Polynesian

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Polynesian

Tāne

The God of the Forests

Domain: Forests, Birds & Knowledge
Alignment: Lawful Good
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Three Baskets of Knowledge

Speak with Tāne

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Polynesian peoples

Region

Pacific islands

Period

c. 1000 BC – present

The Polynesian gods were worshipped by the navigators who colonized the Pacific islands, from Hawaii to New Zealand and Easter Island. They honored them on sacred platforms (marae) and through the concept of mana, spiritual power. Their myths, such as those of the hero Maui, are still told among the Maori and Hawaiians.

On the marae, sacred stone platforms, priests offered first fruits and invoked the gods before fishing and war. The kapu (taboo) system ruled what was sacred and forbidden, and in Hawaii the hula was born as a devotional dance to goddesses like Pele and Laka.

At a glance

Tāne (revered under titles such as Tāne Mahuta, Tāne-nui-a-rangi and Tāne-te-waiora) is one of the most prominent and multifaceted primordial deities of the Māori pantheon of Aotearoa and of Polynesia in general. Son of Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother), Tāne was the architect of the cosmic separation of his parents: by planting his head on the maternal earth and pushing the firmament upward with his lower limbs, he broke the primordial bonds and established the reign of light (Te Ao Mārama). In his aspect as lord of the forests (Tāne Mahuta), he presides over the giant trees, the birds and all plant substances, establishing with human beings a relationship of mutual reverence governed by forest tapu. Seeking the continuity of the earthly lineage after the refusal of the celestial goddesses, Tāne gathered pure clay at Kurawaka to shape the body of Hine-ahu-one, breathing into her nostrils the breath of existence and becoming the progenitor of all mortal humankind. In the initiatory tradition of the Whare-wānanga, under the name Tāne-nui-a-rangi, he ascended the twelve heavens along the path of the winds (Ara-tiatia), defeated the hosts of insects and birds sent by his rival Whiro, and obtained from the Supreme Being Io the three baskets of hidden wisdom (ngā kete o te wānanga) and the sacred stones (whatu kura), bequeathing to humanity the moral, priestly and ritual disciplines that govern sacred knowledge.

10 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The trees, the birds, the forest and the three baskets of knowledge

Family

Parents

Ranginui Papatuanuku

Siblings

Tangaroa (atua of oceans and marine life)Tāwhirimātea TūmatauengaRongomātāne (atua of cultivated foods and peace)Haumia-tiketike (atua of wild vegetation and uncultivated roots)Rūaumoko (atua of subterranean tremors and volcanic clefts)

Tāne

Unions

Hine-ahu-one (woman sculpted from virgin red clay at Kurawaka)Hine-tītama (the Dawn Maiden, who later departed to rule the realm of death as Hine-nui-te-pō)Mumuhanga (in traditional botanical genealogies, primal mother of the tōtara tree)

Children

Hine-tītama (begotten from the union with Hine-ahu-one)Hine-rau-wharangi (begotten with Hine-tītama, ancestress of mortal human genealogies)Birds and trees of the forests (under the epithets Tāne-te-hokahoka and Tāne-mahuta)

Genealogy according to Sir George Grey, Polynesian Mythology (1855, cap. 1); S. Percy Smith & H. Whatahoro, Lore of the Whare-wānanga (1913, caps. 3 e 4); Edward Shortland, Maori Religion and Mythology (1882); Elsdon Best, The Maori As He Was (1924)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Grey, Sir George, Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race. translation: London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1855. read
Whatahoro, H. T. / Smith, S. Percy (trans.), The Lore of the Whare-wānanga; or Teachings of the Maori College (Part I: Te Kauwae-runga, Chapters III & IV). translation: New Plymouth: Polynesian Society, 1913. read
Shortland, Edward, Maori Religion and Mythology: With Notes on the Land Tenure of the New Zealanders. translation: London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882. read

Studies

Tregear, Edward, The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Wellington, N.Z.: Lyon and Blair, Lambton Quay, 1891. open
Best, Elsdon, The Maori As He Was. Wellington: Dominion Museum, 1924. open

Name and epithets

The Māori word tāne functions both as a specific theonym and as a common noun meaning “man”, “male”, “husband” or the “vital masculine force”.

In the ancient sources

Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, 1855. Sir George Grey records the manuscript compilations of Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikāheke on Tāne's impulse to push the heavens away and his…

The myths

The Proposal of Separation and the Raising of the Celestial Vault. As preserved in the manuscript of Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikāheke edited by Grey in 1855, while the gods remained confined in the suffocating grip of Rangi…

Worship and archaeology

The cult of Tāne formed the pragmatic and sacred foundation of wild life, of canoe building and of the construction of the Māori ritual houses.

How the god was depicted

In traditional Māori architecture, the presence of Tāne is deeply embedded in the very essence of the wharenui (the sacred meeting house).

What scholars debate

The Ascent to the Twelve Heavens: Autochthonous versus Syncretic Tradition. The narrative of Tāne's climb to the heavens and his receipt of the three baskets of knowledge by command of Io drew intense scrutiny from anth…

After antiquity

In modern New Zealand, Tāne Mahuta is one of the most respected cultural and ecological icons of the national identity.

Did you know?

The largest and most famous living kauri (Agathis australis) in New Zealand, located in the Waipoua forest and estimated to be more than 1,200 years old, is officially named and revered by the sacred name Tāne Mahuta.

Codex relic

Three Baskets of Knowledge. The three baskets of sacred knowledge he brought from the highest heavens to humanity.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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