D'wata
Tboli · deity · Tboli traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
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.
Parentage
- parent: Kadaw La Sambad
- parent: Bulon La Mogoaw
Domains
- creation and earth shaping
- humankind and life giving
Powers
- to spread out the primordial land and plant it to form the inhabited earth
- to breathe life into clay figures and so create the first people
Epithets
Relations
- sibling: CumuculD'wata and Cumucul are brothers; D'wata's request for one of the powers granted to the warrior Cumucul is refused.Casal, Gabriel S. (1978). T'boli Art in its Socio-Cultural Context. Makati: Filipinas Foundation. (secondary)
- sibling: SfedatD'wata and Sfedat are brothers; D'wata shapes the inhabited earth out of the land formed from Sfedat's slain body.Casal, Gabriel S. (1978). T'boli Art in its Socio-Cultural Context. Makati: Filipinas Foundation. (secondary)
Sources
- D'wata is a son of the T'boli supreme couple, the demiurge who shapes the earth from Sfedat's body and animates clay figures into the first people; his name (from Sanskrit devata) also serves as the general T'boli term for the deities to whom prayers are addressed.: Casal, Gabriel S. (1978). T'boli Art in its Socio-Cultural Context. Makati: Filipinas Foundation. (secondary); Casinto, Caesar Dealwis (2022). 'Looking From a Window: A Critical Analysis of the T'boli's Worldview Through their Oral Traditions.' International Journal of Language and Literary Studies 4(1): 282-303. (secondary)