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Glite Dictionary
sipapu

sipapu

1 9.9
A small hole in a Pueblo ceremonial room that represents where people first came out
  • noun
  • /sɪˈpɑːpu/
  • Specialized
: sipapu
  • In the floor of the kiva, there is always a small hole called a sipapu.
  • the sipapu place

Examples

  • The therapy room was a faithful replica of a kiva, but instead of a sipapu and a smoke hole, there were several sunken bathtubs and a skylight.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • And there, within the sacred ceremonial chamber, in the holiest of the holy places, in the sipapu through which the spirits passed, Home Run was busily feeding on what looked like old dried corn kernels.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Kyumi shimmered near the sipapu.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • It was believed that the sipapu was the place through which the spirits passed to enter the kiva...

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Liberty explained a sipapu.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • In the floor of the kiva, there is always a small hole called a sipapu.

  • The Hopi people regard the sipapu as a sacred symbol of their emergence into the world.

  • During the ceremony, the leaders focused on the sipapu as a portal to the spiritual realm.

Surface Forms

sipapu singular
sipapus plural

Etymology

Sipapu comes from Pueblo languages and means 'place of emergence', a small hole in a ceremonial room that stands for where people are said to have first come out of the earth. So a sipapu is like a tiny 'door' or 'birthplace' that links people in the ceremony to their beginnings.