D'wata is a son of Kadaw La Sambad and Bulon La Mogoaw and the demiurge of the T'boli creation cycle. He marries his sisters Sedek We and Hyu We and, after his brother Sfedat's body has become the first land, obtains that land from Bong Libun (on condition that she later marry one of his sons), spreads it out, and plants it with trees and vegetation to form the inhabited earth. The first human beings arise when D'wata breathes life into the clay figurines his wives have modeled. His name derives, through earlier Indic contact in island Southeast Asia, from Sanskrit devata, and among the T'boli the word d'wata serves more broadly as the general designation for the deities to whom prayers and offerings are addressed.