Pue mPalaburu

Pue mPalaburu, 'the Lord who Fashions,' is the supreme creator of the Bare'e-speaking Toradja and stands above the paired gods of the upper and lower worlds. In the cosmogony recorded by Adriani and Kruyt he shapes the first human beings, whose animating soul-substance is supplied from the realm of Lai above and Ndara below. He is also the author of human mortality: offered the choice between a stone and a banana, the first people took the banana and so became short-lived, perishing and reproducing as the plant does rather than enduring like stone. Though seldom the object of a dedicated cult, he is invoked as the ultimate origin of life and the moral order.

Domains

• creation
• humankind

Powers

• fashions the first human beings
• decrees human mortality through the stone-and-banana choice

Epithets

• Pue — the LordN. Adriani, Bare'e-Nederlandsch Woordenboek (Leiden: Brill, 1928), s.v. pue (primary)

Relations

• ally: i LaiLai supplies celestial soul-substance to the beings the creator forms.N. Adriani & Alb. C. Kruyt, De Bare'e-sprekende Toradja van Midden-Celebes (1912–1914/1950), creation of man (primary)
• ally: i NdaraNdara supplies chthonic soul-substance to the beings the creator forms.N. Adriani & Alb. C. Kruyt, De Bare'e-sprekende Toradja van Midden-Celebes (1912–1914/1950), creation of man (primary)

Sources

• Pue mPalaburu is the supreme creator who fashioned the first human beings and stands above the paired gods of the upper and lower worlds: N. Adriani & Alb. C. Kruyt, De Bare'e-sprekende Toradja van Midden-Celebes (1912–1914/1950) (primary); R. E. Downs, The Religion of the Bare'e-speaking Toradja of Central Celebes (1956) (secondary)
• Human mortality is traced to the primeval choice of the banana over the stone offered by the creator: R. E. Downs, The Religion of the Bare'e-speaking Toradja of Central Celebes (1956), origin of death (secondary)