Pulotu

In the mythology of parts of western Polynesia (specifically Tonga and Samoa), Pulotu is the underworld, the world of darkness (as opposed to the human world of light). It may be represented as the paradise from which the gods came and to which the souls of diseased chiefs go. (Commoners were not supposed to have souls). In some accounts, according to Craig, Pulotu is a jumping-off place of spirits on their way to the underworld. [This idea of a jumping-off place needs to be verified from another source; it may be a mistaken interpolation of ideas from Eastern Polynesia, eg Māori.]

This word "pulotu" may or may not be related with the word "purotu" (and variants) found in many eastern Polynesian languages, meaning "beautiful (person)".

Tonga

In Tongan mythology, Pulotu is presided over by Havea Hikuleokinao. In Tongan cosmology the sky, the sea, and Pulotu existed from the beginning, and the gods lived there. The first land they made for the people was Touiaokinaifutuna ("trapped in Futuna"), which was only a rock. There are suggestions that for Tonga at least, Pulotu refers to a real country, in fact Matuku in the Lau Islands, which is remarkable as the myths of Tonga are conspicuous in their lack of references to Fiji. In about the 8th Century AD, Tonga would have been a vassal of the Tuokinai Pulotu empire in Fiji.

After the independence struggle by Hikuleokinao and his cousins Maui Motuokinaa and Tangaloa okinaEiki, they renamed Touiaokinaifutuna into Tongamamaokinao. Only after that the other islands were made (the volcanic islands by Hikuleokinao and the coral islands by Maui). Finally Tongamamaokinao was renamed, for the last time, as Tonga.

Hikuleokinao is supposed to have married a daughter of Tangaloa okinaEiki.

amoa

In the mythology of Sāmoa, Pulotu is presided over by the god Elo or Saveasiokinauleo, whose name reveals a similarity to the Tongan god Havea Hikuleokinao.

ee also

*In Melanesia, a similar concept is part of Fijian mythology - see Burotu.
*The Māori goddess of death Hine-nui-te-pō who guards the entrance to the underworld te reinga wairua.

Notes

References

*R.D. Craig, "Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology" (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 218;
*E.E.V. Collocott, "Tales and Poems of Tonga" (Bernice P. Bishop Museum: Honolulu, 1928), 12-20.
*okinaO. Māhina, "Ko e Ngaahi okinaAta mei he Histōlia mo e Kalatua okinao Tongá: Ke Tufungaokinai ha Lea Tonga Fakaako", AU 2006, ISBN 978-0-908959-09-9