View source for Pulotu

{{Short description|Polynesian underworld}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{More footnotes|date=December 2019}}
'''Pulotu''' is the [[underworld|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 language|Fijian]] ''Burotu''. It goes back to [[Proto-Polynesian language|Proto-Polynesian]] ''*pulotu'', from [[Proto-Central Pacific language|Proto-Central Pacific]] ''*burotu''.
==Tonga==
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In the [[Tongan narrative]], Pulotu is presided over by [[Hikule'o|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 [[Māui (mythology)#Tongan mythology|Maui Motuʻa]] and [[Tangaloa (Tongan mythology)|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|mythology of Samoa]], Pulotu is presided over by the god [[Saveasi'uleo]] (also referred to as '''Elo'''), whose name reveals a similarity to the Tongan god [[Hikuleʻo|Havea Hikule{{okina}}o]]. 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=nuVCSZOu7IAC&dq=Pulotu+Falealupo&pg=PA123 ''Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before''] by George Turner, p. 123</ref>
Spirits enter Pulotu at ''Le Fafa''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=krOxFi-KHVAC&dq=Saveasiuleo+Pulotu&pg=PA401 ''Polynesian Reminiscences: or Life in the South Pacific Islands''] by William Thomas Pritchard, p. 401</ref> at [[Falealupo]] village.
==See also==
*In [[Melanesia]], a similar concept is part of [[Fijian mythology]] – see [[Burotu]].
*The [[Māori mythology|Māori]] goddess of death [[Hine-nui-te-pō]] who guards the entrance to the underworld [[Cape Reinga|te reinga wairua]].
==Notes==
<references/>
==References==
*R.D. Craig, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pG2fvBwNplYC&pg=PA218 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.
*{{okina}}O. Māhina, ''Ko e Ngaahi {{okina}}Ata mei he Histōlia mo e Kalatua {{okina}}o Tongá: Ke Tufunga{{okina}}i ha Lea Tonga Fakaako'', AU 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-908959-09-9}}
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[[Category:Polynesian mythology]]
[[Category:Samoan mythology]]
[[Category:Afterlife places]]
[[Category:Underworld]]