Volaluval, God of Rivers and the Sea

Volaluval is the god of rivers and the sea among the Paiwan, named in the enumeration of Paiwan deities recorded by the Paiwan minister-scholar Chun-fa Masegseg Tung and reported in the survey literature on Aboriginal Taiwanese religion. He belongs to the group of nature gods that, together with the creator god and alongside the mountain god Sakina and the soil god Salamati, make up the at-least-eight gods of the traditional Paiwan pantheon. Volaluval presides over the rivers that descend from the Central Mountain Range and over the seas off the people's south-eastern coastal territories. The Pulotu cross-cultural database independently lists a river god among the leading Paiwan supernatural beings, supporting the deity's standing in the cosmology.

Domains

• rivers and sea

Powers

• to rule the rivers and the sea

Epithets

• Volaluval

Relations

• subordinate to: Naqemati, the Creator

Sources

• Chun-fa Masegseg Tung, 'The Power Confrontation between Paiwan Traditional Religion and the Gospel of Jesus Christ' (Fuller Theological Seminary, School of World Mission, 1984), 13-15.
• 'Religious Beliefs in "Aboriginal Taiwan"', International Journal of Taiwan Studies 7, no. 1 (2024): 118ff., naming Volaluval as a Paiwan river and sea god (citing Tung 1984: 13-15).