Pulotu


Pulotu is the resting place of those passed on in the Polynesian narrative of Tonga and Samoa, the world of darkness "lalo fonua".

Tonga

In Tongan mythology, Pulotu is presided over by Havea Hikuleo. 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 Touiaifutuna, 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. Tonga and Samoa would have been vassals or tributary confederates of the Tui Pulotu network in Fiji, which was in turn overshadowed by the Tui Manu'a confederacy of Samoa.
After the independence struggle by Hikuleo and his cousins Maui Motua and Tangaloa Eiki, they renamed Touiaifutuna into Tongamamao. Only after that the other islands were made. Finally Tongamamao was renamed, for the last time, as Tonga.
Hikuleo is supposed to have married a daughter of Tangaloa Eiki.

Samoa

In the mythology of Samoa, Pulotu is presided over by the god Saveasi'uleo, whose name reveals a similarity to the Tongan god Havea Hikuleo. 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.
Spirits enter Pulotu at Le Fafa at Falealupo village.