Earth Goddess
Thai Lao · deity · Theravada Buddhist mythic time; pan Tai folk cult · Recorded classification
Deity. Though her name derives from Pali dharaṇī and she is pan-Buddhist, the personified Earth Goddess of the hair-wringing legend belongs to the indigenous Tai folk layer. English title leads; native Nang Thorani / พระแม่ธรณี in alt/transliterations.
Domains
- earth and ground
- water and purification
Powers
- Wrings a deluge from her hair to drown the demon army
- Bears witness to a being's hoard of accumulated merit
Relations
- equated with: PṛthivīReciprocal of buddhist_prthivi.equated-with — Phra Mae Thorani is the Tai naming of the Buddhist earth goddess; SE Asia adds the hair-wringing flood that drowns Māra's host, an iconography unknown in the Indian sources.Pathamasambodhi (Thai/Lao life of the Buddha), Māravijaya episode (primary); Elizabeth Guthrie, A Study of the History and Cult of the Buddhist Earth Deity in Mainland Southeast Asia (PhD diss., Canterbury, 2004) (secondary)
Sources
- Nang Thorani (Phra Mae Thorani), the Tai Buddhist earth goddess, wrings water from her hair to overwhelm Mara at the Buddha's enlightenment and is venerated across Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Burma.: Elizabeth Guthrie, A Study of the History and Cult of the Buddhist Earth Deity in Mainland Southeast Asia, 2004 (secondary); Donald K. Swearer, The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia, SUNY Press, 2010 (secondary)