After 25 years of discussion about the one and only source of the band's name, Toto decided to come up with the real story! Not the dog in The Wizard of Oz, not Bobby's "real" surname, not the symbol for "all compassed", no, the idea came from a neat story about an almost forgotten tribe that lives below the sub-Himalayan foothills.
Lukather: "Now that we have entered our 27th year as a band, the number 27 means alot to our tribe. We have kept this secret until now by request of the great ones who gave us this gift... the name Toto."
In the Bhutanese duars below the sub-Himalayan foothills lives a tribe known as the Toto. The Toto language was discovered by the British at the end of the nineteenth century during the Linguistic Survey of India. Of all Tibeto-Burman languages known by name, Toto is the least known and most poorly described. Only four pages of highly inaccurate material were
collected by the British survey in the 1890s (published in 1909).
Toto tribe arts Toto tribe manuscript
George van Driem has been investigating this fascinating Western Tibeto-Burman language since 1993. He has made several field visits, and portions of his most recent visit were included in a 1995 programme broadcast on Dutch national television about his work. The forthcoming publication on Toto not only provides the most detailed account of the language to date, it also discusses the linguistic merits and demerits of
Western Tibeto-Burman hypothesis.
Luke: "I happened to hear the Toto tribe story by mouth of one of my old teachers at Highschool. I was like Wow, cause my heart was always open for sentimental stories. The idea of our band being discovered and described in a hundred years like they did with the tribe, really cracks me up!"
North Bengal is the land where the primitive Toto tribe holds its last stand - refusing to be swamped by the mainstream of civilization. Toto have their home in Totopara - a village that lies to the north of the sanctuary. Their customs and culture have been the subject matter of great anthropological interest.
Toto´s manager went back there years ago to explore the origin of the band.
Toto tribe chief Ancient Toto tribe arts