First Woman of the Ngaju Creation Myth

Kameloh Putak Bulau Janjulen Karangan is the first woman of the Ngaju Dayak creation narrative. With the first man she bears three sons — Maharaja Sangiang, Maharaja Sangen, and Maharaja Bunu — whose divergent fates account for the origin of the upperworld spirit beings and of mortal humanity.

Children

• Ancestor of Mortal Humankind
• Ancestor of the Sangen Heroic Beings
• Ancestor of the Sangiang Spirit Beings

Domains

• primordial humanity

Powers

• to give birth to the ancestors of spirits and of humankind

Relations

• subordinate to: Upperworld God
• spouse: First Man of the Ngaju Creation Myth

Sources

• Schärer, Hans. Ngaju Religion: The Conception of God among a South Borneo People, trans. Rodney Needham. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1963.
• Schiller, Anne. Small Sacrifices: Religious Change and Cultural Identity among the Ngaju of Indonesia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.