Ñamandú

Ñamandú, the First, is the supreme being in the cosmology of the Guaraní, kept above all by the Mbyá of Guairá in present-day Paraguay. He is invisible, eternal and all-powerful, and dwells in the Eternal Home; his opposite is Añá, the principle of evil.

Ñamandú engendered himself like a tree, and from his heart came the light that dissolved the darkness. With Karai, lord of fire, and Tupã, ruler of water and thunder, he shaped the earth and the first people. Twin boys, raised by jaguars after their mother died, reached the Eternal Home and became the Sun and the Moon.

In 1610 the Jesuits founded Loreto on the Paranapanema, the first mission of Guayrá. In time the missions gathered more than 100,000 Guaraní.