Creation Mythology: Polynesia - Part Two

Yesterday we looked at several creation myths from some of the islands of Polynesia – New Zealand, Nauru, and Tonga.  Today we will further explore the creation mythology of some more of these islands; namely Samoa, Hawaii and Tahiti.

Samoan Creation Mythology

People began to settle on Samoa in around 1000 BC.  Much of their creation myths are very similar with that found in Tonga.  The following creation story is an ex nihilo, or from nothing, myth.

 

Tangaloa

Tangaloa-fa’atutupu’nu’u Creates Samoa

High in space Tangaloa-fa’atutupu-nu’u paced.  He was very much alone.  When he stood still, a rock began to grow.  Tangaloa commanded the rock to split and it did.  Soon other rocks formed.  These were the words and ideas of the Samoans.  Tanaloa-fa’atutupu-nu’u hit the first rock and it brought forth the Earth and the Sea.  The rocks began to speak to one another.  Tanagloa the Creator, however, spoke on many occasions with the first rock, which soon brought forth the sky, space, fresh water, maleness, femaleness, Man, Spirit, Heart, Will, and Thought.  It was then that Tangaloa told the rock that Spirit, Thought, Will, and Heart should combine within Man, and so they did.   Tangaloa decreed that Man would join with Earth to bring forth a couple, who were Fatu and ‘Ele-ele.  These two were to populate a particular part of the Earth.

'Chief-to-Prop-up-the-Sky,’ was commanded to hold the sky above the earth.  While, in the beginning he was unsuccessful, he soon learned to make posts to complete his task.  However, at this time only Immensity and Space existed.  It was Immensity and Space who made Night and Day, who were called Po and Ao.  These made the nine heavens.
After this Tangaloa-the-Creator created Tangaloa-the-Immovable, who was chief of the sky, and Tangaloa-the-Messenger, who acted as the Creator’s ambassador to the other heavens.
Night and Day lived in a lower heaven, where they brought forth Manu’a, Samoa, Sun, and Moon.  Night and Day, along with their offspring, were summoned by the Messenger to attend a council with the Creator and the Immovable.  Here they were told that Manu’a and Samoa were to descend where they would become chief of the descendants of Fatu and ‘Ele-ele.  The first lands upon the Earth were the Samoan, Fiji, and Tonga islands.  To populate these places with people, the Creator took worms found on harvested Fue, the ‘People-making plant’ and fashioned humans.

 

Another Samoan creation myth finds Tangaloa-Langi, the creator, in a cosmic egg, from which he hatches.  The pieces of the egg shell are said to have fallen into the ocean where they became the Samoan Islands.  A myth that stemmed from this is that of Tangaloa’s son, Tuli.  This is considered as a creation from chaos and an ex nihilo creation myth.  Some versions have the Creator drop a stone to create the earth; others have the Creator bring the stone up from beneath the primordial waters.

Tuli

The Creation of Gods and Men

In the beginning, the High Rocks, Papatu, united with the Earth Rocks, Papa’ele, and from them the gods were born.  These included Saolevao, who was god of the earth and Saveasi’uleo, who was god of the underworld, or Pulutu.  It was in the seventh generation that Tangaloa, who became known as the Creator, came into being and he had a son, Tuli, a kind of plover bird.

One day, Tuli descended to the primordial waters but there was nowhere for him to land.  So Tuli returned to his father and asked for his help.  The Creator dropped a stone and the stone transformed into the earth.  Here Tuli landed, but he found the rock was constantly being submerged by the ocean.  So Tuli went again to his father and asked for help.  The Creator used a fish hook and raised the rock above the water.  Soon other rocks began to appear on the surface of the water and soon brought forth ‘fue’, which is a kind of grass.  But Tuli was still not satisfied, for there was no one to populate the rocks.  Again he asked for his father’s help. 
The Creator told Tuli to pull up some fue and to allow it to rot.  Tuli did as his father said and soon discovered two grubs on the rotting grass.  From the grubs, Tangaloa formed two male beings.  One day the two men went fishing, but something went wrong and one of them died from an injury caused by Io, a little fish.  Tuli flew back to his father and told him what had happened.  Tangaloa sent his messenger, Ngai-tosi, down to the earth to bring the man back to life.  However, before doing so, Tangaloa first changed the sex of the dead man into that of a female.  When the being was reanimated, it was a woman.  The two humans came together and became the parents of the entire human race.

The Creation Myths of Hawaii

Wondering minds and wandering keels

When space turned around, the earth heated

When space turned over, the sky reversed

When the sun appeared standing in shadows

To cause light to make bright the moon,

When the Pleiades are small eyes in the night,

From the source in the slime was the earth formed

From the source in the dark was darkness formed

From the source in the night was the night formed

From the depths of the darkness, darkness so deep

Darkness of day, darkness of night

Of night alone

Did night give birth

Born was Kumulipo in the night, a male

Born was Ko’ele in the night, a female.

                                A Kumulipo chant from 18^th century Hawaii

Beginning from Darkness by Zesuri

The following creation myth comes from the Polynesian natives of Hawaii and can be found in a sacred poem called the Kumulipo.  The Kumulipo ‘is a genealogical creation chant’ which was composed in the 18^th century for the chief, Ka-‘l-i-mamao.  The story contains animistic and emergence elements and was once chanted at the births of royal children.  This signified a new beginning and the relationship between the child and the plants and animals of the first creation.

Creation According to the Kumulipo

First out of the very nothing, there was born Kumulipo, who was male and the essence of darkness, and Po’ele, who was female and the darkness itself.  They gave birth to the children of darkness, shellfish, and the plants that grow from the dark earth.  Soon many kinds of creatures of this kind existed and a bit of light appeared in the world.  The god Kane-i-ka-wai-ola watered the plants.

Then deep darkness (male) and darkness with a little light (female) came into being and bore the fish of the sea, which multiplied.  Still, there was little light to be seen in the world.  Then Po’el’ele (who was dark night and male) was born along with Pohahha, who was female: night becoming dawn.
In this very dim light, Popanopano and Polalowehi came about and gave rise to the animals like turtles that come to the land from the sea.  Next, another male and female pair of beings was born and they gave rise to the pig, Kamapua’a, dark and beautiful.  His people, the pigs, began to root around and cultivate the islands that were now flourishing in the dim light.
Yet another pair gave rise to Pilo’i the rat, and this was a mistake.  For the rat people scratched and ate and began to damage the land.  Next, a male and female pair arose whose names meant ‘night leaving’ and ‘night pregnant.’  They gave birth to dawn, as well as wind… and the dog.  It was Po-kini and Po’he’enalu who gave birth to the time when humans came into the world, and into this time La’ila’a, the woman, and Ki’I, the man, were born.  It was daytime in our world.

Kane by Print Logic Inc.

Kane was known as the leading god to those of Hawaii when missionaries began to arrive.  He was considered the god of procreation and, according to the Kumuhonua legend, he formed the three worlds: the upper heaven of the gods, the lower heaven above the earth, and the earth itself.  This was done with the help of the powerful gods Ku and Lono.

 

Kane Creates the Earth and Man

Ever so long before the memories of mankind, the great gods, Kane, Kanaloa, Ku, and Lono came forth out of the night and created the Earth.  The sea, however, had always been.

Kane, God of Creation, picked up a vast calabash floating in the sea, and tossed it high into the air.  Its top flew off and became the curved bowl, sky.  Two great pieces of the calabash broke away; one became the sun, the other the moon.  The seeds scattered and became stars.  The remainder became the earth and fell back into the sea.
The great God of Creation Kane told the others, ‘I shall make a chief to rule over this earth.  Let us together provide for all of his needs.
Kanaloa, god of the forever endless seas, said, ‘I will fill the waters with living things, creatures of the sea for the chief’s use and delight.’

Pono Passage, Kanaloa, by Linda Kanani Johnston

Born was the coral,

Born was the starfish,
Born was the conch shell;
Born was the fish,
Born was the porpoise,
Born was the shark in the oceans there swimming.

Ku, god of forests, said, ‘I shall make trees grow, trees to provide wood for the chief.’

Ku, by Keith Tuehen

Thick grew the forests:

The koa and candlenut;
Thick grew the forests:
Hau, wiliwili and sandalwood.
Koa for paddles,
Hau for lashings,
Soft wiliwili for outrigger floats;
Woods for the chief’s canoe, swift as an arrow.
Candlenut torches, to light the chief’s way.
Sandalwood to make a fragrance to rest around the chief’s heart.

Lono, god of growing things, said, ‘I will make food plants to grow food for the chief with flowers to beautify and please him.’

Green blades came sprouting:

Coconut, breadfruit, sweet potato, sugar cane,
Taro, banana, arrowroot, yam.
Colourful and fragrant blossoms came sprouting:
Kiele, lehua, ie’ie, maile, iini, tiere, ginger, orchid, Hibiscus, hala, plumeria.

Kane said, ‘I will fill the earth with living things, land creatures for the chief’s dominion and use.’

Lono by rvxen

Born was the caterpillar, the parent;

Out came the child, a butterfly and flew.
Born was the egg, the parent;
Out came its child, the bird and flew.
Land birds were born, birds that fly in a flock,
Shutting out the sun.

The sea crept up to the land,

Crept backward, crept forward,
Producing the family of crawlers:
The rough-backed turtles,
The sleek-skinned geckos,
Mud-dwellers and track-leavers.

All these things the gods did and it was so.

Once all was ready and the earth and seas had been filled with those things a chief would need, Kane said, ‘It is now the time to go forth and find what is needed to make a chief.’
Quickly, to the North, South, East, and West went the gods and the search began.  On the side of a hill near the sea, they found a mound of rich, red earth that shone brightly in the sunrise.  They took this to Kane to make the chief, the one who would rule the earth.

Namakaoaha’i by Linda Rowell Stevens

Now Nemakaokaha’i, a sea goddess, was not at all pleased that a chief should live on the land.  She felt that the one who ruled should be of the sea.  Yet no matter how she pleaded, Kane would not change his mind.
So it was from the red earth that the great Kane dormed the figure of a man and breathed life into it.  ‘I have shaped this dirt,’ said Kane.  ‘Live, live!’ responded Ku and Lono.  The man spoke, walked about, kneeled, and praised his creators.  They named him Ke-li’i-ku-honua, meaning made from the earth.  They gave him a delightful garden in which to live, this was called ‘Great Hawaii of the green back and mottled seas.  The gods were pleased.
That is all except Namakaoaha’i.  With the help of her sisters; Hi’iaka, goddess of Lightning, and Pele, goddess of Volcanoes;


Hi'iaka & Pele

and secretly Kanaloa, Namakaokaha’I stole away a piece of the rich, red earth that Kane used to make the chief.  She mixed it with the sands of the oceans taken from the very bottom of the endless sea.  With the combined strengths and powers of sea, lightning and volcano, Namakaokaha’I, Hi’iaka, and Pele brought forth light into the figure they had formed, the ruler of the sea… and, maybe, someday she would also rule the land.

The Creation Mythology of Tahiti

Tahiti is one of the French Polynesian islands and is at the centre of Polynesian culture.  Their creation myths have an animistic quality and, starting with the cosmic egg, have qualities of an ex nihilo creation myth.

The Great God Taaroa 

In the beginning of time, before the earth was formed, the great god Taaroa simply existed in space.  He became the universe and was the very start of life.  Taaroa is within, under, above and the universe is his shell.

Taaroa

It was said that Taaroa lived in an egg-like shell and that, when he broke free of the shell, he held up this shell to make Rumia, the dome-sky.  The earth he made of himself.  His spine was transformed into a range of mountains; his ribs became the hills; his fingernails transformed to become shells and scales, and his feathers became trees and plants.  The only thing the great god kept was his head.

Then Taaroa made the gods and many other things, an, d, just as the great god had a shell, so d all other things.  The sky is a shell, the earth is a shell for all that lives upon it, and woman is the shell for human beings, for we are all born of woman. 
And Taaroa soon brought a man out of the earth, which is to say out of himself, for Taaroa is the rock of the earth’s centre and the earth’s surface.  This man became known as Ti’i.  Taaroa also created the first woman and her name was Hina.  And Hina could see backwards and forwards and she was good, where Ti’I was bad, for he felt malice toward humans.
Soon war broke out amongst the gods in Heaven and amongst men on Earth, making both Taaroa and his assistant Tu furious.  The two cursed creation.  It was Hima who prevented the world’s destruction.  Now, when a storm forms in the sky, it is Hima who makes it disperse, and wwhen leaves fall from the trees, it is Hima who makes new leaves grow.

That’s all for today.  Next time we will begin to explore the creation mythology of Africa.

 
 

Useful Resources

Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia by David Adams Leeming

Handbook of Polynesian Mythology by Robert D. Craig
Myths, Legends, and Folktales of America: An Anthology by David Leeming
The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1 edited by Brij V. Lal& Kate Fortune
A Hawai’i Anthology edited by Joseph Stanton
Tales of the Mermaids of Waiahuakua by Kohana Au
Hawaiian Myths of Earth, Sea, and Sky by Vivian Lauback Thompson
Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology by Robert D. Craig

Creation Mythology: China

The Universe: Creation by suntwirl

Today we are going to look at the creation mythology of China. With developed mythology dating to at least the Shang dynasty (1766BC – 1123 BC), it has been suggested that the development of this mythology could have started as early as 2205 BC, during the Xia dynasty. However, there is very little evidence to support this. Within China’s vast documentation of history one can find many creation narratives. Some of these include the ‘Chuci’, written in the 4th century BC; the ‘Shanhaijing Huainanzi’, written in 139BC; and the ‘Zhuangzi’.

Yin-Yang by Infinidium

The earliest account of a Chinese creation myth dates back to the 4th century BC and can be found in a work called ‘Questions of Heaven’, which is written in a question and answer format. In this account the primal mist made up of the opposing forces of yin and yang. From these two opposing forces the world began to take shape. The Heavens were held up by eight pillars in the Earth. The sun, moon and stars all move in an ordered way and numbers are used in such a way as to suggests that they have some special significance. Here the number eight is linked with harmony and the number two suggests interactions between yin and yang.

One creation myth which appears in many Chinese sources is that which involves the giant Pan Gu, or P’an Ku. It has survived in China’s texts since the 3rd century. While there are other creation myths contained within China’s texts, this myth remains one of the most popular and involves reducing chaos to order, which is a common theme in Chinese mythology.



Pangu Cracks the Cosmic Egg

Pangu Creates the Sky and the Earth

Long, long ago, at the beginning of time, there was Chaos. Heaven and earth were all mixed up and all was the same. The universe was vast and empty, formless. It was said that this Chaos was shaped like a giant egg and at the very heart of the egg Pangu was born. Pangu was the first of all beings, a child of the universe itself.

For countless ages Pangu slept within the egg, growing and growing. When he awoke and stretched his arms, the egg cracked. The lightest parts of the egg floated up and became the sky, while the heavy parts of the egg sank down to become the earth.
Pangu was most pleased by the separation of the earth and the sky, but he was afraid that they wouldn’t stay parted. So he stood up and his head supported the sky, while his feet remained on the earth. As time passed, Pangu continued to grow. The sky rose higher and the earth sank deeper.  
For 18,000 years Pangu stood like a pillar. The sky rose ten feet higher and the earth sank ten feet deeper as each day passed. And every day Pangu grew until he was an enormous giant.

The sky eventually reached its highest point and the earth eventually reached its lowest point. Pangu saw that the sky and earth were firmly fixed in place and was reassured that the world would never again fall into chaos.



Pangu separates Heaven from Earth

With much relief, Pangu lay down to rest and, taking one last deep breath, he drifted off into a peaceful death. As he died, his breath transformed into the wind and clouds. His voice became the thunder. His left eye rose to become the sun and his right eye rose to become the moon. The hairs on his head became the stars and his sweat streamed down as life-giving rain.

Pangu’s body became the features of the earth. His trunk and limbs became the sacred mountains of the five directions: north, south, east, west, and center. His flesh became fertile fields. His muscles and veins became the paths that humans would travel. The hair of his body transformed into the grass, plants, and trees. His blood flowed into the seas, lakes, and rivers. His teeth and bones transformed into rocks and metals, while the marrow hardened into pearls and jade. Pangu’s body also gave rise to living beings when ‘the tiny specks on his skin sprang forth as the fish and animals.’
And so it was this child of the universe, the giant Pangu who brought order to the chaos and filled the heavens and earth with the all their beauty and splendor.


Some Chinese myths say that Pangu not only created the heavens and the earth, but also humans. Others credit the goddess Nu Gua with the creation of humans. Nu Gua was a shape-shifter and her most common form was either a serpent or a dragon. At the beginning of the world Nu Gua molded the first people from yellow earth and these perfectly formed people were to be the ancestors of the rulers of Chinese society. Later creations which were made sloppily were to become the common people.

Nu-Gua by nuu

Nu Gua Creates the First People

When the earth was first made, Nu Gua came down from heaven to gaze upon this creation. In one of her favourite forms, a serpent with the head of a woman, she slithered across the peaceful landscape. Here she saw mountains, rivers and forests filled with animals and fish. While she thought this creation beautiful, Nu Gua found it somehow empty and she felt alone.

On the bank of a river, Nu Gua suddenly had an idea. With her divine power she would create some companions. She scooped up a handful of yellow clay and molded a small figure and when she was finished she set the first human down on the ground and watched as it danced with happiness. Pleased with her creation she made another and another, and these perfect little men and women laughed and danced around their great mother. Nu Gua was no longer lonely.

Throughout the day and night Nu Gua worked hard to fill this new world with her children until she was too tired to complete the task. She decided that she needed to simplify her work so it could be done faster. So she pulled a vine from the riverbank and dragged it through a muddy ditch. Then she cracked the vine like a whip, scattering drops of mud around her and, as each drop of mud touched the earth it was transformed into a human. And this is why we have nobles and commoners. The rich and lucky nobles were each formed carefully by the hands of a goddess and the poor and humble commoners were formed without care and the simple flick of a vine whip dragged through the mud.

Nu Kua by Susanne Iles

At last Nu Gua’s task was complete and the world was full of her children. But these people made of clay and mud could not live forever. What was to become of them when they grew old and died? After much deliberation, Nu Gua called the people together and taught them how to marry and have children. Now her children could make children of their own.

As time passed Nu Gua took a husband – her brother Fu Xi, who became the first emperor. Fu Xi was a great god who not only showered his people with blessings, but taught them how to hunt and fish and write and divine and make music. He also gave them the gift of fire.


Nu-Gua and Fu-Xi by Daimyo-KoiKoi

The people honoured Fu Xi and their mother Nu Gua, building temples and singing of their greatness. And for many years the people lived in peace and happiness.

That’s all for today. Next time we will explore the creation myths from Japan.













Useful Resources
Chinese Mythology by Owen Giddens & Sandra Giddens
The Ancient Chinese by Virginia Schomp
Chinese Mythology A-Z: [A Young Reader’s Companion] by Jeremy Roberts
Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia by David Adams Leeming