Tangaloa And The Story Of How Eua Island Was Created

Tangaloa the craftsman was the God of the carpenters who use to throw food upward into the air before eating as an offering saying for Tangaloa".

The bird called plover is sacred to him, as this was the shape Tangaloa would take to come to the earth.

The plover bird is also famous for pecking at Mauis eye as he lay on the beach at Lofanga in Ha'apai hence the nick name of Maui as torn eye. Between Tangaloa, Hikuleo, and Maui were divided Pulotu ( heaven), the sky, and the underworld.

Hikuleo received Pulotu, Tongan heaven which was the abode of the souls of chiefs and great people. To Tangaloa was assigned the sky, and to Maui the underworld.

Hikuleo was bound by a great cord , one end being held by Tangaloa in the sky and the other by Maui in the underworld. The earth would have been destroyed by a visit by her ( Hikuleo) hence the cord, a precaution to keep her in her home of Pulotu.

Eua island was created by Tangaloa the great craftsman, from the scraps he poured down to the sea from his workshop in the sky this was the first of the Tongan islands formed. Also created from the scraps was the island of Ata where the first men were formed, three in number from a worm breed of a rotten plant that was grown from a seed that was brought by Tangaloa from heaven to the earth.