To a minor degree, I have been dreading this blog. Reason is, you can't ever say enough about Easter Island. There is so much to tell. There is so much that remains hidden or misunderstood. And the story won't appeal to everybody. But this is a World Cultural Heritage gem. Here, in the most isolated populated area on the planet -- in a spot the Polynesians call "The Navel Of The World" -- you reach the zenith of Religious Megalithism. Not just taking into account "La Isla de Pescua". But for all of Polynesia, all of Micronesia, and for that matter, the rest of the world. Easter Island is absolutely unique. The place is a mystery. Perhaps the most obvious starting point begs this question: "Why does such a simple culture, expend so much energy and resources and proportion of their time, for such an inexplicable purpose, even after it is clear it will lead to their own destruction?
What you get is a bit of Paradise, ringed on its perimeter by volcanic tufa columns carved into giants and arrayed in an arc as far as the eye can see -- at least at one time. The original Rapa Nui culture imported from the Marquesas and then homegrown to its own peculiarity, proliferated especially from the 12th to 17th centuries. At first, the Moai statues were small. This fit the early technology and island resources. But the artistic efforts grew progressively larger. Around 777 total statues are now accounted for. Of those, 288 were erected (more than enough to cover all coastal areas on Ahu platforms). These Ahu originally served as funeral staging areas, save for those areas dominated by cliffs. Another 396 are still embedded in various stages of completion in the quarries -- mainly Rano Raraku Crater. Another 92 came to "the end of the road" when they cracked or dissembled and were abandoned on numerous Moai slide paths leading from the crater to the coast. These statues were always primarily intended for ancestor worship. Plain and simple. That part is clear. What follows is background, for that which remains unexplained ...
As the Rapa Nui culture grew and population intensified, the statues became more stylized and increasingly larger. One could speculate, that as the ecological problems of the island (that were ironically directly tied to Moai production) increased due to resource depletion, it became the mindset of the tribes there that bigger and bigger sacrifices to the ancestral Gods were necessary for a good life. And thus a self-completing circle of ecological self-destruction descended upon the island.
Tribes that had been inter-related, took to warring against each other constantly during the 16th and 17th century as competition for food especially took on deadly consequences. Moai were toppled in the competitive fray. Respect for traditional Rapa Nui ways, dominated by hierarchical chiefs, fell by the wayside. Meritocracy (as epitomized by The Bird Man Cult) took its place. This cult, centered on the high crater bluff of Orongo, basically required that each year, each family participate in a competition to see who could first capture and return an egg of the gray-backed stern in islands offshore. The chief of the winning family was given great powers but they lasted only for a year. This test was far beyond present-day triathalon type competitions. It involved climbing down the crater cliffs, swimming to the birds' nests at the Matu Iti and Matu Nui Islets offshore, snatching an egg, swimming back, re-climbing the cliffs, and presenting the unbroken egg. Many died in the attempt, either having fallen during either leg of the cliff climbing, or having been eaten by sharks during the swim !
The process of cultural decline was completed, with the arrival of Catholic Missionaries. Language, food, and moral norms qickly changed. When celebrated navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1744, very few Moai were left standing. Quarrying and carving of additional Moai had come to a complete halt. The island population topped out at approximately 10-12,000, then dropped to 4000 by the mid 1850's.
Ultimately, the culture reached a point-of-no-return from 1862 to 1864 when Peruvian slave ships raided the islands and took 1500 Rapa Nui, most of them able-bodied males, and all but wiping out the institutional memory of the island when the keepers of the Ronga Ronga (written record) were included to a man. By 1868, the island population was down to 800. Fiftenn survivors of the slave raids were ultimately repatriated, but brought mainland smallpox with them, so that by 1877 the island population had declined to 111 -- almost the same it had started at 1400 years previously. The culture and its rich oral and written traditions and most of the secrets of the Rapa Nui (and theirMoai idols), had virtually disappeared (today it has recovered to around 3800, but that includes immigration and the purity of the Rapa Nui gene pool is long-since gone).
Our tour begins in the only settlement, Hanga Roa, whih is about 1.5 miles squared. I share the van with an Aussie couple (world's most inveterate travelers) and our guide. He is named Steven, a Peruvian transplant to the island ten years previously who is acquiring a master's degree in "Tourist based cultural relativism" -- or something very close to that. We head to the south coast bypassing the Rano Kau Crater I had visited on the previous day, and begin viewing the Moai and Ahu ring circling the island. Our first stop, at fallen Moai near Cabo Tarakiu, shows that Steven has no sense of time. We are surrounded by Moai, and he talks about plants and flint carving and fishing. For an hour. It also becomes evident our questions will not really get answered. We must ask twice. It appears he has memorized many questions from previous tours, and simply plays them back to us. Whether we have asked, or not. If we ask a question twice, he either gives a very short, one-sentence answer, or loops back into his previous answer. Or both. The three of us quickly learn, we must keep Steven moving. Lest we become horticulturalists ...
Our next stop is at Ahu Hanga Tee. Again, we see Ahu platforms, with overturned Moai. Nothing new. A repeat performance. We wonder why we have stopped here. At our next stop however, at Ahu Akahanga, we see much better preserved Moai. They have fallen on their face, protecting their features from the elements. Most of the reddish Pokhoa top-knots lie close to the head/trunk statues and are very well preserved. We also see petroglyphs (the Rapa Nui written language was more Oriental than Indo-European, with pictures expressing many words and concepts rather than sounds that could be strung together into words). There are also caves, a native crematoria, and "boat" houses. These are not actual boats, but shaped long and narrowly and similar to boats. Just long enought to sleep in, and be protected from strong winds and rain. As basic a shelter as you can get, save for a lean-to.
Another brief and unmemorable stop is made shortly at Hanga Tetenga. I believe this is a place where the so-called Moai Road (drag path) showed us an excellent example of some abandoned statues. Imagine the despair, of having spent months collectively carving a giant idol out of a volcanic quarry, having organized a large labor party to transport it perhaps miles across rolling hillsides (best estimates are 100 to 200 meters daily, on average), of having to feed both the carving and transport parties ... only to have it fall and break apart at some vulnerable spot. Usually, this was the neck. The statue became worthless at this point, unless it could be modified into a much shorter statue. But our minds are already far away. What we really want to see, is The Crater.
Rano Raraku Crater is quite simply, breathtaking. Its steep slopes rise perhaps 500 meters from its base at about 100 meters above sea level. It is loosely circular, with a diameter of 1.5 kilometers. Water in the interior is 50 meters in depth, and the source of important fresh water for the island. Quarries are found on both the exterior and interior slopes, though the most easily accessed and photographed areas are on the exterior. Wild horses, have the run of the crater. Even from the approach road along the coast (most often dirt, but occasionally paved) the crater stands out. One can pick out giant Moai en masse, which against the backdrop of the crater, appear as if mere thimbles. Entrance fee to Rapa Nui National Park (which gets you into all other park areas throughout the island for five days) is a rather pricey $60 per person.
The approach trail winds you through and past various mid-sized Moai, in various stages of inclination and deterioration. The slope upon which they are embedded, is made of waste or tailings from previous carvings, now long covered in dirt and grass. As you proceed higher large cavern type openings become clearer, from where Moai have been patiently carved from the volcanic earth. The process is "In The Round." Start at the top, slope down the sides, hollowing out underneath, until all that is left is a thin spine with holes and bicyle spindles of sorts that can be broken or released once an appropriate transport bed is arranged to carry the weight of the statue downhill and then to its ultimate destination. It is obvious this has been done top-down, in successive layers, leaving massive holes in the slopes at times. Everywhere, evidence of works in progress remain partially revealed in the quarry. I call one of them "Big Daddy" due to its size and clarity (see photo). Another, is simply "The Monster." While the average Moai is 4 meters high and weighs 12.5 tons, this Beast is 21 meters high and an estimated 300 tons if it were to ever be fully released from its cradle. While virtually all of the Moai have that impassive, "resigned to the passage of time" look, they differ quite a bit in size and shape. Photo ops abound. One of my favorites, has a leaning or slightly side-cocked head. Not your standard straight up and down and sealed-lip Moai. This is a place, we are most reluctant to leave.
After a brief lunch at the crater base, the tour resumes. Next highlight is the biggest Ahu on the island, Ahu Tongariki. It has 15 massive statues arrayed on its base, and is visible for literally miles around in clear weather. One of the best views, is downhill from the quarry, through the Ahu and into the sea (see photo). This site was destroyed as the result of a Chilean earthquake measuring 9.5 in 1960, leading to a massive tsunami with 10 meter waves which swept the heavy statues up to 100 meters away from their base. The Japanese helped fund their restoration, including the repair/replacement of most of the heads (which had become disattached) during the period 1995-1996. This site, is the most impressive of all the Ahu. Adjacent, is a small fishing cove, where a number of practicioners of rediscovering original Rapa Nui dress, customs, fishing, scavenging and idol worship live in hillside caves. I asked one dressed only in loincloth and roasting a recently speared fish for permission to take his photo, but he declined.
Something must be said at this point, about the means of transporting the Moai from the slopes of their quarry beds on Rano Raraku, to their eventual resting place on Ahu about the island perimeter. This is something we got next to zero help from Steven, in getting even theories mentioned. What little I have been able to ascertain from pamphlets, museum trivia, and legend is that the Rapa Nui used a combination of sledges, posts, ropes and wooden rollers to move these giant statues. The extreme misuse of trees to create rollers, is said to be one of the reasons for the ecological degradation of the island (further compounded by the domociling of up to 60,000 sheep in the 1930's). Other means, especially for short Moai, involved moving them vertically. This involved guy ropes to steady and keep a vertical posture, while the corners were rocked and twisted and spun, in the same way one maneuvers a refrigerator or washer or dryer into position. Again, average progess across the island was 100 to 200 meters daily. Once at or near the Ahu, the statues were raised using fulcrums, tug ropes, and ramp building with small incremental changes in elevation realized by piling stones in gaps under the statue after getting slight lifting from increased leverage (by the means just noted). The process is very similar to that used by the Egyptians in raising their obelisk monuments thousands of years previously.
Finally, our tour wound down. Our last stops were at Anga Papare Tare on the northeast coast, Tepu (one of them was exclusively petroglyphs and caves, but I was pretty dazed and sunburned by this time, and not into note taking), and finally Ahu Te Pito Kura. The latter spot has a mysterious perfectly round ball, whose magnetic properties throws compasses off kilter. It is a local "power spot," much revered by the Rapa Nui. Adjacent, is the largest Moai actually erected on an Ahu. It was 10 meters high, weighed 82 tons, and had a Pokhoa which itself weighed 12.5 tons. It was the largest standing, which also was probably the last standing,this Moai having been noted in a number of European journals as still erect. This was documented at a time when most Moai had been toppled and the Bird Man Cult had established itself and the ways of the Rapa Nui had already begun to fade away. We finish ten minutes later at Anakena Beach, at the junction of the central plateau road (all paved) and our south/southeast coast road. It is one of only two beaches on the island, with a sandy bottom. It is the ONLY one, with developed facilities, including delicious local food options, tables, and a restoom. The water is wonderful. Seven Moai, in fuller dress than seen elsewhere on the island, dominate the beachhead from a lofty Ahu. Like all their fellow idols, they seem to be harboring a secret. It is one I have concluded will never be given up favorably. The mystery continues.
Next: Not Sure ! -- The Road Forks, And I Took The Road ...
What you get is a bit of Paradise, ringed on its perimeter by volcanic tufa columns carved into giants and arrayed in an arc as far as the eye can see -- at least at one time. The original Rapa Nui culture imported from the Marquesas and then homegrown to its own peculiarity, proliferated especially from the 12th to 17th centuries. At first, the Moai statues were small. This fit the early technology and island resources. But the artistic efforts grew progressively larger. Around 777 total statues are now accounted for. Of those, 288 were erected (more than enough to cover all coastal areas on Ahu platforms). These Ahu originally served as funeral staging areas, save for those areas dominated by cliffs. Another 396 are still embedded in various stages of completion in the quarries -- mainly Rano Raraku Crater. Another 92 came to "the end of the road" when they cracked or dissembled and were abandoned on numerous Moai slide paths leading from the crater to the coast. These statues were always primarily intended for ancestor worship. Plain and simple. That part is clear. What follows is background, for that which remains unexplained ...
As the Rapa Nui culture grew and population intensified, the statues became more stylized and increasingly larger. One could speculate, that as the ecological problems of the island (that were ironically directly tied to Moai production) increased due to resource depletion, it became the mindset of the tribes there that bigger and bigger sacrifices to the ancestral Gods were necessary for a good life. And thus a self-completing circle of ecological self-destruction descended upon the island.
Tribes that had been inter-related, took to warring against each other constantly during the 16th and 17th century as competition for food especially took on deadly consequences. Moai were toppled in the competitive fray. Respect for traditional Rapa Nui ways, dominated by hierarchical chiefs, fell by the wayside. Meritocracy (as epitomized by The Bird Man Cult) took its place. This cult, centered on the high crater bluff of Orongo, basically required that each year, each family participate in a competition to see who could first capture and return an egg of the gray-backed stern in islands offshore. The chief of the winning family was given great powers but they lasted only for a year. This test was far beyond present-day triathalon type competitions. It involved climbing down the crater cliffs, swimming to the birds' nests at the Matu Iti and Matu Nui Islets offshore, snatching an egg, swimming back, re-climbing the cliffs, and presenting the unbroken egg. Many died in the attempt, either having fallen during either leg of the cliff climbing, or having been eaten by sharks during the swim !
The process of cultural decline was completed, with the arrival of Catholic Missionaries. Language, food, and moral norms qickly changed. When celebrated navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1744, very few Moai were left standing. Quarrying and carving of additional Moai had come to a complete halt. The island population topped out at approximately 10-12,000, then dropped to 4000 by the mid 1850's.
Ultimately, the culture reached a point-of-no-return from 1862 to 1864 when Peruvian slave ships raided the islands and took 1500 Rapa Nui, most of them able-bodied males, and all but wiping out the institutional memory of the island when the keepers of the Ronga Ronga (written record) were included to a man. By 1868, the island population was down to 800. Fiftenn survivors of the slave raids were ultimately repatriated, but brought mainland smallpox with them, so that by 1877 the island population had declined to 111 -- almost the same it had started at 1400 years previously. The culture and its rich oral and written traditions and most of the secrets of the Rapa Nui (and theirMoai idols), had virtually disappeared (today it has recovered to around 3800, but that includes immigration and the purity of the Rapa Nui gene pool is long-since gone).
Our tour begins in the only settlement, Hanga Roa, whih is about 1.5 miles squared. I share the van with an Aussie couple (world's most inveterate travelers) and our guide. He is named Steven, a Peruvian transplant to the island ten years previously who is acquiring a master's degree in "Tourist based cultural relativism" -- or something very close to that. We head to the south coast bypassing the Rano Kau Crater I had visited on the previous day, and begin viewing the Moai and Ahu ring circling the island. Our first stop, at fallen Moai near Cabo Tarakiu, shows that Steven has no sense of time. We are surrounded by Moai, and he talks about plants and flint carving and fishing. For an hour. It also becomes evident our questions will not really get answered. We must ask twice. It appears he has memorized many questions from previous tours, and simply plays them back to us. Whether we have asked, or not. If we ask a question twice, he either gives a very short, one-sentence answer, or loops back into his previous answer. Or both. The three of us quickly learn, we must keep Steven moving. Lest we become horticulturalists ...
Our next stop is at Ahu Hanga Tee. Again, we see Ahu platforms, with overturned Moai. Nothing new. A repeat performance. We wonder why we have stopped here. At our next stop however, at Ahu Akahanga, we see much better preserved Moai. They have fallen on their face, protecting their features from the elements. Most of the reddish Pokhoa top-knots lie close to the head/trunk statues and are very well preserved. We also see petroglyphs (the Rapa Nui written language was more Oriental than Indo-European, with pictures expressing many words and concepts rather than sounds that could be strung together into words). There are also caves, a native crematoria, and "boat" houses. These are not actual boats, but shaped long and narrowly and similar to boats. Just long enought to sleep in, and be protected from strong winds and rain. As basic a shelter as you can get, save for a lean-to.
Another brief and unmemorable stop is made shortly at Hanga Tetenga. I believe this is a place where the so-called Moai Road (drag path) showed us an excellent example of some abandoned statues. Imagine the despair, of having spent months collectively carving a giant idol out of a volcanic quarry, having organized a large labor party to transport it perhaps miles across rolling hillsides (best estimates are 100 to 200 meters daily, on average), of having to feed both the carving and transport parties ... only to have it fall and break apart at some vulnerable spot. Usually, this was the neck. The statue became worthless at this point, unless it could be modified into a much shorter statue. But our minds are already far away. What we really want to see, is The Crater.
Rano Raraku Crater is quite simply, breathtaking. Its steep slopes rise perhaps 500 meters from its base at about 100 meters above sea level. It is loosely circular, with a diameter of 1.5 kilometers. Water in the interior is 50 meters in depth, and the source of important fresh water for the island. Quarries are found on both the exterior and interior slopes, though the most easily accessed and photographed areas are on the exterior. Wild horses, have the run of the crater. Even from the approach road along the coast (most often dirt, but occasionally paved) the crater stands out. One can pick out giant Moai en masse, which against the backdrop of the crater, appear as if mere thimbles. Entrance fee to Rapa Nui National Park (which gets you into all other park areas throughout the island for five days) is a rather pricey $60 per person.
The approach trail winds you through and past various mid-sized Moai, in various stages of inclination and deterioration. The slope upon which they are embedded, is made of waste or tailings from previous carvings, now long covered in dirt and grass. As you proceed higher large cavern type openings become clearer, from where Moai have been patiently carved from the volcanic earth. The process is "In The Round." Start at the top, slope down the sides, hollowing out underneath, until all that is left is a thin spine with holes and bicyle spindles of sorts that can be broken or released once an appropriate transport bed is arranged to carry the weight of the statue downhill and then to its ultimate destination. It is obvious this has been done top-down, in successive layers, leaving massive holes in the slopes at times. Everywhere, evidence of works in progress remain partially revealed in the quarry. I call one of them "Big Daddy" due to its size and clarity (see photo). Another, is simply "The Monster." While the average Moai is 4 meters high and weighs 12.5 tons, this Beast is 21 meters high and an estimated 300 tons if it were to ever be fully released from its cradle. While virtually all of the Moai have that impassive, "resigned to the passage of time" look, they differ quite a bit in size and shape. Photo ops abound. One of my favorites, has a leaning or slightly side-cocked head. Not your standard straight up and down and sealed-lip Moai. This is a place, we are most reluctant to leave.
After a brief lunch at the crater base, the tour resumes. Next highlight is the biggest Ahu on the island, Ahu Tongariki. It has 15 massive statues arrayed on its base, and is visible for literally miles around in clear weather. One of the best views, is downhill from the quarry, through the Ahu and into the sea (see photo). This site was destroyed as the result of a Chilean earthquake measuring 9.5 in 1960, leading to a massive tsunami with 10 meter waves which swept the heavy statues up to 100 meters away from their base. The Japanese helped fund their restoration, including the repair/replacement of most of the heads (which had become disattached) during the period 1995-1996. This site, is the most impressive of all the Ahu. Adjacent, is a small fishing cove, where a number of practicioners of rediscovering original Rapa Nui dress, customs, fishing, scavenging and idol worship live in hillside caves. I asked one dressed only in loincloth and roasting a recently speared fish for permission to take his photo, but he declined.
Something must be said at this point, about the means of transporting the Moai from the slopes of their quarry beds on Rano Raraku, to their eventual resting place on Ahu about the island perimeter. This is something we got next to zero help from Steven, in getting even theories mentioned. What little I have been able to ascertain from pamphlets, museum trivia, and legend is that the Rapa Nui used a combination of sledges, posts, ropes and wooden rollers to move these giant statues. The extreme misuse of trees to create rollers, is said to be one of the reasons for the ecological degradation of the island (further compounded by the domociling of up to 60,000 sheep in the 1930's). Other means, especially for short Moai, involved moving them vertically. This involved guy ropes to steady and keep a vertical posture, while the corners were rocked and twisted and spun, in the same way one maneuvers a refrigerator or washer or dryer into position. Again, average progess across the island was 100 to 200 meters daily. Once at or near the Ahu, the statues were raised using fulcrums, tug ropes, and ramp building with small incremental changes in elevation realized by piling stones in gaps under the statue after getting slight lifting from increased leverage (by the means just noted). The process is very similar to that used by the Egyptians in raising their obelisk monuments thousands of years previously.
Finally, our tour wound down. Our last stops were at Anga Papare Tare on the northeast coast, Tepu (one of them was exclusively petroglyphs and caves, but I was pretty dazed and sunburned by this time, and not into note taking), and finally Ahu Te Pito Kura. The latter spot has a mysterious perfectly round ball, whose magnetic properties throws compasses off kilter. It is a local "power spot," much revered by the Rapa Nui. Adjacent, is the largest Moai actually erected on an Ahu. It was 10 meters high, weighed 82 tons, and had a Pokhoa which itself weighed 12.5 tons. It was the largest standing, which also was probably the last standing,this Moai having been noted in a number of European journals as still erect. This was documented at a time when most Moai had been toppled and the Bird Man Cult had established itself and the ways of the Rapa Nui had already begun to fade away. We finish ten minutes later at Anakena Beach, at the junction of the central plateau road (all paved) and our south/southeast coast road. It is one of only two beaches on the island, with a sandy bottom. It is the ONLY one, with developed facilities, including delicious local food options, tables, and a restoom. The water is wonderful. Seven Moai, in fuller dress than seen elsewhere on the island, dominate the beachhead from a lofty Ahu. Like all their fellow idols, they seem to be harboring a secret. It is one I have concluded will never be given up favorably. The mystery continues.
Next: Not Sure ! -- The Road Forks, And I Took The Road ...
How big is the island? Like not so much in terms of square miles but like comparable to Orcas Island? Bainbridge? Something like that. I always figured it was a tiny spec.
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