Ancestor of Mortal Humankind

Maharaja Bunu is the third of the primordial brothers of Ngaju Dayak cosmogony. Unlike his brothers, who remained immortal in the upperworld, he became subject to death; his descent to the earth explains the origin of mortal humanity (kalunen), whose souls the death rituals of Kaharingan religion return to the primordial village of the ancestors.

Parentage

• First Man of the Ngaju Creation Myth
• First Woman of the Ngaju Creation Myth

Domains

• mortal humanity

Powers

• to found the race of mortal human beings on earth

Relations

• sibling: Ancestor of the Sangiang Spirit Beings
• sibling: Ancestor of the Sangen Heroic Beings
• subordinate to: Upperworld God

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.