Karema

Karema (Karéma) is the primal priestess of the Minahasan creation cycle and, in tradition, the first walian, the ritual specialist whose office structured indigenous religion. In the most widely recorded version the dry-season sun beats upon a stone until it sweats and Karema comes into being; sent by the supreme being to quicken the land, she prays over the stone so that it splits and Lumimuut emerges. Karema rears the boy Toar, endows him with all her own knowledge, and when he is grown sends him and his mother out into the world, equipping each with a staff (Toar's of tuis wood, Lumimuut's of tawaang wood) and the rule that any two whose staffs prove equal in length are kin and may not wed. When Toar later returns and unknowingly courts the still-youthful Lumimuut, the staff test is the device by which their true relationship is judged. In the indigenous theology Karema, Lumimuut and Toar are the gods of the sky, ranked as grandmother, mother and child, and remembered as ancestors of all the taranak (descendant lineages) of Minahasa; her role was re-enacted by the senior priestess (Walian Tua) in the thanksgiving ceremony.

Domains

• priesthood and ritual
• ancestral origins

Powers

• to officiate the staff test that reveals kinship
• to impart sacred knowledge and skill to the first ancestors

Epithets

• Walian TuaJura, D., Simatupang, P., & Rumbay, C. A. (2024). 'Embracing the Emic of Minahasa celebration culture and Christian Religious Education.' HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 80(1). (secondary)

Relations

• subordinate to: Empung Wailan WangkoKarema is sent by the supreme being to bring life to the land and acts as his priestly agent in the work of creation.Rumbay, C. A., & Siahaya, J. (2023). 'Embracing the traces of the deity Opo Empung in Minahasa for culturative Christianity.' Verbum et Ecclesia 44(1), a2739. https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v44i1.2739 (secondary)
• companion: LumimuutIn the divine triad of the sky Karema is the grandmother and Lumimuut the mother; Karema attends Lumimuut from her emergence and gives the staffs by which her marriage is arranged.Jura, D., Simatupang, P., & Rumbay, C. A. (2024). 'Embracing the Emic of Minahasa celebration culture and Christian Religious Education.' HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 80(1). (secondary)
• companion: ToarKarema raises and instructs Toar, sends him out into the world, and officiates the staff rite that governs his marriage; in the sky triad she is the grandmother to his child.Kobis, D. C., Sebayang, F. A. A., & Basri, M. H. (2023). 'A Comparative Analysis of Minahasa Folklores Toar Lumimuut and Sigarlaki Limbat Through World Literature Perspectives.' Lire Journal 8(1), 15-32. https://doi.org/10.33019/lire.v8i1.237 (secondary)

Sources

• Karema is the first walian (priestess) of Minahasa, sent by the supreme being to bring life to the land, who officiates the staff rite revealing Toar and Lumimuut as mother and son and is remembered as the grandmother of the ancestral sky-triad.: Jura, D., Simatupang, P., & Rumbay, C. A. (2024). 'Embracing the Emic of Minahasa celebration culture and Christian Religious Education.' HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 80(1). (secondary); Kobis, D. C., Sebayang, F. A. A., & Basri, M. H. (2023). 'A Comparative Analysis of Minahasa Folklores Toar Lumimuut and Sigarlaki Limbat Through World Literature Perspectives.' Lire Journal 8(1), 15-32. https://doi.org/10.33019/lire.v8i1.237 (secondary)