Toar

Toar (To'ar) is the divine son of the earth goddess Lumimuut and, with her, the ancestral father of the Minahasan people. Born after Lumimuut's conception by the west wind, he is raised and taught by the priestess Karema, who endows him with all her knowledge before sending him out into the world. In popular and scholarly glossing he is paired with his mother as the sun to her earth. The central episode of the cycle is the separation and unwitting reunion of mother and son: each is sent off with a measuring staff (Toar's of tuis wood, Lumimuut's of tawaang wood) under Karema's rule that equal staffs mark kinship and forbid marriage. After long wandering Toar returns, meets the ever-youthful Lumimuut, fails to recognize her, and marries her; the truth emerges only afterward. From their many children descend the sub-groups (taranak) of Minahasa, and in the indigenous theology Toar is the 'child' of the sky-triad beneath the mother Lumimuut and grandmother Karema.

Parentage

• parent: Lumimuut

Domains

• sun and light
• ancestral fatherhood

Powers

• to father the ancestral lineages of Minahasa

Epithets

• Empung ToarJura, 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: LumimuutSent travelling apart from his mother Lumimuut, Toar meets her again after years without recognizing her and marries her under the stars, fathering with her the ancestors of Minahasa; the kinship is revealed only afterward.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 raises and instructs Toar, sends him out into the world, and supplies the staff by which his marriage is tested; 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

• Toar is the son of the goddess Lumimuut, identified with the sun, who after separate wandering unknowingly marries his own mother and so becomes, with her, the father of the Minahasan sub-groups.: 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)