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Star Lore Pleiades Part 3 - Asia and Pacific

White Tiger of the West

Named after the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology, the Pleiades are arguably the star formation with the most recorded star lore. The star cluster is a prominent sight in winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The Pleiades have been observed by humans at least since the Bronze Age.

Asia

India In Indian astronomy, the Pleiades formed the third Nakshatra, called Kṛttikā, meaning "the cutters". Kṛttikāis is also the name of its goddess-personification, who is a daughter of Daksha and Panchajani. Her husband is Chandra, the Moon. In Sanskrit, Kṛttikā is written कृत्तिका Source: Wikipedia

Kṛttikā Source: astroved.com

Tamil In Tamil mythology, the six brightest stars of the Pleiades are the six wifes of six of the seven Saptarishi (enlighted pople). The six wives fell in love with Agni, the Vedic fire god. For that reason, in Tamil, the Pleiades are called the Star of Fire. The seven Saptarishi are symbolized by the seven bright stars of Ursa Major and Arundhati, the only wife who remained faithful to her husband, is therefor not part of the Pleiades but is symbolized with Alcor (80 UMa), the companion of Mizar (ζ UMa), which represents her husband Vashistha. Source: Wikipedia

Agni with an aura of flames Source: Wikipedia

China In Chinese astronomy, the asterism we know as the Pleiades is called Mǎo 昴, meaning "Hairy Head." It is part of the 18th Lunar Mansion, which carries the same name Mǎo - Hairy Head. The 18th Mansion is part of the White Tiger of the West. Source: Wikipedia

Hairy head of the White Tiger statue by Ai Weiwei Source: Wikipedia

Japan In Japanese, the Pleiades are called 昴 Subaru, meaning "coming together" or "cluster." As such, they have given their name to the Subaru car manufacturer, whose logo incorporates six stars to represent the five companies that merged into one. Source: Wikipedia

Subaru Logo Source: Wikipedia

Thailand In Thailand, the Pleiades are called Dao Luk Kai, ดาวลูกไก่ meaning "Chick Stars." Wikipedia tells a Thai folk tale:

The story tells that a poor elderly couple who lived in a forest had raised a family of chickens: a mother hen and her six (or alternately seven) chicks. One day a monk arrived at the couple's home during his Dhutanga journey. Worried that they had no suitable food to offer him, the elderly couple contemplated cooking the mother hen. The hen overheard the conversation, and rushed back to the coop to say farewell to her children. She told them to take care of themselves, and that her death would repay the kindness of the elderly couple, who had taken care of all of them for so long. As the mother hen's feathers were being burned over a fire, the chicks threw themselves into the fire in order to die along with their mother. The deity, impressed by and in remembrance of their love, immortalized the seven chickens as the stars of the Pleiades. In tellings of the story in which there were only six chicks, the mother is included, but often includes only the seven chicks. Source: Wikipedia

Thai art chicken Source: dreamstime.com

Philippines In the Philippines, the Pleiades are known as "Moroporo", meaning either "the boiling lights" or "flock of birds". Their Heliacal rising signified the preparation for the new planting season. Source: Wikipedia

Java On the Indonesian island Java, the Pleiades are called Lintang Kartika or Gugus Kartika; Kartika meaning cluster, taken from the Sanskrit Kṛttikā. The stars represent the seven princesses, performing the court dance of Bedhaya Ketawang at the royal palaces of Surakarta. The dance is performed once per year, on the second day of the Javanese month of Ruwah (during May). Source: Wikipedia

Bedhaya dance Source: Wikipedia

Sulawesi The Bugis sailors called the Pleiades worong-porongngé bintoéng pitu, meaning "cluster of seven stars." Source: Wikipedia

Pacific

Hawaii In Hawaii, the Pleiades are called Makali'i, meaning "Little eyes" or "Little stars". The Makahiki festival, the ancient Hawaiian New Year festival in honor of the god Lono was traditionally held at Makaliʻi hiki, the Heliacal rising of the Pleiades. Source: University of Hawaii, Wikipedia Tahiti In Tahiti, a similar new year's festival is called Matari’i i ni’a. Source: etahititravel.com

Lono Source: shopify.com

French Polynesia Matari’i i ni’a Stamp tahitiphilatelie.pf

Māori In New Zealand, the Pleiades are called The Seven Stars of Matariki. They are part of the Māori Creation Myth, in which Rangi-nui and Papatūānuku the sky father and the earth mother had to be separated to give their children room to live and prosper. In one version of the story, one of their sons, Tāne-mahuta, the guardian spirit of the forest and the god of light (who was the one who eventually succeeded in pushing his parents apart) obtained heavenly bodies of light (the stars, the moon and the sun and adorned his father with them so he would be appropriately dressed in the skies. In a different version, Tāwhiri-mātea, the god of wind and storms (who was the only one who opposed his parent's separation) was so upset about it that he cried seven tears that became the seven stars of Matariki. Sources: Wikipedia, visitzealandia.com

Papa-tūānuku and Rangi-nui Source: Wikipedia

In 2008, New Zealand writer and teacher Toni Rolleston-Cummins wrote a completely new version of the Matariki story, to engage and entertain her class and make the story of Matariki come alive and have meaning. In this story, an adventurous young man called Mitai lives with his seven handsome brothers in the village of Maketu. He watches his brothers become bewitched by seven beautiful women, and under their spell, the brothers no longer eat, look after themselves, work in their gardens or hunt. Realising the women are Patupaiarehe, fairy women, he knows they must be cast far away.

The Seven Stars of Matariki; everyeducaid.co.nz

They are given to Urutengangana, the god of the stars, and he places the patupaiarehe in the heavens farthest from the earth. Yet once a year, at winter solstice, he allows their beauty to shine in the eastern sky. In 2009, Toni Rolleston-Cummins's book, illustrated by Nikki Slade Robinson was placed on the prestigious New Zealand Notable Books List by the Storylines Children's Literature Foundation. In my opinion, this story is a shining example of the evelution of star lore throughout the centuries. Source: Huia Bookshop

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