Tohan

Tohan is a creator god of the Batek, the easternmost of the Semang peoples. Kirk Endicott's ethnography presents Tohan as the creator god who punishes tolah acts, the gravest breaches of the social and moral order, by causing the offender to suffer an accident or by sending disease; this jurisdiction stands apart from that of the thunder god Gobar, who answers lawac taboo violations with thunderstorm and flood. Later Malaysian fieldwork among the Batek of Kuala Koh likewise records Tohan as the power that determines the regulations by which people must deal with other humans, plants, animals, and the wider environment. The name echoes Malay tuhan, 'Lord, God', but the being so named is fully integrated into the indigenous Batek cosmology of superhuman beings.

Domains

• creation
• moral law

Powers

• to punish tolah offences by sending accident and disease
• to lay down the rules by which humans must deal with people, plants, and animals

Sources

• Endicott, Kirk (1979). Batek Negrito Religion: The World-View and Rituals of a Hunting and Gathering People of Peninsular Malaysia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Ramle Abdullah, Amran Ahmed, Lua Pei Lin, Aryati Ahmad, Asmawi Ibrahim, Nur Hafizah Ramle & Mohd Sukhairi Mat Rasat (2014). 'Illness Perception and Healing Practices among the Batek Tribe in Kuala Koh, Kelantan, Malaysia.' Advances in Environmental Biology 8(7).