Lature Danö, Lord of the Underworld
Lature Danö (also Latura Danö) is the lord of the lower world in the indigenous religion of Nias and the dark, chthonic counterpart of the sky-god Lowalangi. In Suzuki's analysis of Nias dualism he is the firstborn of the divine children and presides over the underworld — a dark realm, sometimes pictured as a cave or great pit — while Lowalangi rules the bright sky; the two embody the paired oppositions (upper/lower, light/dark, good/harmful) on which the cosmology turns, mediated by Silewe Nazarata. He is identified with the great serpent whose body underlies and shakes the earth and with the colour black, against the gold of the upper world. Sources differ on his gender valence: in the brother narratives he is masculine and the elder brother of Lowalangi, while in the structural dualism of upper/lower he occupies the dark, sometimes feminine-coded pole; both readings are recorded in the colonial-era and later ethnography.
Parentage
Domains
- underworld
- death and darkness
- serpent and earthquake
Powers
- to rule the dark underworld of the dead
- to embody the great serpent that bears and shakes the earth
Epithets
- Latura Danö SangariaE.E.W.G. Schröder, Nias: Ethnographische, geographische en historische Aanteekeningen en Studiën (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1917) (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Lowalangi, Lord of the Upper WorldThe firstborn dark brother to Lowalangi's bright sky-lord; together they are the opposed poles of the Nias dual cosmos, born of the same ancestress.Peter Suzuki, The Religious System and Culture of Nias, Indonesia (The Hague: Excelsior, 1959) (secondary)
Sources
- Lature Danö is the underworld deity of traditional Nias religion, the great serpent associated with darkness, death and the colour black, firstborn counterpart to the sky-god Lowalangi.: Peter Suzuki, The Religious System and Culture of Nias, Indonesia (The Hague: Excelsior, 1959) (secondary); E.E.W.G. Schröder, Nias: Ethnographische, geographische en historische Aanteekeningen en Studiën (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1917) (secondary); Jerome Feldman, Nias Tribal Treasures: Cosmic Reflections in Stone, Wood, and Gold (Delft: Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, 1990) (secondary)