The Glow in the Stone
Arrang di Batu, 'the glow in the stone', is the consort of Puang Matua in the creation narrative preserved in the passomba tedong, the buffalo-consecration liturgy of the Sa'dan Toraja edited by H. van der Veen in his study of the merok feast. Puang Matua, seeking a wife, perceived a light shining out of a rock and found the woman revealed within it; one telling has her appear after he made the offering of a single bamboo tube of rice (piong sanglampa). In the Kesu' liturgy their marriage remained childless, and Puang Matua thereupon voyaged for gold and forged upon his twin bellows (sauan sibarrung) the eight proto-ancestors, among them Datu Laukku', ancestor of humankind; other Toraja accounts instead reckon the eight forged beings as twin offspring born to the couple.
Domains
- light
Powers
- to shine forth as light from within the rock
Relations
- consort of: Old Lord of the Heavens
Sources
- H. van der Veen, The Merok Feast of the Sa'dan Toradja (Verhandelingen van het KITLV 45; The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965)
- Darius Darius and Sonny Eli Zaluchu, 'Transformation of Elementary Puang Matua in Toraja Belief System into Christianity', Verbum et Ecclesia 44/1 (2023), a2831
- Hetty Nooy-Palm, The Sa'dan-Toraja: A Study of Their Social Life and Religion, vol. I: Organization, Symbols and Beliefs (Verhandelingen van het KITLV 87; The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979)