Lalehan

Lalehan is the sky or heaven, the masculine celestial expanse paired with the female earth in the Tetum ritual dyad rai–lalehan, 'earth and sky', that names the cosmic totality. As the overarching firmament it is the source of rain and the abode of the celestial powers, and it stands as the active, outward, masculine complement to the inward, generative female earth. Sources vary on how far Lalehan is personified as an individual being as opposed to the celestial realm itself, and it is closely associated with the supreme divinity Maromak, who is said to preside from the sky.

Domains

• sky and firmament
• rain and the celestial

Powers

• overarch the earth as the firmament
• send rain upon the earth

Epithets

• Rai no Lalehan — Earth and SkyJames J. Fox (ed.), The Flow of Life (Harvard University Press, 1980) (primary)

Relations

• spouse: Rai FetoSky and earth are paired in ritual speech as a generative union.James J. Fox (ed.), The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia (Harvard University Press, 1980), on the rai–lalehan (earth–sky) ritual dyad (primary)

Sources

• Sky (lalehan) is paired with earth (rai) as a masculine–feminine cosmic dyad in Tetum ritual language, the sky being the abode of the celestial powers.: James J. Fox (ed.), The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia (Harvard University Press, 1980) (primary); David Hicks, A Maternal Religion (Northern Illinois University, 1984) (secondary)