Chiching-Barching the Beetle

Chiching-Barching is the named beetle-helper of the Garo earth-diver creation myth. After Nostu-Nopantu, suspended over the waters on a spider's thread, failed to make anything solid from handfuls of sand, and after a great crab and then a smaller crab were sent unsuccessfully into the deep, she chose the beetle Chiching-Barching, who alone succeeded in bringing back a lump of clay. From this clay Nostu-Nopantu shaped the earth (Mane-Pilte), the large rocks (Mojar) and the small rocks (Dinjar), which Tatara-Rabuga then dried and hardened with sun, moon and wind. Though a small creature, the beetle is an individuated actor essential to the making of the world, and is remembered by name in the recited cosmogony.

Domains

• creation of the world

Powers

• to dive into the primordial ocean and bring up clay

Relations

• subordinate to: Earth-Maker MotherChosen and sent down by the earth-maker Nostu-Nopantu to fetch clay from the deep.Playfair, Major A. (1909). The Garos. London: David Nutt. (secondary)

Sources

• Chiching-Barching is the beetle chosen by the demiurge Nostu-Nopantu who dived to the bottom of the primordial ocean and brought up the clay from which the earth Mane-Pilte was formed.: Playfair, Major A. (1909). The Garos. London: David Nutt, chapter on Religion (creation of the world). (secondary); Marak, Lucy R. (2015). Myths and Archetypes in Garo (A·chik) Folk Narratives. Partridge India. (secondary)