Potao Apui

The Potao Apui, or King of Fire, is the foremost of the Jarai sacral masters (potao), a hereditary officiant traditionally drawn from the Siu clan whose ritual labour is held to secure rain, agricultural fertility, and cosmic equilibrium for the highland communities of the Ayun and Apa river basins. He is not a territorial ruler but a master of the yang, a mediator whose person is hedged by numerous prohibitions. His central charge is the guardianship of a sacred sabre, an object of Cham association whose latent power he alone may tend. Vietnamese and Cambodian courts long treated the Fire King and the Water King as sovereigns of the interior, exchanging periodic gifts recorded from the eighteenth century onward. Jacques Dournes, whose Potao (1977) remains the fullest study, read the institution as a Jarai theory of power in which authority is deliberately held apart from coercion. The consecrated line is generally held to have lapsed with the death of the last incumbent in the late twentieth century.

Domains

• fire
• sacral kingship
• agricultural fertility

Powers

• guards the sacred sabre
• secures rain and fertile harvest
• mediates between people and the yang

Epithets

• Potao Apui — King of FireDournes, Potao (1977). (primary)
• Hoa Xa — Lord of Fire (Vietnamese court title)Le Quy Don, Phu bien tap luc (1776); Dai Nam nhat thong chi (19th c.). (primary)

Relations

• ally: Potao IaSenior partner to the Water King in the sacral order.Dournes, Potao (1977), on the ritual complementarity of Fire and Water Kings. (primary)
• ally: Potao AnginDournes, Potao (1977). (primary)
• companion: The Sacred SabreBound to the sabre he tends as its inseparable guardian.Dournes, Potao (1977). (primary)

Sources

• The Potao Apui is the foremost Jarai sacral master, traditionally drawn from the Siu clan, whose guardianship of a sacred sabre and seasonal rites secure rain, fertility, and cosmic order.: Jacques Dournes, Potao, une theorie du pouvoir chez les Indochinois jorai (Paris: Flammarion, 1977). (primary); Gerald C. Hickey, Sons of the Mountains (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982). (secondary)
• The Fire King was recognized by Vietnamese and Cambodian courts as a sovereign of the interior, exchanging periodic tribute recorded from the eighteenth century.: Le Quy Don, Phu bien tap luc (1776), records of the Thuy Xa and Hoa Xa. (primary)