19. The God-Like Tigomang

A Retold Myth from the Anggi Lakes, Manokwari, West Papua

By CELLY AKWAN

Anggi Gita Lake

A long, long time ago, a married couple who lived in the Arfak Mountain Range  was turned, for some unknown reason, by the gods into two beautiful lakes. The woman who became one of the lakes was called Lake Anggi Gita, the Anggi female lake. Her husband who became another lake was called Lake Anggi Giji, the Anggi male lake. The gods then made a high mountain that separated the lakes and put both in the Arfak Mountain Range, around 2.000 meters above the sea level. Anggi Gita Lake

They then painted each lake with different, beautiful colors, shaped curvy hills around them, made the place cool with temperatures from 8 to 20 degrees Centigrade, and planted the lower slopes of the hills and mountain with colorful plants. They also made the sky and the sun, moon, and stars; the days, nights, and seasons; the clouds, wind,  and rains. They often made the lakes, hills, and mountains bask abundantly in peaceful quietness. Even white sands were made to cover some edges of both lakes. Colorful butterflies and birds, other insects and animals made  the forest lively.  What a wonderful creation!

Not only did the gods make such out-of-this-world beauty. They also showed their wonderful power and strength by making  a 2.000 –meter-deep cave, probably the deepest in the world, in Lina Mountain Range. All they had made became an unspoiled paradise displaying splendor, wonder, and majesty of the gods. Had humans not been made for living in this paradise and spoiled it later, its power, strength,  glory, and beauty might have been kept for eternity.

 A butterfly from the area

Then Tigomang, the first ancestor of the Sough Arfak tribe, was made by the gods. He had children, but it was not known whether he got a wife or not. To this day, he has left some traces of himself to his kin. Take a walk around the Anggi Lakes and you will sight bare spots; they are the footprints of Tigomang. His children were made from his footprints.

His children and their descendants then came and settled  around the Anggi Lakes. They retold wonderful stories from their ancestors; one of them was that their ancestors possessed the secret of eternal life. That secret, however, was later gone through the folly of their ancestors, their thoughtless behavior that brought the wrath and curses of  the gods on them. For the first time, they and their descendants spoiled that paradise when they  built their houses and families, made their gardens,  fished in the lakes, hunted in the forest – and committed crimes against one another and waged wars against other tribes. 

For untold numbers of years, the Sough Arfakkers  and other tribes living around the lakes grew from a few families into families with hundreds then thousands of members and even more. To sustain their lives, they cultivated the land and hunted more and more until Mother Nature could no longer provide enough for everyone’s needs. The abundant fertile soil of the old days became barren, vegetables and fruits that were just gifts of Mother Nature  in the past were  later scarcely provided, fish and games that old people said they could kill very easily became harder to catch. The scarcity of fertile soil and foods then drove the people into various crimes and tribal wars for their survival. Gone was the original paradise; it later became a heavenly story either of the past or of the future, a story that only lived in the memories and dreams of the people. 

Few sages of the Sough had foreseen impending calamity if no action was taken to prevent this from happening. Hunger and starvation and ensuing crimes and wars could lead to more sufferings. Crops such as cassava, yams, potatoes, and sugar canes that had been abundant in the past were scarce later. Mother Nature who used to spoil her children around the lakes with her lavish love by providing them with very abundant food seemed to be very frugal later. Something had to be done quickly to regain the life of abundance, peace, and eternity. Who had to take the first step to prevent the tragedy from happening?

Tigomang. Not only was he the primeval ancestor of the Sough people. He was also a god-like man, one endowed with some god-like power. 

He had the ability to simply speak and call into existence all different kinds of foods his folks had lacked for a long time and badly needed. To demonstrate his supernatural power, he would stand at a place and call, “Cassava, yams, potatoes, pawpaws, sugar canes,” and, from nowhere, the food would appear instantly at that place. A lot of people who witnessed the demonstration of his power were amazed at the miracles he performed. Sometimes, the fruit he made was so big that his children could not eat it at all.

One day, Tigomang told his children, “I am going to bathe in the Un River. Do not follow me there or watch me bathe.”

His curious children, however, ignored his cryptic forewarning. Just as he was about to bathe in the water, they came.

Tigomang was very upset and said, “Get away from here. I told you not to follow me. Get away now.”

Alas, the presence of his children prevented him from gaining a secret of eternity, a blessing that his children and their descendants would inherit forever.  It was eternal life. Had he not been spotted by his children, he would have followed some strict rules to gain and possess that supernatural power.  First, he would have submerged himself in the water, then he would have come up and changed his skin. Finally, he would not have died.

His children, however, prevented him from gaining that divine secret. So, he was very angry.

“You have made me lose eternal life for all of us and our descendants,” he divulged with a sigh. “Now, you and your children and their descendants must die. If you die, you will not be able to come back to life. Your skin will rot.”

Despite his curse on his children and their descendants, he still had the power of resurrection. After that incident, Nginding, a person, died on the other side of the Un River. Standing on Anan, the name for the other side of the river, Tigomang called, “Nginding! Come to the other side of the river.”

Anggita Gita Lake

The people who heard him, however, kept crying over the dead body of Nginding. They would not listen to him when he called again.

“Do not put the dead person on the water,” they warned Nginding’s family. “Tigomang does not have the power to let him drift off to him on the other side. He will instantly sink to the bottom of the river.”

Sadly, Tigomang heard their lack of faith in him and prepared a specific curse on those unbelievers. He took a piece of dried wood and threw it down.

In a loud voice, he said to them, “Look at that dried wood, folks. It stands for the dead. Because you will not listen to me, you all will die and never come back to life again. If you have listened to me and submerged the body in the water, it will have come to life again. Alas, all of you did not listen to me or did what I had asked you to do. Because of that, you all will die and never come back to life.”

Tigomang then entered a cave deep below a mountain and went to sleep. He has not returned yet or come out of his cave.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.