Easter island was originally named after the day it was found by Dutch explorers in 1722 - Easter Sunday. But the island, the people and the language are all more usually called Rapa Nui - or "big island". The big thing in Easter Island is the Moai. Literally big. Most are around 12 feet tall and weighing in at 12 tons - but there are some unfinished ones in the quarry which are many times that size and the largest is 10 metres high, weighing 80 tons. Some things are known about them - what they are made of and where they are carved - for example. And there's some understanding of their role, which includes ancestor worship and protection of their community. But there is less agreement about how they were transported, or erected. Or, even, how they got toppled, as so many have ..... Here's a quick gallery of my favourite Moai
The Moai theme is everywhere in Rapa Nui - on the harbour front, in museums, beer glasses and mementos:
Here's a little one that I am bringing home ....
The first Moai were built in the early thirteenth century and, for comparison, this was sometime after the glorious Norman cathedral was completed in Norwich. Initially "hat-less", the Moai began to brandish their red topknots around 1400. By the mid-19th century all the Moai had been toppled - either by inter-tribal struggles or, perhaps, earthquakes - and the population of Rapa Nui had been halved by Peruvian slave raids. The 40 or so Moai now standing back on their platforms have all been restored since the 1950s.
One of the most moving places on the island is the main quarry, Ranu Raraku, where around 400 Moai can be seen. Sometimes they are still lying in the rockface, emerging from the Volcanic Tufa, and sometimes they are leaning, lying and lounging in the softly sloping "telly-tubby-like" landscape. They are all on a three-step journey. An outline is cut into the wall of the quarry; the roughly-shaped Moai is freed from the rock base and brought into a standing position, to finish carving of the face and arms and the back of the statue; then it is moved to it's final location and the carving of the delicate facial characteristics and eyes is completed. The eyes, though, made of white coral and obsidian, are added on special festival days.
The biggest puzzle is how they transported these mammoth statues to their final resting places - sometimes 5 - 15 km away. Over the years there've been many theories and many attempts to demonstrate the best way, which probably involved sledges and rollers. Here's a neat summary from the museum:
Some of the Moai have interesting etchings. The first one, below, shows a European galleon cut into the tummy of a late Moai - sometime in the seventeenth century. Whilst the masts and yards look a fair representation - they have carved a Polynesian canoe as the hull - perhaps something was "lost in translation" before the engraving began!
At a later date, bird man symbols were carved into this "top knot"
The bird man religion was extinguished by the Europeans in the mid 19th century. Until then, each of the tribes of Rapa Nui would gather at the ceremonial village of Orongo, with the boat-shaped stone houses. The fittest and strongest would swim out to the outermost island in the picture below - Moto Nui. There, they would await the arrival of the Sooty Terns and the finder of the first egg would carry it back in a turban to confirm their chief as the leader for the coming year. I've made it sound very easy but the dangers include sharks, drowning and falling from the steep cliff face - so it was a high stakes game.
Something we saw on the hands of our guide - and proudly included in many tourist treasures - were the inscriptions of characters and glyphs which form Rongo Rongo, a writing system for the Rapa Nui. But all 17 tablets which might help decipher the language are held overseas in places like the British museum. There are only replicas in Rapa Nui and I couldn't help feeling that seemed the wrong way round.
Rapa Nui has such a strange landscape. Formed by the eruption of three, now extinct, volcanoes - the black volcanic rock is everywhere. The soil is rich and fertile and carpeted with clovers, many of them with four leaves 😊. There's a mysterious stone at Te Pito Kura - which is magnetic - and the reason this part of the island is called "the centre of the world". Legend has it that it was brought to Rapa Nui by the first king and founder Hotu Matu'a.
The flowers are lush and surprising - there's monkey puzzle trees and cotton amidst the more typical tropical flowers.
Corrugated iron and thatching are key materials for everything from homes to businesses and motorcycle shades! Driving is largely dirt tracks and there are no zebra crossings but everyone always stops for you. Don't you love the four wheel cross-country bike with the dog on board - and the fishermen on their way home, roasting their fish on a barbeque in the back of their van ....
Cockrell's are everywhere - along with dogs which are owned but wander freely. And the little harbour has turtles visiting at lunchtime.
All of which inspired Sheila, Grant and me to go on a quick birding / snorkelling trip to Moto Nui, Bird Island, on the morning of our flight home. Such a treat to swim with flying fish and to see the Grey Noddy, which was a new species for the expedition bird tracker
So we all departed around the same time. I went with Sheila to Santiago - and Grant and the ship set off for Mangareva, via Pitcairn Island, with the descendants of Fletcher Christian, of the Mutiny on the Bounty! The Oosterschelde did look so beautiful as we passed by the ship during our days in Rapa Nui ....
Comments