Tupa

The Creator of Thunder

Domain: Creation & Lightning
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Thunder
Relics of Power: Storm's Breath

Speak with Tupa

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4 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 8 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, 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

Indigenous peoples of Brazil

Region

Brazil & South America

Period

pre-colonial – present

The Indigenous spirits and culture heroes are revered by the native peoples of Brazil, such as the Tupi, Guarani, and Yanomami. Their beliefs, passed down orally by shamans and elders, bind humans to the forest, the rivers, and the ancestors. They remain alive in the Indigenous communities that endure to this day.

Shamans lead rituals with songs, rattles, and sacred plants, mediating contact with the spirits of the forest. In the Upper Xingu, the Quarup honors illustrious dead with dances and wrestling, and cauim feasts gather entire villages in ceremonial celebrations.

At a glance

Tupa is a name associated with thunder in colonial testimonies about Tupi-speaking peoples of the Brazilian coast. André Thevet describes Toupan as the one who makes it rain and thunder; Manuel da Nóbrega reports the use of Tupane for thunder and his own decision to use the name in catechesis; Jean de Léry, who lived among the Tupinambá in 1557 and 1558, notes that strong thunder was called Toupan and that its arrival made people tremble. These sources do not establish a single narrative of Tupa as creator of the universe. Nor do they allow one belief to be assigned to all Tupi and Guarani peoples.

The ancient sources on this deity are scarce. This study gathers only what is on record.

6 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Thunder, lightning and the storm

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Manuel da Nóbrega, Informação das Terras do Brasil, in Letters from Brazil (1549–1560). read
André Thevet, Les Singularitez de la France antarctique, chapter 28. read
Jean de Léry, Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Bresil (1580), chs. XIII and XVI and vocabulary. read
Anonymous, Doutrina christaã na linguoa Brasilica, MS. Bodley 617. read

Studies

Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sá e Caroline Egan, Translation and prolepsis: the Jesuit origins of a Tupi Christian doctrine. University of London Press. open

Name and epithets

The spelling Tupa coexists in the sources with Tupane, Toupan, Toupen and Tupan. Nóbrega links Tupane to thunder, and Thevet associates Toupan with rain and thundering.

In the ancient sources

Informação das Terras do Brasil, 1549. Nóbrega associates the name with thunder and explains why he chose it to speak of the Christian God. Les Singularitez de la France antarctique, 1557–1558.

Worship and archaeology

Thevet states that the Indigenous people he describes had no set way of praying to or honoring Toupan. This is a European observer's judgment, framed in the religious categories of his time, rather than a complete inven…

How the god was depicted

The accounts examined here offer no secure description of Tupã's appearance or of a ritual object representing him.

What scholars debate

Thunder and missionary translation. Thevet speaks of a lord associated with rain and thunder; Nóbrega connects Tupane with thunder and states his catechetical choice.

After antiquity

The name Tupã entered Christian language in Tupi. The Doutrina christaã na linguoa Brasilica uses it at the beginning of prayers and in articles of faith.

Did you know?

In chapter 28, Thevet separates Toupan from another figure, the prophet said to have taught people to plant roots. Their proximity in the same chapter does not identify the prophet with Tupã.

Codex relic

Storm's Breath. A celestial bow firing golden lightning bolts across the forests.

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