Namtogan

Namtogan is remembered as a paraplegic god who came to live among the people of Ahin in Tinoc; while the community fed and cared for him their rice harvests grew bountiful and their livestock doubled. When he was neglected he departed and prosperity failed, and on being persuaded to relent he taught the Ifugao to carve his seated image in wood — the bulul — and to perform the yearly rituals for these granary guardians. He is notable as an indigenous Philippine deity depicted with a physical disability, conventionally shown seated with arms folded over bent knees.

Domains

• rice granary abundance

Powers

• to make harvests and livestock multiply where he is honored and to withdraw prosperity where he is neglected

Sources

• Namtogan is the paraplegic Ifugao deity of agricultural abundance whose sojourn among humans and subsequent departure explain the origin of the bulul rice-granary figures and their rites.: Lourdes S. Dulawan, Ifugao Culture and History, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2001 (secondary); R. F. Barton, The Religion of the Ifugaos, American Anthropological Association Memoir 65, 1946 (secondary)