Taikabaga, ruling spirit beneath the earth

Taikabaga (Tai Ka-Baga, 'lord of the interior / of the world below') is the ruling spirit who dwells beneath the surface of the earth in the Arat Sabulungan religion of the Mentawai. He is the chthonic ruler of the lowest of the three Mentawai worlds — sky above, the inhabited middle world, and the realm below the earth — and his domain is bound up with the fertility of the soil and with the world that receives the dead. In the architectural symbolism of the jaraik fetish-panel, the downward-curving lower part, like tree-roots, represents this underworld domain.

Domains

• earth below and underworld
• soil fertility and the land

Powers

• to rule the world beneath the earth and receive the dead

Epithets

• Tai si Ka Baga

Relations

• ally: Taikamanua, ruling spirit of the sky
• subordinate to: Ulaumanua, the formless high deity

Sources

• Tulius, Juniator. 'Stranded people; Mythical narratives about the first inhabitants of Mentawai Islands.' Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia 14(2), 2012, pp. 215-240.
• Tulius, Juniator & Linda Burman-Hall. 'Primates and birds of sabulungan; Roles of animals in sculptures, shamanic songs and dances, and the belief system of traditional Mentawaians.' Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia 23(2), 2022.