Toar and Lumimuut

"The mother was very beautiful. Her name was

Lumimu'ut and she was a descendant of the gods.
Her beauty was breathtaking and eternal youth was
her bestowed upon her.
When her son, Toar, had become a young man he
left her to discover the world. Lumimu'ut owned a
long traveling staff and when she bid Toar goodbye
she gave him a staff of the same length and she
warned him never to marry a family member;
Manado Tua therefore he should never marry a woman who had a
staff of the same length as his own.
Many years and long travels later Toar returned to his hometown. There he met a beautiful
young woman whom he fell in love with and whom he wanted to marry. He did not recognize his
own mother in her who indeed had stayed young eternally, and from her side she did not suspect
at all that this grown-up handsome
young man was her own son.

Before taking the wedding vow Toar

remembered his mothers wishes when
he left her for his long journeys. So he
layed his staff next to that of his future
wife to compare its length.
But during his long travels he had used
his staff extensively, so it had grown
substantially shorter. So there was
nothing that stood in the way of these
archparents of the Minahasa.

When later on they discovered their

mistake, it was too late and ashamed
they left their home town.
During their travels they then arrived in Statue of Toar and Lumimu´ut
North Celebes at the volcanic island of Manado Tua (Old Manado), opposite the shores near
Manado in the Minahasa.

According to this Myth of Creation mankind descends from the woman and
not, as in Christianity, from the man whose rib was taken to create woman.

The statue of Toar and Lumimu'ut stands at a little square in Manado, which
by the way is not the capital city of the Minahasa, because that is Tondano.
Manado, however, is the capital city of the Province of Northern Sulawesi
and dominates the Minahasa area with regard to administration and
economic matters. Its founding is officially ascribed to Dotu Lolong Lasut,
 who is also commemorated with a statue in the city. The location of the
statue of Toar and Lumimuut in the centre of Manado can be considered the
symbolic incorporation of Manado by the Minahasas.

After some time Toar and Lumimu'ut finally decided to go ashore on the continent. When they
arrived there they found the coast too hot, so they went deeper into the country and settled in the
mountains in Tondano, where it is the climate is cool and fresh. Here they bore their children and
slowly populated the region.

Of course each of the children of Toar and

The Lake of Tondano
man-, Hukum Tua or Hukum Besar -principal judge-).
Lumimu'ut eventually wanted their own area.
The legend recounts that Toar had each of his
children choose an area and threw stones in
different directions. Where the stones fell there
came new settlements Tonsea (man who likes
water), Tondano (man who likes the lake), Tombulu
(man who likes feathers), Tombasso, Tontemboan
(Tompakewa), Toulour, Tomohon. In the legend
these 7 areas are the seven regions of the Minahasa
that later each created its own tribe with its own
tribal head (Kepala Suku -tribal head-, Tonaas -wise