Selampandai
Iban · deity · Iban traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Selampandai is the divine smith and maker of humankind. Working at his anvil in the world of the gods, he beats out the body of every child before its birth, and Iban tradition held that the force of his hammer-strokes decided the child's sex. He is the artisan-creator among the great gods, the one who gives human shape to the beings the other deities will endow with soul and fortune. His craft makes him also a patron of the forge and of skilled handwork. In some tellings his name appears as Selampeta or Selampetak, and he is counted among the divine siblings of Sengalang Burong and Pulang Gana.
Domains
- creation of humankind
- smithing
- procreation
Powers
- hammers out human beings on his anvil
Relations
- sibling: Sengalang BurongSandin, Benedict (1967), The Sea Dayaks of Borneo Before White Rajah Rule (London: Macmillan), divine genealogy. (primary)
Sources
- Selampandai is the divine smith who fashions human beings by hammering them out upon his anvil.: Perham, John (1883), 'Sea Dayak Religion', JSBRAS no. 14. (primary); Gomes, Edwin H. (1911), Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo (London: Seeley). (secondary)