churinga

American  

[choo-ring-guh] / tʃʊˈrɪŋ gə /

noun

plural

churinga, churingas

1. an object carved from wood or stone by Aboriginal tribes in central Australia and held by them to be sacred.

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churinga British  

/ tʃəˈrɪŋɡə /

noun

1. a sacred amulet of the native Australians

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Etymology

Origin of churinga

First recorded in 1895–1900, churinga is from the Aranda word jwerreŋe

Example Sentences

The artefacts range from traditional body ornaments and slippers to a churinga, a wood or stone item believed to embody the spiritual double of a relative or ancestor, and clapsticks, the musical instrument used in Aboriginal ceremonies.

From The Guardian

The churinga nanja of its primal ancestor is sought for at the place of the child’s conception, and is put into the sacred repository of such objects.

From Project Gutenberg

The whole system is impossible except where descent is reckoned in the male line, for there alone is local totemism possible, and the Arunta system is based on local totemism, plus the churinga nanja and reincarnation beliefs.

From Project Gutenberg

Once more, it is clear that the Arunta system has but recently reached their neighbours, the Kaitish, for though they have the churinga nanja belief, and the haphazard method of acquiring totems by local accident, these things have not yet overcome the old traditional reluctance to marry within the totem name.

From Project Gutenberg

The Arunta nation, however, cultivates an additional myth, namely that the primal ancestors, when they sank into the ground, left behind them certain oval stone slabs, with archaic markings, called churinga nanja, or “sacred things of the nanja.”

From Project Gutenberg