Thursday, January 20, 2011 78 degrees 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
One of the world’s most remote places, Easter Island is a 64-square-mile volcanic island some 2,000 miles from Tahiti and the coast of South America best known for its Moai sculptures (great stone statues). This tiny triangular South Seas outpost measures just 15 miles across and has a population of only 3791. It is a tender port. The island was named by a Dutch navigator, Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday in 1722. The capital is Hanga Roa. The most likely explanation for the island’s decline is that the population outgrew its resources. The food supply failed, the forests were felled and soil began to erode. Without wood for canoes to escape from the island, fighting and cannibalism broke out, and the moai were toppled.
Easter Island today, remains one of the most unique places you will ever encounter; an open air museum showcasing a fascinating, but unfortunately lost, culture. The Rapanui are among the friendliest people you will ever meet, and the landscape is truly amazing – with its volcanic craters, lava formations, beaches, brilliant blue water, and archaeological sites. In late January to early February the islanders celebrate Tapati a festival honoring the Polynesian cultural heritage of the island.
No one knows the true story behind the moai, but they are thought to have been symbols of gods or ancestors. They were carved from around 900 AD out of the soft volcanic rock forming the sides of Rano Raraku crater, where some 400 incomplete pieces remain, many as high a 18 ft. It took 6 men 1 year to carve a statue. Once finished, the moai was cut out of the quarry and transported to a family burial platform called an ahu, some being given red stone “topknots”. Topknots represent hair. The people had long hair which they rolled up in a topknot. The family dead were usually placed in a vault beneath the moai, which was probably believed to transmit mana, or power, to the living family chief. The most famous of the moai are the standing sentinels embedded in the ground on the southern slope of Rano Raraku. These haughty-looking statues remain eyeless; moai were only given coral eyes once they were raised on ahus, at which time the mana began to work.
The most geologically spectacular place on Easter Island is the volcano Rano Kau with its steep crater and multicoloured lake. The ruined village of Orongo sitting on steep cliffs above the crashing sea and three foam-washed islands, is surrounded by rocks with “Bird Man” carvings; a man’s body is drawn with a bird’s head, often holding an egg in one hand. The basis of the cult was finding the first egg laid by the Manu Tara, or sacred bird, each spring. Today there are more than 150 Bird Man carvings in the area, overlaid with fertility symbols. There is only one moai with eyes.
Nearby are markings and stones that have been interpreted as forming part of a solar observatory, where on the summer solstice the sun can be seen rising over Poike peninsular – one more mysterious attraction on this beautiful and fascinating island in the Pacific.
Aku Akivi Moai – only one facing the sea, no long ears. Natives had light skin, red hair and long ears. Anakena Beach – pristine beauty.
In addition to the statues, the islanders possessed the Rongorongo script; the only written language in Oceania. The island is also home to many petroglyphs (rock carvings), as well as traditional wood carvings, tapa (barkcloth) crafts, tattooing, string figures, dance and music.
There are 887 moai scattered around the island, each one hand-carved from a single piece of stone made of compressed volcanic ash. Some stand on ceremonial stone platforms called abus; others lie on their sides along trails, seemingly abandoned in mid-delivery. Archaeologists have puzzled for generations over the role the moai played in the life of Rapa Nui’s inhabitants. Some believe they were a vehicle for communicating with the gods, others that they were tributes to tribal leaders.
The most striking sites are those where moai stand in groups. Among those are Ahu Tongariki, which includes 15 figures, and Ahu Akivi, where 7 moai keep vigil. Interestingly, the sentinels at Ahu Akivi are the only figures that face the water. One explanation for their positioning is that the seven, as they are sometimes called, represent the seven explorers who discovered the island.
As you walk among the island’s rolling green hills en route to a moai site, you pass monavais, stone greenhouses, used to grow bananas, mangoes, and avocados. Almost everywhere you look you will see wild horses.
Rano Raraku is the quarry area. All the moai were carved here using rock tools, and all those that were carried to resting spots on other parts of the island came along this path. It is mind-boggling to imagine moving the largest of the moai in the shadow of Rano Raraku; nicknamed “El Gigante” , this figure is nearly 72 feet tall and its weight is estimated at more than 145 tons. Rapa Nuans insist that the moai were transported via spiritual power.
“Easter Island: Isolation, Engima and Mystery”, 1914 Katherine Routledge “The Mystery of Easter Island”.
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