Pulang Gana, addressed in ritual as Sempulang Gana, is the Iban god of the earth and the tutelary lord of rice agriculture. A widespread myth explains his claim: when the goods of the newly made world were being divided among the divine kindred, Pulang Gana was absent or asleep and received no share of the visible wealth; on returning he was given the ground itself, the soil beneath all things, and so every Iban who fells forest and plants a swidden must first make offerings to him lest the padi wither. He presides over each rite of the farming year, from the clearing and burning of the plot to the sowing, the guarding of the growing rice-soul, and the harvest. His authority over the fertile earth complements that of his brother Sengalang Burong over war and the birds.