Lumimuut

Lumimuut (Lumimu'ut) is the primordial earth goddess and ancestral mother of the Minahasan people of North Sulawesi. In the highland (Tontemboan and Tombulu) tradition she emerges from a stone that the sun has caused to sweat, prayed over by the first priestess Karema, so that her very name is linked to that moisture; she is glossed as the morning dew or 'the sweat of the ground'. A coastal variant, recorded in encyclopaedic sources, has her born from the foam of the sea. Turning to face the strong wind out of the west, she is fertilized by it and bears a son, Toar. Mother and son are sent travelling in opposite directions; meeting again after many years, neither recognizing the other, they marry, and from this union descend the lineages of Minahasa. As the divider of the land, Lumimuut gathers her offspring at the carved megalith Watu Pinawetengan, the 'stone of the dividing', and apportions the territory among the ancestral sub-groups. In the indigenous theology she is the 'mother' of the sky-triad, ranked below the grandmother Karema and above her child Toar.

Children

• Toar

Domains

• earth and soil
• ancestral motherhood

Powers

• to conceive a child from the west wind
• to divide the land of Minahasa among her descendants

Epithets

• Empung LumimuutJura, 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

• spouse: ToarAfter years of separate wandering Lumimuut and her son Toar meet again without recognizing one another and marry under the stars, becoming together the ancestral couple of the Minahasans; the kinship is only afterwards revealed.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)
• companion: KaremaKarema, the first priestess, attends Lumimuut from her emergence from the stone and arranges her marriage; in the sky triad Karema is grandmother and Lumimuut mother.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)

Sources

• Lumimuut is the primordial earth and ancestral mother goddess of Minahasa, who arose from a sweating stone (or sea foam), was fertilized by the west wind to bear Toar, and divided the land among her descendants at Watu Pinawetengan.: Hockings, P. (ed.) (1993). Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. V: East and Southeast Asia, entry 'Minahasans'. New York: G. K. Hall & Co. (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)