Case file · Folklore / legend
Tūhoto Ariki, the tohunga blamed for Tarawera
After the June 1886 eruption, the aged tohunga Tūhoto Ariki, whom some at Te Wairoa blamed for the disaster, was dug alive from his buried whare four days later; he died shortly afterwards in Rotorua.
1886 CE · -38.22, 176.36 · status: official
The account
Tūhoto was said to have warned that the people's growing commercialism and drinking would anger the mountain; some survivors said he had brought the eruption on them. Rescuers reached him after several days in the ash, and he was taken to hospital in Rotorua, where he died about a week later.
The sceptical view
The eruption was a basaltic fissure eruption with clear geological causes; the blame placed on Tūhoto reflects a community searching for meaning in catastrophe.