What is "laka"

In Hawaiian mythology, Laka is the name of two different popular heroes from Polynesian mythology. (In other parts of Polynesia they are known as Rātā, Rata, Lata, Ata, or Lasa). Lengthy legends of their exploits extend throughout the islands, and the kings of Tahiti and Hawaii claimed them as their ancestors.

In one Hawaiian legend, Laka is the son of the Aliʻi nui Wahieloa and Hoʻolaukahili, grandson of Kahaʻinuiahema. He plans to sail to Hawaii to avenge the murder of his father, but his canoe-building is thwarted by the little gods of the forest. Because of his offerings to the great gods, however, they give him two outriggers that binds together for his long voyage. He and his companions successfully steal the bones of his father from the cave of Kai-kapu.

In Hawaii, another Laka was a deity identified with the hula and the red lehua blossom and is a deity of fertility. In the story of Hiʻiaka, Laka is one of Pele's sisters and guardian of the woodland. She & her family are said to have come to Hawaii from Kahiki (Tahiti).

• R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology ( Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 134.
• M. Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology ( Yale U.P.: New Haven, 1948), 263-75.

Laka is the Hawaiian name of a hero in Polynesian mythology

Laka may also refer to:

• Elvir Laković Laka, Bosnian singer
• Laka, Tibet
• Laka, a people group in Chad
• Łąka, a Polish word meaning "meadow", and the name of the following villages:
  • Łąka, Lower Silesian Voivodeship (south-west Poland)
  • Łąka, Nysa County in Opole Voivodeship (south-west Poland)
  • Łąka, Olesno County in Opole Voivodeship (south-west Poland)
  • Łąka, Silesian Voivodeship (south Poland)
  • Łąka, Subcarpathian Voivodeship (south-east Poland)
  • Łąka, Drawsko County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)
  • Łąka, Goleniów County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland)