Tu'i Pulotu
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
The Tu'i Pulotu is believed to be the head of an ancient group that settled in Pulotu (Fiji) during the Lapita period (3500 BC to 2500 BC). The Tuʻi Pulotu is believed to have originally come from the Fiji Islands and ruled the islands from late BC to 800 AD. Some anthropologists believe there is an association between Pulotu and Burotu, the term for the paradise underworld in the Fijian religion. This is because of the different pronunciations within Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji. Burotu in Fiji was the Burotukula (Spiritual island), which, according to Fiji's religion, is near Matuku in the Lau Islands.
Etymology
[edit]The Burotu in Lau no longer existed within the first 800 years AD when the Tu’i Pulotu Empire was at its height of supremacy in the Pacific. The word Pulotu breaks down to "pulo" in the Proto-Austronesian language means "island" or "to land," and "tu" means "sacred" or "high rank." The exact meaning in the Polynesian region goes for the word Motu, which means island or to land, and Riki, which means a word of respect for the Fijian westerners used to address kings, chiefs (momo), or people with high rank. Also, the word Ariki in the Polynesian region means chief or king.
Theories of Origin
[edit]It may make sense that the Tui Pulotu was originally from Moturiki if we look around the Fiji islands during the BC Lapita era. The only island that can match the meaning of the word Pulotu, where most archaeological discoveries for the so-called Lapita civilizations, with the reconstructed woman's face, plus the 6500-year-old petroglyph stone encrypted with concentric circles were found, was in Moturiki, Lomaiviti. There are also numerous small islands in the Pacific named Motu. A clear breakdown of the name Moturiki is in the Tuamotu group of Islands. According to the Polynesian dictionary, a part of the Tuamotus, the underworld, is Turikiriki. Again, in Mamanuca, Malolo Fiji, they broke down the word Moturiki by these names. Ra koi Motu, ra koi Riki, Monuriki, Modriki, Tokoriki, and names with links to Moturiki like Navadra and Vanuayalewa (female land-facts about Burotu in Lau). However, Vanuayalewa is known for the Seafield outside Verata to the east, Vuniivilevu or Davetalevu.
The island of Pulotu is an island located in Fiji, north-west of Tongatapu. It is referred to in Tongan oral traditions as "the motherland" or "place of origin." It is there that some believed that Tongan culture and its people developed and evolved out of the ancient Austronesian/Lapita culture (c. 1600 BCE - c. 500 BCE) that migrated from the South East Asian islands through Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Micronesia and Fiji in about 8000 BC.
References
[edit]- Robert D. Craig (1 January 1989). Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-25890-9.