Ina-Mita (Corn Spirit)
Ina-Mita (Mother Corn) is the agricultural spirit of Timor-Leste who, according to Timorese tradition, sacrificed herself to provide corn (maize) to the people during a time of terrible drought. When a severe drought threatened the survival of the highland communities, a poor farmer prayed to the ancestors for help. An ancestral spirit appeared in a dream, instructing him to sacrifice his most prized possession — a single golden earring passed down through generations — and bury it in the driest part of his field. The next morning, a strange new plant sprouted where the earring was buried, bea