Nggwal Walipeine
Ilahita Arapesh · deity · Ilahita Arapesh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nggwal is the paramount supernatural patron of the Ilahita Arapesh, the great Tambaran whom the men's secret society serves and to whom long yams, pigs and ritual labour are dedicated. The senior of Nggwal's two forms, Walipeine, presides over the highest initiatory grade and is bound to the ancestral dead and to the collective vitality of the village. Nggwal is a devouring patron: men labour, and in the end die, in his service, so that the abundance he grants is understood to be paid for with human life. His presence is manifest in the towering painted spirit-houses, in the paired flutes and slit-gongs whose sound is his voice, and in carved and painted images shown only to fully initiated men.
Domains
- male initiation
- fertility and welfare
- ancestral dead
Powers
- devours the men who serve him
- confers fertility on gardens and pigs
- speaks through sacred flutes and slit-gongs
Epithets
- Nggwal Walipeine — the senior NggwalTuzin, Donald F. 1980. The Voice of the Tambaran. Berkeley: University of California Press. (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Nggwal BunafuneiThe two Nggwal grades are paired senior forms of the one Tambaran, alternating across the ceremonial moieties.Tuzin, Donald F. 1980. The Voice of the Tambaran. Berkeley: University of California Press. (secondary)
Sources
- Nggwal is the paramount supernatural patron of the Ilahita Arapesh, served by the men's Tambaran cult, and Walipeine is the most senior of its graded forms.: Tuzin, Donald F. 1980. The Voice of the Tambaran: Truth and Illusion in Ilahita Arapesh Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press. (secondary)
- Nggwal is a devouring patron associated with the ancestral dead and with the fertility and welfare of the community.: Tuzin, Donald F. 1997. The Cassowary's Revenge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (secondary)