Ididubangara
Roviana & Marovo · demigod · Roviana & Marovo traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Roviana oral tradition traces the founding of the chiefly polity and the fortification of the ridge-top stronghold on Nusa Roviana to a legendary chief-hero remembered as Ididubangara. He is bound up with the origin of the coastal Roviana chieftainship, whose people are held to have come from the inland Kazukuru, and with the sacred stone platform and shrine complex, hope pukerane, on the island's spine, where later bangara traced their descent and mana. Sources preserve the tradition in variant forms, and the line between historical ancestor and mythic founder is not sharply drawn.
Domains
- foundation and origins
- chieftainship
Powers
- founded and fortified the ridge-top stronghold of Nusa Roviana
Sources
- Roviana oral tradition traces the founding and fortification of the Nusa Roviana stronghold and the chiefly line to a legendary chief-hero.: Sheppard, P., Walter, R. & Nagaoka, T. (2000). 'The archaeology of head-hunting in Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia,' Journal of the Polynesian Society 109(1): 9-37. (secondary)
- The sacred sites of the Nusa Roviana ridge, including the hope pukerane, anchor the chiefly line's origin traditions.: Nagaoka, T. (1999). Hope Pukerane: A Study of Religious Sites in Roviana, New Georgia, Solomon Islands. MA thesis, University of Auckland. (secondary)