Sandung

Syllable breakdown

Name meaning and origin

Origin

Dayak/Ngaju (Indonesia/Borneo)

Meaning

an Ngaju Dayak masculine name meaning the ossuary or sacred bone house; in Ngaju spiritual tradition, the sandung is a carved wooden structure on stilts in which the bones of the honoured dead are kept, representing the connection between the living community and the ancestors; naming a son Sandung marks him as one who will maintain the sacred relationship between the living and the dead and uphold the elaborate mortuary traditions of the Ngaju people of Central Kalimantan, whose secondary death ritual, the tiwah, is among the most elaborate in the world

Gender

male