Pulotu is the underworld in the Polynesian narrative of Tonga and Samoa, the world of darkness "lalo fonua" (as opposed to the human world of light).
Name
The term is related to
Fijian language Burotu. It goes back to Proto-Polynesian
*pulotu, from Proto-Central Pacific
*burotu.
Tonga
In the
Tongan narrative, Pulotu is presided over by Havea Hikuleʻo. 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 Touiaʻifutuna "trapped in Futuna", which was only a rock. There are suggestions that for Tonga and
Samoa, Pulotu refers to a real country, in fact
Matuku Island in the
Lau Islands. The old name of
Matuku Island is Burotu. However, there is no signs of underwater civilization in the Matuku waters where they said that Burotu once laid. But new evidence suggest Pulotu is situated in
Moturiki belonging to
Fiji’s Lomaiviti
Archipelago.
After the independence struggle by Hikuleʻo and his cousins Maui Motuʻa and Tangaloa ʻEiki, they renamed Touiaʻifutuna into Tongamamaʻo. Only after that the other islands were made (the volcanic islands by Hikuleʻo and the coral islands by Maui). Finally, Tongamamaʻo was renamed, for the last time, as Tonga.
Hikuleʻo is supposed to have married a daughter of Tangaloa ʻEiki.
Samoa
In the
Samoan mythology, Pulotu is presided over by the god Saveasi'uleo (also referred to as
Elo), whose name reveals a similarity to the Tongan god Havea Hikuleo. Saveasi'uleo is the father of
Nafanua the Goddess of War in Samoa, from the village of
Falealupo, the site of the entryway into Pulotu.
[ Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before by George Turner, p. 123]
Spirits enter Pulotu at Le Fafa[ Polynesian Reminiscences: or Life in the South Pacific Islands by William Thomas Pritchard, p. 401] at Falealupo village.
See also
Notes
-
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.
-
O. Māhina, Ko e Ngaahi Ata mei he Histōlia mo e Kalatua o Tongá: Ke Tufungai ha Lea Tonga Fakaako, AU 2006,
