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.

---

churinga British  

/ tʃəˈrɪŋɡə /

noun

1. a sacred amulet of the native Australians

---

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 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

The souls of these ancestors haunt such spots, especially they haunt the nanja tree or rock, and the stone churinga nanja.

From Project Gutenberg

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

This licence is absolutely confined to the limited region in which stone churinga nanja occur.

From Project Gutenberg