6 Most Bizarre World Origin Myths From Cultures Across The Globe

How did the
Universe with all its realms, planets, animals, monsters, and forces
of nature came to be? And how about us, humans – when and how did
we appear and what is our place in all of this? We’ve been trying
to answer these questions since the dawn of times, ever since we
became intelligent enough to form them, but even before that we were
gazing into the skies wondering what it is up there, making up
stories to explain how everything appeared. Needless to say, human
imagination knows no boundaries, so each culture had its own version
of world origin heavily flavoured with their own mythology, its
deities and cosmogony. Here are 6 most bizarre world origin myths
from cultures across the globe.

Ancient Egypt

Found in the
ancient Pyramid Texts, Egyptian creation myths are among the earliest
religious mentions of such kind. Different parts of the country had
their own take on how everything appeared due to the gods that were
prevailing there, yet most of them had common elements: the world as
we know it emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea of chaos called Nu.
First there emerged a pyramid-shaped mound, and out of it the Sun in
a form of a scarab beetle, falcon, or child. The primeval waters were
ruled by Ogdoad, eight deities that represented different aspects of
the chaos, out of which creation was performed by Amun, closely
associated with Ra, the Sun god. According to another version, god
Ptah, the master artisan, started envisioning the Universe and as he
did so everything he was imagining started coming into existence.

Central Africa

The Kuba people
from the Democratic Republic of Congo have their own take on how we
all came to be – and, basically, it’s from god’s vomit. Yep,
simple as that! Their main creator is a white giant named Mbombo. He
was all alone in the darkness, there was nothing but the primordial
waters covering the Earth. Then Mbombo felt acute pain in his
stomach, and vomited Sun, Moon, and stars. The Sun evaporated some of
the water, creating clouds and letting the land and mountains emerge
from water. Then he vomited nine sacred animals – Nyanyi Bumba, a
heron, who created all birds; goat Budi Bumbs, who created all horned
animals; Ganda Bumba, the crocodile, who created all lizards and
snakes; Yo Bumba, the fish, who created all aquatic creatures; Koy
Bumba, the leopard; Ponga Bumba, the eagle; Kono Bumba, the tortoise;
and Tsetse Bumba, a black leopard creature, who was later cast from
earth and became lightning.

Cherokee

According to
Cherokee mythology, there was nothing but the sea first, and then a
curious Water Beetle named Dâyuni’si came from the sky realm to see
what’s there under water. While he travelled he found no solid
ground or place to rest, so he dived under water and brought up some
soft mud. It expanded and became earth. Then birds also became
curious, so they sent Buzzard to see if the mud has dried up. Buzzard
became tired and brushed the soft mud with his wings, thus creating
valleys and mountains from the smooth surface. Eventually they all
came down, but it was dark, so they put the sun in the sky to create
light and keep everything warm. The myth also tells how certain
animals and plants acquired special features. All of them were told
to stay awake for seven nights, but only some could do it. Thus,
black panther and owl gained the ability see at night and hunt other
animals, while trees like pine, cedar, and laurel, didn’t have to
shed their leaves in winter as compared to others.

China

Chinese culture
has its own cosmology that is incredibly rich, encompassing various
creation tropes such as emerging from primordial chaos (Chinese
Hundun), dismemberment of a deity to create different elements of the
physical reality (Pangu), siblings that give birth to the world (Fuxi
and Nuwa), and the dualistic cosmology represented through ying and
yang. According to the Chinese mythology, though, in the beginning of
everything it was not chaos or endless ocean, but Grand Inception,
when Heaven and Earth and all the things were still unformed. It
produced the Nebulous Void, which created space-time, and out of
which qi was created. It was divided by a boundary, and all
that was pure and light formed Heaven, while all that was heavy went
on forming Hell and Earth. Heaven and Earth produced ying and yang,
and out of those two energies emerged myriads things.

India

In Hinduism it is
believed that the whole process of creation and dissolution of the
Universe is cyclic, and keeps repeating itself almost indefinitely
(compared to human lifespan). The number of the Universes is also
limitless – they are emanating from Lord Vishnu and are like
innumerable bubbles floating in space. Within the Universe there are
three main realms – that of gods, humans, and demons. Thus,
Hinduism doesn’t focus on material earthly world alone, but
encompasses the vastness of all spiritual existence, of which the
material is just a small part. The creation itself isn’t limited to
one story, too. Rig Veda tells a story of a sacrifice of a primordial
being – Purusha, while at the same time on a subtler level in the
heart of all creation lies the sound – Om. Lord Brahma performs the
act of creation – he is born from a lotus flower that sprang up
from the naval of Lord Vishnu.

Maori

In Maori mythology the creation was performed by the primordial couple – Ranginui and Papatuanuku, father sky and mother earth. As the two of them were lying in the eternal loving embrace, male children were born into darkness. This didn’t make them happy, so they started discussing how good it would be to see the light. The fiercest of them Tumatauenga proposes to kill the parents, but Tane disagreed, saying they could simply push the two apart, staying with mother earth that would nurture them in the new world. These gods tried their best, but to no avail, until Tane lied on his back and pushed Rangi and Papa apart using his legs. As the gods rejoiced, one of them, the god of storms, was angered by the deed as he heard the cries of their parents who were separated from each other. He promised to pour all his anger on the deities and flied off to nurture his wind-children, whom he sent all over the world. He fought each of his brothers and all of them failed but for one – Tūmatauenga (or Tu, the humanity) remained standing strong. Thus the rage of the god was subdued and peace came to earth.