Kaleka

Syllable breakdown

Name meaning and origin

Origin

Ngaju Dayak (Indonesia)

Meaning

a feminine Ngaju Dayak name from the Dayak communities of the Kahayan and Kapuas river basins in Central Kalimantan, where the traditional tiwah secondary funeral ceremony — a multi-day ritual in which the bones of the long-dead are transferred to an elaborate sandung bone repository — represents one of the most visually and ceremonially complex mortuary practices in the world; the women of Ngaju Dayak communities have historically been central to the weaving and bead-work traditions that produce the elaborate ceremonial textiles and personal adornments used in these rites; a daughter named Kaleka is connected to this artistic and ceremonial heritage and to the Kaharingan belief system that was officially recognised as a branch of Hinduism by the Indonesian government in 1980

Gender

female