the Bugis La Galigo cycle and who sets the creation in motion.: Sirtjo Koolhof, 'The La Galigo: A Bugis Encyclopaedia and its Growth', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 155, no. 3 (1999): 362–387. (secondary); Christian Pelras, The Bugis (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), chap. 3, 'The world of myth'. (secondary)