Saluwete, Chief of the Heavenly Gods
Naxi · deity · Naxi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Saluwete, also recorded as Soyiwade, is the chief of the heavenly gods in the Dongba religion of the Naxi and one of three supreme deities together with Igu Ake, the first great cause, and Heduwapa, the god of White Bones. He is described as reposing upon a lotus throne supported by lions, an image that reflects the layering of indigenous Naxi sky-worship with Tibetan Buddhist and Bon iconography characteristic of the Lijiang region. From him the ethnographic sources trace the descent of the first ancestor of the Naxi. His worship is transmitted through the pictographic Dongba manuscripts and the rituals performed by Dongba priests, who serve as the hereditary religious specialists of Naxi society.
Domains
- sky and heaven
- divine kingship
Powers
- to preside as chief over the heavenly gods
Epithets
Relations
- subordinate to: Igu Ake, the First Great CauseIn the dominant cosmological reading the chief heavenly god proceeds from Igu Ake, the first great cause, though some Dongba texts reverse the order and make the heavenly god the prior reality who calls forth Igu Ake.Pedro Ceinos-Arcones, Sons of Heaven, Brothers of Nature: The Naxi of Southwest China (Kunming: Papers of the White Dragon, 2012). (secondary)
Sources
- Saluwete (Soyiwade) is the chief and greatest of the heavenly gods in the Naxi Dongba pantheon, enthroned on a lotus seat borne by lions and counted among the three supreme deities.: Pedro Ceinos-Arcones, Sons of Heaven, Brothers of Nature: The Naxi of Southwest China (Kunming: Papers of the White Dragon, 2012). (secondary); Christine Mathieu, A History and Anthropological Study of the Ancient Kingdoms of the Sino-Tibetan Borderland — Naxi and Mosuo, Mellen Studies in Anthropology 11 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003). (secondary)