Sawerigading, Wandering Hero of Luwuq

Sawerigading is the great hero of the Bugis La Galigo cycle and its central human figure, a prince of Luwuq descended in the third generation from the sky: he is the grandson of Batara Guru and We Nyiliq Timoq (through their son Batara Lattuq) and thus the great-grandson of the supreme god Patotoqe. Coming of age, he falls in love with his twin sister We Tenriabeng, but their union is forbidden as an incest that would destroy the realm; the twins are parted, and Sawerigading vows to seek a bride who resembles her. To this end the colossal tree Welenrengnge is felled — the episode Ritumpanna Welenrengnge — and from its timber his great ship is built, in which he voyages as far as China to win the princess We Cudai, who is said to resemble We Tenriabeng. Their son is I La Galigo, after whom the whole epic is named. As a seafaring, restless, formidable captain who crosses the upper, middle and lower worlds, Sawerigading became the archetypal Bugis culture-hero, and is associated in tradition with the founding line of the kings of Luwuq.

Parentage

Recorded default; alternative parentage accounts are listed separately below.

No parents recorded in the default.

Parentage accounts

Each account is a separate source claim. The parentage and children listed outside these accounts use the recorded default. Selecting an account in the interactive app updates its lineage, descent classification and inherited-power candidates. Linked pedigree accounts are selected together; other records retain their recorded parentage. Claims of ancestry are not proof of biological descent or attested powers.

• Abidin: La Galigo account

  Divine ancestry; fraction unquantified because the account is incomplete.

  • father: Batara Lattuq, Second Ruler of LuwuqAndi’ Zainal Abidin, The Emergence of Early Kingdoms in South Sulawesi (1983), pp.456, 460–461 and 465, sections IV.2 and V.2 (secondary)
  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)

Children

• I La Galigo, Prince of Luwuq

Children in alternative accounts

• I La Galigo, Prince of Luwuq: Abidin: Cina genealogyAndi’ 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

• seafaring and voyaging
• heroic kingship

Powers

• to voyage across the sea and between the upper, middle and lower worlds
• to fell the great cosmic tree Welenrengnge and build a fleet from it

Epithets

• Opunna WaréSirtjo 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

• child of: Batara Lattuq, Second Ruler of LuwuqAndi’ Zainal Abidin, The Emergence of Early Kingdoms in South Sulawesi (1983), pp.456, 460–461 and 465, sections IV.2 and V.2 (secondary)
• sibling: We Tenriabeng, Twin Sister of SawerigadingAndi’ Zainal Abidin, The Emergence of Early Kingdoms in South Sulawesi (1983), pp.456, 460–461 and 465, sections IV.2 and V.2 (secondary)
• grandparent of: La Tenritatta (La Galigo)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)

Sources

• Sawerigading is the wandering hero and prince of Luwuq, grandson of Batara Guru and great-grandson of the supreme god Patotoqe, and the central human protagonist of the Bugis La Galigo epic.: 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)