Chibinda Ilunga (Tshibinda Ilunga) is the great civilizing hero and founder-ancestor of Lunda-Chokwe tradition. Oral history makes him a Luba hunter-prince, son of a Luba ruler, who left his homeland and travelled west to the Lunda court, where the princess Lweji, captivated by his hunting prowess and courtly bearing, married him and conferred upon him the royal authority she had inherited. Their union is remembered as the foundation of the Lunda dynasty of the Mwata Yamvo, from which the Chokwe derive their own chiefly line. Tradition credits Chibinda Ilunga with introducing the institution of sacred kingship and teaching the art of hunting, and he became the archetypal model of the Chokwe chief who secures the well-being of his people. His memory is honoured in the most prestigious genre of Chokwe figural sculpture, the standing hunter-chief, a subject first documented by Marie-Louise Bastin from an example collected about 1880. He is a historicised legendary figure, venerated as an ancestor rather than worshipped as a creator.