The Single Rib

Usuk Sangbamban, 'the single rib', is a god of the second divine generation in the cosmogony chanted in the passomba tedong of the Kesu' Toraja. He sprang from a rib that separated itself from the side of the sky god Gaun Tikembong, took the goddess Simbolong Manik, 'the beaded chignon', to wife, and from their union was born Puang Matua, the Old Lord who later forged the ancestors of humankind and of the useful things of the world upon his twin bellows. Usuk Sangbamban thus stands in the liturgical genealogies as the father of the supreme god, the link between the first divine triad and the creator generation.

Parentage

• The Self-Expanding Cloud

Domains

• creation

Powers

• to father divine offspring

Relations

• spouse: Lady of the Beaded Chignon
• father of: Old Lord of the Heavens

Sources

• 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)
• Darius Darius and Sonny Eli Zaluchu, 'Transformation of Elementary Puang Matua in Toraja Belief System into Christianity', Verbum et Ecclesia 44/1 (2023), a2831
• Roxana Waterson, Paths and Rivers: Sa'dan Toraja Society in Transformation (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2009)