Lingkan Wene

Lingkan Wene, also written Lingkanbene or Lingkanwene, is the rice goddess of Minahasa in North Sulawesi and a symbol of fertility and abundance. In the rice-origin legend recorded from Tontemboan country, the ancestor Tumideng, seeking food for the starving people of Wale Posan and Telaga Seper in a long drought, climbs up to the sky-world (in some tellings called Kainawaan) and there meets Lingkanbene, the maiden who keeps the rice; through her the seed of rice comes down to earth and famine is ended. In some tellings she cannot see, and she is remembered as the watchful protector of the growing rice. She is the wife of Muntu-untu, the leader of the gods, and the government ethnography of North Sulawesi names 'Muntu-untu and Lingkan', with Sawur and Manaroinsong, as the intermediary lords of God who give rice. Her carved figure, read as the rice goddess and a sign of female fertility, appears among the ornamental motifs of the stone waruga ossuaries of Minahasa, and in modern times her name and image have been revived in the patterned Pinawetengan cloth. Like the name Muntu-untu, Lingkan Wene also survived as a title of high rank: tradition tells of a noblewoman of Kakaskasen bearing it in the Spanish period, baptized in 1630.

Domains

• rice and fertility

Powers

• to bestow rice from the sky-world on the people below
• to watch over the planted rice and its harvest

Relations

• spouse: Muntu-untuThe rice goddess is the wife of Muntu-untu, the leader of the gods, and the two are named side by side among the rice-giving intermediaries of God.Wenas, Jessy (2007). Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Minahasa. Institut Seni Budaya Sulawesi Utara. (secondary); Proyek Penelitian dan Pencatatan Kebudayaan Daerah (1978). Adat Istiadat Daerah Sulawesi Utara. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Pusat Penelitian Sejarah dan Budaya. (secondary)
• subordinate to: Empung Wailan WangkoShe gives rice as an intermediary lord acting on behalf of the supreme being of the Minahasan religion.Proyek Penelitian dan Pencatatan Kebudayaan Daerah (1978). Adat Istiadat Daerah Sulawesi Utara. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Pusat Penelitian Sejarah dan Budaya. (secondary)

Sources

• Lingkan Wene (Lingkanbene) is the Minahasan goddess of rice and fertility, wife of the chief god Muntu-untu, who in the rice-origin legend gives rice from the sky-world to the people and whose figure appears as a fertility emblem carved on waruga ossuaries.: Tulus, Arie (2021). 'Kajian Makna Simbolis Ragam Hias pada Waruga-Waruga di Maumbi Kabupaten Minahasa Utara.' Kompetensi: Jurnal Ilmiah Bahasa dan Seni (Universitas Negeri Manado) 1(9), 760-770. (secondary); Gedoan, Merdeka (2018). Lingkanbene Dewi Padi. Manado: Balai Bahasa Sulawesi Utara, Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa. (secondary); Wenas, Jessy (2007). Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Minahasa. Institut Seni Budaya Sulawesi Utara. (secondary)