Fomba Gasy

Fomba Gasy means the Malagasy way, and it has been passed down in oral tales among the peoples of Madagascar. It has no single church.

Its creator is Zanahary, the sky god who gives life and receives the souls of the dead, while the earth god Ratovantany shapes human bodies from clay and takes them back at death. Ancestors are generally a kindly force, but neglected spirits can turn into harmful angatra, so bodies are rewrapped in fresh cloth in the funeral rite of famadihana.

The Merina kings of Imerina claimed blood of the Vazimba, the island's first inhabitants, through Andriamanelo, whose mother Rafohy was a Vazimba queen. His son Ralambo, who ruled from 1575 to 1612, honoured the sampy, royal amulets that protected the realm.