Mother-Creator
Lepcha · deity · primordial / before the world · Recorded classification
Lepcha (Sikkim/Mun religion) supreme creatress, classed as deity. The element 'rum' = god/deity in Lepcha (distinct from 'mun', the shaman/priest). Her name is variously transcribed Itbu-moo, Itbu-rum, It-Bu-Mu, or (in Gorer/colonial sources) Aitbu Deburoom. Some accounts pair her with a male principle (Tashe-tong / Da-mool); in others she creates alone.
Children
Domains
- creation
- earth and heavens
Powers
- fashion the first humans from mountain snow
- create the first Mun/Bongthing to defend humankind
Epithets
- Itbu-moo The mother-creator who shaped the first Lepcha from the pure snows of KanchenjungaHalfdan Siiger, The Lepchas (secondary)
Relations
- ancestor of: First ManSupreme creatress who fashions the first man Fodongthing; he already lists Itbu-moo as parent.Siiger, The Lepchas: Culture and Religion of a Himalayan People (1967) (secondary)
- ancestor of: First WomanCreatress of the first woman Nazongnyu (made with Fodongthing from the snows of Kanchenjunga); Nazongnyu already lists Itbu-moo as parent.Siiger, The Lepchas (1967) (secondary)
- ancestor of: First ShamanCreatress-progenitrix of the first shaman Azaor-Bongthing; he already lists Itbu-moo as parent.Siiger, The Lepchas (1967) (secondary)
Sources
- Itbu-moo (Itbu-rum) is the supreme mother-creatress of the Lepcha, who made the earth, the heavens, and all living things, and fashioned the first human ancestors from the snows of Mount Kanchenjunga.: 'Lepchas', Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia of World Cultures), accessed June 2026 (reference); Siiger, Halfdan. 'The Lepchas: Culture and Religion of a Himalayan People' (Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark, 1967) (academic)
- In Lepcha cosmology she is sometimes conceptualised as the creator deity who set the world in motion and gave the Lepchas their language, script and guidance, dwelling with humankind in the hidden paradise of Mayel Lyang.: Gorer, Geoffrey. 'Himalayan Village: An Account of the Lepchas of Sikkim' (London: Michael Joseph, 1938) (academic)