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In Māori mythology, Rongo or Rongo-mā-Tāne (also Rongo-hīrea, Rongo-marae-roa, and Rongo-marae-roa-a-Rangi) is a major god (''
atua Atua are the gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians (see also ); the Polynesian word literally means "power" or "strength" and so the concept is similar to that of '' mana''. Today, it is also used for ...
'') of cultivated plants, especially kumara (spelled ''kūmara'' in
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
), a vital crop. Other crops cultivated by Māori in traditional times included
taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afri ...
, yams (''uwhi''),
cordyline ''Cordyline'' is a genus of about 15 species of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants in family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. The subfamily has previously been treated as a separate family Laxmanniaceae, or Lomandraceae. Other authors ...
(''tī''), and
gourds Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the earl ...
(''hue''). Because of their tropical origin, most of these crops were difficult to grow except in the far north of the North Island, hence the importance of Rongo in
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. He was also an important god of agriculture and
god of war A war god in mythology associated with war, combat, or bloodshed. They occur commonly in both monotheistic and polytheistic religions. Unlike most gods and goddesses in polytheistic religions, monotheistic deities have traditionally been p ...
in the southern
Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...
, especially on
Mangaia Mangaia (traditionally known as A'ua'u Enua, which means ''terraced'') is the most southerly of the Cook Islands and the second largest, after Rarotonga. It is a roughly circular island, with an area of , from Rarotonga. Originally heavily popul ...
where the Akaoro marae and Orongo marae were centres of his worship; where cooked taro was offered to him cited in to assure success in battle and the fertility of land. A legend concerning Rongo flying the first kite is told in the waiting room of
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is an attraction located in Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort and in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and previously in Tokyo Disneyland at Tokyo Disney Resort. First opened on June 23, 1963 at the Disneyl ...
, in which Rongo is voiced by Ernest Tavares.


Separation of the primordial parents

In the creation story of the tribes of the Arawa canoe, Rongo, with his brothers ,
Tāne In Māori mythology, Tāne (also called Tāne-mahuta, Tāne-nui-a-Rangi, and several other names) is the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, the sky father and the earth mother, who used to lie in a tight em ...
,
Tangaroa Tangaroa (Takaroa in the South Island) is the great of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology. As Tangaroa-whakamau-tai he exercises control over the tides. He is sometimes depicted a ...
, and
Haumia-tiketike Haumia-tiketike (or simply Haumia) is the god of all uncultivated vegetative food in Māori mythology. He is particularly associated with the starchy rhizome of the ''Pteridium esculentum'', which became a major element of the Māori diet in form ...
, agreed that the primordial parents Rangi and Papa needed to be separated to allow daylight into the world. A sixth brother,
Tāwhirimātea In Māori mythology, Tāwhirimātea (or Tāwhiri) is the god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms. He is a son of Papatūānuku (earth mother) and Ranginui ( sky father). Tawhirimatea is the second oldest of 7 chi ...
, the god of storms, did not consent to this and afterwards attacked his brothers with unrelenting fury. Rongo and Haumia, the god of wild food, took refuge in the body of Papa, mother earth, who hid them until the storm passed (Grey 1956:7, Tregear 1891:424, Orbell 1998:121).


Kūmara

He would have had more of an association with the small, yellow-skin, finger-sized variety known as ''hutihuti'', ''rekamaroa'', and ''taputini'', which the Māori had brought with them from eastern
Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...
, rather than larger varieties brought by later sealers, traders, and whalers in the early 19th century. In the Māori language, ''rongo'' can mean 'peace' (after war). Rongo is generally portrayed as the creator of the kumara, a plant associated with peace; probably because the intense cultivation it needed was best performed in times of peace. In
Ngāti Awa Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...
traditions, Rongo is a son of Tāne and father of the kūmara, but a man named Rongo-māui travels to Whānui, from whom he steals the kūmara and returns to Earth with it. Small statues representing Rongo were once placed alongside kūmara fields.


Rongo in the Cook Islands

In southern
Cook Islands mythology Cook Islands mythology comprises historical myths, legends, and folklore passed down by the ancient Cook Islanders over many generations. Many of the Cook Islands legends were recited through ancient songs and chants. The Cook Islands myths and ...
, Rongo was the god of agriculture and one of the children of
Vatea In Cook Islands mythology, Avatea (also known as Vatea; meaning 'noon' or 'light') was a lunar deity and the father of gods and men in Mangaian myth of origin. His eyes were thought to be the Sun and the Moon; he was also known as the god of lig ...
(sky father) and Papa (earth mother). His twin brother was
Tangaroa Tangaroa (Takaroa in the South Island) is the great of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology. As Tangaroa-whakamau-tai he exercises control over the tides. He is sometimes depicted a ...
, the god of the sea. Rongo was the principal deity of Mangaia. In the Mangaian legend of origin, Rongo's sons by his wife Tavake (his daughter by his wife Te-po-tatango), Rangi, Mokoiro, and Akatauira, lifted the island of Mangaia up out of the
underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...
, becoming the first settlers and the ancestors of the Nga Ariki tribe, with Rangi becoming the first chief. The traditional name of the island was ''A'u A'u'', which literally means 'terraced', short for ''A'u A'u Nui o Rongo ki te Ao Marama'' ('Great Terraced Land of Rongo in the Land of Daylight'). In Mangaian society, the ritual system to become the principal chief, ''Te Mangaia'', emphasized the worship of Rongo. The installation of a new ''Te Mangaia'' after a war of conquest of the ''puna'' lands required a human sacrifice to Rongo. He was both the god of war and god of taro
irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
; his regular peacetime offerings were parcels of cooked taro. The ideological linkages between Rongo, war, taro, and human sacrifice were complex: Rongo assured success in war and fertility of the land, but these required continual sacrifices in both human bodies and taro in an endless cycle. He would feast on the souls of those who died in battle. Principal places of Rongo's Mangaian worship were at two ''
marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...
'' in the Keia district; the inland Akaoro marae, and the coastal Orongo marae, which was arguably the most important of all ''marae'' on the island, and constructed at the site of an abandoned village of the same name. Both have since been destroyed along with many other symbols of old gods with the introduction of
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
in the early 19th century. They were presided over by two hereditary High Priests of Rongo. At the Orongo marae a human sacrifice was laid on a smooth block of
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
or
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
in front of Rongo's image. cited in Human bone fragments can still be found among the remnants at the site. At the Akaoro marae, it is evident that a platform of hala wood was erected for human sacrifice, although no traces of raised platforms have been found. In the Ivirua district was also Ivanui marae, but this was abandoned in favour of Orongo marae; it was referred to in an ''eva'' dance: : A reference to Rongo is such: :


See also

* Laka *
Lono In Hawaiian religion, the god Lono is associated with fertility, agriculture, rainfall, music and peace. In one of the many Hawaiian stories of Lono, he is a fertility and music god who descended to Earth on a rainbow to marry Laka. In agricultu ...
*
Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacific by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 5,500 to 4,000 BP (3500 to 2000 BCE). These migrations were accompanied ...


References

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Bibliography

* G. Grey, ''Polynesian Mythology'', Illustrated edition, reprinted 1976. (Whitcombe and Tombs: Christchurch), 1956. * M. Orbell, ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Māori Myth and Legend'' (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch), 1998. * E.R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891. * Patrick V. Kirch, "Natural Experiments of History" anthology edited by Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson, Chapter one "Controlled Comparison and Polynesian Cultural Evolution" by Patrick V. Kirch, pages 28 & 29, (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England), 2010. Agricultural gods Cook Islands mythology Mangaia mythology Māori gods Māori mythology Polynesian gods War gods