The thila, tutelary nature deities of the Lobi
Lobi · deity · Lobi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The thila are the working deities of Lobi religion: invisible nature spirits, intimately bound to the land, who occupy the rank between the remote creator and the human world. Each owns a place — a grove, a river, a hill, a household — and protects those who serve it while punishing breaches of the prohibitions it imposes. The thila have no voice of their own and reveal their will through the village diviner; they dictate the taboos that order daily life and demand the carving of wooden figures for their altars. Through these figures and through divination the otherwise unseen thila act in the visible world, making them the deities with whom the Lobi have constant practical dealings.
Parentage
Domains
- tutelary protection
- moral enforcement
Powers
- to protect a household or village from sickness, sorcery and misfortune
- to make their wishes known through a diviner
- to require the carving of wooden figures for their shrines
Epithets
- thilPiet Meyer, Kunst und Religion der Lobi (Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1981). (secondary); Henri Labouret, Les tribus du rameau Lobi (Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie, 1931). (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Thangba Yu, the withdrawn sky creatorThe thila rank immediately beneath the creator Thangba Yu, exercising on earth the governance he relinquished when he withdrew.Piet Meyer, Kunst und Religion der Lobi (Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1981). (secondary); Daniela Bognolo, Lobi, Visions of Africa series (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2007). (secondary)
Sources
- The thila (singular thil) are the invisible tutelary deities of the Lobi, owners of natural places who protect the living, enforce the moral order, and communicate through diviners and through carved bateba figures.: Henri Labouret, Les tribus du rameau Lobi (Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie, 1931). (secondary); Piet Meyer, Kunst und Religion der Lobi (Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1981). (secondary); Christopher D. Roy, Art of the Upper Volta Rivers (Meudon: Alain et Françoise Chaffin, 1987). (secondary)