Ngongo Tau Masusu
Sumba · mortal · Sumba traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ngongo Tau Masusu is named in the Wanokaka oral tradition as the eldest of the noble brothers whose long absence and return frame the origin of the pasola. As the husband of the widow who has remarried in his absence, his grief is the immediate occasion of the mounted spear-joust, in which teams of horsemen hurl blunted lances and the blood shed on the field is held to quicken the fertility of the rice year. The names and roles of the brothers vary between recorded tellings and are transmitted with unstable orthography; the figure belongs to the localised folklore of West-Central Sumba rather than to the pan-island Marapu pantheon.
Domains
- ritual combat
Powers
- rides in the first pasola
Relations
- spouse: Rabu KabaHusband of the widow whose departure the joust commemorates.Wanokaka/Lamboya pasola origin tradition. (secondary)
- sibling: Bili Sowi LokoOne of the group of noble brothers of the legend.Wanokaka/Lamboya pasola origin tradition. (secondary)
Sources
- In the Wanokaka pasola origin legend the senior of the noble brothers, recorded as Ngongo Tau Masusu, is the husband of the departed widow and a leader of the first joust.: Wanokaka/Lamboya pasola origin tradition; cf. Geirnaert-Martin, D.C. (1992), The Woven Land of Laboya, Leiden: CNWS. (secondary)