Polo (Father Moon)
Tani · deity · Tani traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Polo, the Moon, is the second of the two luminaries whose names form the compound Donyi-Polo ('Sun-Moon'), the indigenous religion of the Tani peoples. Conceived as Abo Polo, 'Father Moon,' he is the male complement to the female Sun, Ane Donyi, and shares in her role as visible manifestation of the formless supreme power and as witness to truth. Donyi and Polo are rarely separated in cult or invocation: the pair, not either luminary alone, constitutes the deity to whom the faith is addressed.
Domains
- moon and night sky
- truth and moral judgement
Powers
- to illuminate the night sky as the lunar complement of the sun
Epithets
- Abo PoloStuart Blackburn, Himalayan Tribal Tales: Oral Tradition and Culture in the Apatani Valley (Leiden: Brill, 2008). (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: Donyi (Mother Sun)The Moon (Father, Abo Polo) is the complement of the Sun (Mother, Ane Donyi); together they constitute the conjoined Donyi-Polo principle.Claire S. Scheid, 'The Institutionalization of Tribal Religion: Recasting the Donyi-Polo Movement in Arunachal Pradesh,' Asian Ethnology 75, no. 2 (2016). (secondary)
Sources
- Polo, the Moon conceived as 'Father Moon' (Abo Polo), is the lunar half of the supreme Donyi-Polo principle of the Tani peoples, paired with the Sun Donyi.: Stuart Blackburn, Himalayan Tribal Tales: Oral Tradition and Culture in the Apatani Valley (Leiden: Brill, 2008). (secondary); Verrier Elwin, Myths of the North-East Frontier of India (Shillong: North-East Frontier Agency, 1958). (secondary)