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Burotu
In the Melanesian mythology of Fiji, Burotu is the paradise-underworld. Newly dead souls are judged by Degei, and a few go to Burotu. The rest go to Murimuria.T. Williams, J. Calvert, ''Fiji and the Fijians'', Heylin, 1858. See also * Bulu, said to be the name for the Fijian 'land of death' *Pulotu, a similar concept in the Polynesian cultures of Tonga and Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ... References Fijian mythology Afterlife places Conceptions of heaven Underworld {{Fiji-stub ...
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Pulotu
Pulotu is the resting place of those passed on 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 ''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 indepen ...
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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 underworld. The concept of an underworld is found in almost every civilization and "may be as old as humanity itself". Common features of underworld myths are accounts of living people making journeys to the underworld, often for some heroic purpose. Other myths reinforce traditions that the entrance of souls to the underworld requires a proper observation of ceremony, such as the ancient Greek story of the recently dead Patroclus haunting Achilles until his body could be properly buried for this purpose. People with high social status were dressed and equipped in order to better navigate the underworld. A number of mythologies incorporate the concept of the soul of the deceased making its own journey to the underworld, with the dead needing to be ...
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Fijian Mythology
Fijian mythology refers to the set of beliefs practiced by the indigenous people of the island of Fiji. Their indigenous religion, like many others around the world, is based on cyclic existence where their ancestors and the environment exist in a dynamic cycle through experience, history and one with nature. Like a plant that bears seeds to exist, similar to humans, animals and all other life dependent of the reproductive cycle to maintain existence on earth. Fijians believe that humans exist with nature and sometimes are dominated by other species like sharks, snakes, octopuses, and more, where humans are the prey, rather than the predator. Some primarily examples of their gods are Degei, a serpent who is the supreme god of Uluda Fiji. He is the creator of the (Fijian) world. He judges newly dead souls after they pass through one of two caves: Cibaciba or Drakulu. A few he sends to paradise Burotu or Burotukula. Most others are thrown into a lake A lake is often a ...
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Degei
In Fijian mythology, Degei (pronounced ''Ndengei''), enshrined as a serpent, is the supreme god of Fiji. He is the creator of the (Fijian) world, fruits, and of men and is specially connected to Rakiraki District, Fiji. He judges newly dead souls after they pass through one of two caves: Cibaciba or Drakulu. A few he sends to paradise Burotu. Most others are thrown into a lake, where they will eventually sink to the bottom ( Murimuria) to be appropriately rewarded or punished. He is said to have at first moved about freely, but then in the form of a snake to have grown into the earth with his ringed tail. Since then he has become the god of earthquakes, storms and seasons. Whenever Degei shakes himself fertilising rain will fall, delicious fruits hang on the trees, and the yam fields yield an excellent crop. Degei is also a god of wrath who declares himself in terrible fashion. He punishes and chastens his people by destroying the crops or by floods; he could indeed easily ...
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Murimuria
In pre-Christian Fijian mythology, Murimuria is part of the underworld. According to Fijian religion, after a man dies, his soul is brought over a stretch of water by a ferryman, and has to face many dangers on the other side by going through the Path of the Souls (Sala Ni Yalo). For unmarried men, there seems to be no chance of surviving this path, because even if they escape the Great Woman, they would be killed by the monster Nangganangga, since no one ever got away from it, while married men could survive, if they withstand the Pandanus tree and the armed giant Killer of Souls. The survivors are judged by the god called Degei. Those who had the favor of Degei (chiefs with great wealth and many wives, who were destroyers of many towns, killers of many enemies and rulers over a powerful people) are instructed not to try to cross the lake. These go to Burotu. The rest inevitably try cross the lake by a boat that always capsizes. They eventually sink to the bottom, Murimuria, and ar ...
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Bulu (Fijian Mythology)
In Fijian mythology, Bulu (pronounced: ''Mbúlu'') is a name for the 'world of spirits' (presumably the underworld). In the month called ''Vula-i-Ratumaibulu'', the god Ratumaibulu comes from Bulu, the world of spirits, to make the breadfruit and other fruit trees blossom and yield fruit. Ratumaibulu is a god of great importance who presides over agriculture. Another source refers to a "place called ' Nabagatai' on the road to 'Bulu', the separate state or land of souls".''The Quarterly Review'', page 170. (year of publication unknown) The most westerly point of the island of Vanua Levu was the place from which the departed spirits started out for Bulu, the eternal abode of the blessed (Freese 2005:70). See also *Burotu *Pulotu Notes References *''Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada The ''Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada'' (JRASC, ) is a trade magazine and scientific journal, distributed bimonthly to members of the Royal Astronomical Society ...
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Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. It also includes the West New Guinea, Indonesian part of New Guinea, the French overseas collectivity of New Caledonia, and the Torres Strait Islands. Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New Guinea—lie in the Northern Hemisphere. The name ''Melanesia'' (in French, ''Mélanésie'') was first used in 1832 by French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville: he coined the terms ''Melanesia'' and ''Micronesia'' to go alongside the pre-existing ''Polynesia'' to designate what he viewed as the three main Ethnicity, ethnic and geographical regions forming the Pacif ...
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Mythology
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the veracity of a myth is not a defining criterion. Myths are often endorsed by religious (when they are closely linked to religion or spirituality) and secular authorities. Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be factual accounts of their remote past. In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form. Origin myths explain how a society's customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified. National myths are narratives about a nation's past that symbolize the nation's values. There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals. Etymology The word "myth" comes from Ancient ...
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Fiji
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about . The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi (where tourism is the major local industry) or Lautoka (where the Sugarcane, sugar-cane industry is dominant). The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain. The majority of Fiji's islands were formed by Volcano, volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago. Some geothermal activity still occurs today on the islands of Vanua Levu and ...
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Paradise
In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human civilization: in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, a land of luxury and fulfillment containing ever-lasting bliss and delight. Paradise is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, in contrast to World (theology), this world, or underworlds such as hell. In eschatological contexts, paradise is imagined as an Entering heaven alive, abode of the virtuous dead. In Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, heaven is a paradisiacal belief. In Hinduism and Buddhism, paradise and svarga, heaven are synonymous, with higher levels available to beings who have achieved special attainments of virtue and meditation. In old Egyptian beliefs, the underworld is Aaru, the reed-fields of ide ...
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Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. according to Johnson's Tribune, Tonga has a population of 104,494, 70% of whom reside on the main island, Tongatapu. The country stretches approximately north-south. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west, Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to the east and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest. Tonga is about from New Zealand's North Island. Tonga was first inhabited roughly 2,500 years ago by the Lapita civilization, Polynesian settlers who gradually evolved a distinct and strong ethnic identity, language, and culture as the Tongan people. They quickly established a powerful footing across the South Pacific, and this period of Tong ...
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Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono and Apolima), and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands (Nuʻutele, Nuʻulua, Fanuatapu and Namua). Samoa is located west of American Samoa, northeast of Tonga, northeast of Fiji, east of Wallis and Futuna, southeast of Tuvalu, south of Tokelau, southwest of Hawaii, and northwest of Niue. The capital and largest city is Apia. The Lapita culture, Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a Samoan language and Culture of Samoa, Samoan cultural identity. Samoa is a Unitary state, unitary Parliamentary system, parliamentary democracy with 11 Districts of Samoa, administrative divisions. It is a sovereign state and a membe ...
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