Porunga is the wish-granting Dragon native to Planet Namek, but is much different in appearance to Earth's wish-granting dragon Shenron! Porunga in Namekian means the "God of Dreams".

Porunga can be summoned by invoking the magic words "Takkarapto Popporunga Pupiritto Paro" after collecting all seven of the Namekian Dragon Balls. Porunga has the ability to grant any three wishes within his power, but just like the invocation, said wishes must be made in Namekian for them to work!

(Tale 292)

After a fierce, hard-fought clash with Frieza to gather all the Dragon Balls, Krillin and Gohan manage to summon Porunga thanks to Dende's assistance.
They use their first wish to resurrect Piccolo, and the second to bring him to Planet Namek.

While our heroes are preparing to make their third and final wish, Porunga vanishes when his creator, the Great Elder of Planet Namek, passes away...

(Tale 294)

Much later, the Earth Dragon Balls are used to resurrect everyone slain by Frieza and his men, which brings the Great Elder back to life. By extension, Porunga is also revived!
North Kai thinks fast and comes up with the idea to use the wish to transport everyone but Goku and Frieza from the dying Planet Namek to Earth, and his cunning plan works perfectly!!

(Tale 324)

In addition to the people, the Namekian Dragon Balls are also transported to Earth as a result of this wish.
After the epic clash between Goku and Frieza concludes on Planet Namek, our heroes use the Namekian Dragon Balls to summon Porunga again. They use the first wish to transport Krillin's soul to Earth, and the second to finally bring the stalwart warrior back to life!

After that, our heroes planned to use the third wish to also transport Goku to Earth, but in a stunning turn of events the Saiyan refuses! As such, they use it to resurrect Yamcha instead.

(Tale 329)

130 days after that, the Namekian Dragon Balls become energized again, and this time the first and second wishes are used to bring Chaozu and Tenshinhan back to life. Last but not least, the third wish is then used to move the Namekian survivors to their new home planet.

(Tale 329)

Moving right along... In the Majin Buu Arc, Porunga is summoned again to restore the Earth after it is reduced to space dust by Majin Buu. Next, the second wish is used to bring back everyone who died except for the evil wizard Babidi and his minions, while the third wish is used to bring Goku back to full power just in the nick of time while he is struggling to finish Majin Buu off once and for all!!

(Tale 516)

And six months after that, Porunga's assistance is once again needed to erase the memory of Majin Buu from normal citizens on Earth.

First Appearance

"Dragon Ball" Tale 292

Trivia

Differences between Porunga and Shenron

For starters, Porunga is several times larger than Shenron!
In addition, the interval it takes for the Namekian Dragon Balls to recharge is only 130 days, compared to one year for the Dragon Balls on planet Earth. But the biggest difference might just be the number of wishes each dragon can grant at a time: one for Shenron, and a whopping three for Porunga!

(Tale 293)

Shenron did originally have the edge in that he could resurrect an unlimited number of people with one wish, while Porunga was restricted to one person per wish. But the new Great Elder of Planet Namek seizes the opportunity to power up Porunga and remove this limitation!
And on a fun note, it appears that Porunga has a more lighthearted personality than his more serious Earth counterpart.

(Tale 513)

→Preview: Scroll down to the comments for a hint about who next week's character will be!

*All comic images are from the Japanese version.