Maromak

Maromak is the supreme divinity of Tetum religion, a remote celestial being whose name is cognate with naroman, 'light', so that the god is understood as the Shining or Luminous One associated with the sun and the daylit sky. Conceived as the ultimate source of life and order, Maromak is seldom addressed directly in everyday worship, which is instead directed toward the ancestors and the owner-spirits of the land; the divinity presides over the cosmos from the celestial realm rather than intervening in it. Sources differ on whether Maromak is imagined as male, as androgynous, or as beyond gender altogether. In the southern Tetum ritual polity of Wehali the sacred sovereign bears the title Maromak Oan, 'Child of Maromak', binding earthly rule to the divine source.

Children

• Maromak Oan

Domains

• sky and light
• supreme sovereignty
• creation and cosmic order

Powers

• illuminate the world with light
• originate life and cosmic order

Epithets

• Nai Bot — The Great LordTom Therik, Wehali: The Female Land (ANU, 2004) (secondary)

Relations

• parent: Maromak OanThe sacred sovereign of Wehali holds the title Maromak Oan, 'Child of Maromak'.Gérard Francillon, Some Matriarchic Aspects of the Social System of the Southern Tetum of Central Timor (PhD thesis, Australian National University, 1967); Tom Therik, Wehali: The Female Land (ANU, 2004) (secondary)

Sources

• Maromak is the remote supreme sky-and-light divinity of the Tetum, the god's name deriving from the word for light (naroman).: David Hicks, Tetum Ghosts and Kin, 2nd ed. (Waveland Press, 2004) (secondary); Geoffrey Hull, Standard Tetum–English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Allen & Unwin, 2002), s.v. Maromak (secondary)
• Everyday Tetum cult is directed to ancestors and land-owner spirits rather than to the remote high god Maromak.: David Hicks, A Maternal Religion: The Role of Women in Tetum Myth and Ritual (DeKalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, 1984) (secondary)