Day 2 – The birdman cult

A childhood dream that comes true does not happen every day. Yesterday I cried a little bit  when the Dreamliner of LAN touched down on the runway. Forty years of waiting for something that I thought would never happen ...

A Dreamliner for my childhood dream is appropriate, but a Dreamliner on Easter Island? The island is not large, the previous runway was proportionate. But at the time of the space shuttle program, NASA had created a large runway here as a deflection possibility for the landing of a shuttle. Easter Island now has a beautiful long runway, perfect for the Dreamliner. The aircraft is also the only option as a tourist to get here. With one flight per day, it is an attempt to limit tourism.

It also illustrates the isolation of the island. The 5000 inhabitants, however, have all they need. Once this was quiet different with a supply that happened only sporadically. These days, cargo planes are sent from Chile with fresh food. Everything else, from gas cylinders, to clothing, to cars is coming by sea. Because Easter Island does not have a port or quay, the vessels are unloaded at sea unto smaller vessels. Petrol or gas are pumped from tankers through a kind of pipeline system to the island. This logistical nightmare comes of course with a high cost which explains that the prices on the island are higher than on the mainland of Chile. And sometimes one needs to have some patience. At present there is a vessel waiting to be unloaded but with the strong current, this is currently not possible. Sometimes, ships have to wait for two weeks before they are discharged.

But back to the past, the distant past. Easter Island is as previously stated a volcanic island that is actually created from three islands that were formed each by three volcanoes: Terevaka, Poike and Rano Kau. At the last eruption of the Terevakan, the flowing lava connected the three islands and so became one triangular island. The geological aspect is the easiest to this story. We already have an island, now we need the residents. And there starts the mysticism. There are no sources that can provide security, so all that is stated, rest solely on archaeological research, stories penned by explorers and missionaries and scientific theories. And that is start of course of the first contradictory assertions. I will try to unravel this culture in the next days. If I am somewhat confusing, my apologies for all that. But it is a complicated story and our visits are not chronologically. One of the biggest issues in fact was who these people were and where they came from. Two theories remained standing. After having heard both statements, I tend to believe the proposition that seems the most logical to me. This is to say that the Rapa Nui, as the locals are called (and the island itself by the way), have a Polynesian background. Polynesians originally came from near Taiwan and made their way through current Indonesia and spread further across the various islands in the Pacific Ocean when there was overpopulation. The Rapa Nui come from the Marquesas Islands which is in what is now French Polynesia. They first sent explorers to see if the island was viable and then the rest of the populationfollowed. Anthropological examination of bones and linguistic evidence has convinced me of this.

The other theory is that the Rapa Nui came from South America, the theory that Thor Heyerdahl tried to prove with his expedition with the Kon-Tiki This theory is meanwhile outdated. There is only one statue amongst several hundreds which shows a similarity to the Incas and the introduction of the potato may have happened later.

Our first visit today is to the religiousplace Orongo.

Polynesians had a multi-gods-rite, meaning they worshipped different gods. The king was seen as the man directly descended from a god or at least had a blood tie. He had plenty of mana, the energy that was needed to ensure prosperity for the population. After hundreds of years of moai culture, this belief was abandoned and a new cult began. The various deities were replaced by one, the make-make, the creator. Hence the birdman cult or Tangata Manu was born.

The population of the island was increasingly dependent on eating a certain bird and the eggs of this bird. This was because the island had become overcrowded, farmland depleted and the trees were almost all gone so they were not able to build more boats for fishing. On the basis of petroglyphs it is clear that the birdman cult already existed in 1760 and that this culture lasted at least until 1878 when the missionaries made an end to it. The culture consisted of a competition between ambitious men from different clans. The foremen chose young, strong men  that had to ensure that they were the first who could offer an egg to the foreman and who was declared the winner. The men had to descend from a 300m steep cliff and reach with a primitive canoe of reeds and half swimming the island of Motu Nui.

The men stayed days and possibly weeks on the island before the birds arrived. When they found an egg, they made the perilous journey back, with the egg tied to the forehead, climbing  up the 300 meter high cliff. Often there were deaths from crashes or shark attacks. On arrival the winner handed the egg to his foreman. The foreman  acquired the status of spiritual leader. He then stayed in seclusion for a year at the crater Rano Raraku. He was the Tangata Manu, the representative of the creator god make-ake for the whole island. The ceremony took place on the southwest tip at the settlement of Orongo.

This settlement was probably just of ritual significance because there are no fire places. Possibly priests stayed here and were provided with prepared food by the people or the shared meals were prepared elsewhere.

Here we also find some petroglyphs These are drawings carved into soft volcanic rock with effigies of the god Make-make. This soft rock has sadly fallen prey to erosion and the drawings disappear slowly.

Our next stop is the site of Puna Pau in a small crater. Here the 'pukao’, being the headgear of the moais (statues) were carved out. These pukao were carved out of a very light red volcanic stone. The stone was cut in the block, and only on site carved in the correct shape. The pukao were loosely put on the statues, so most have perished over the years.

And finally, we visit Ahu Akivi. My first real moais. The moais here are the only statues that are facing the sea.

What was the function of these moais?

They had a religious significance. They portrayed the ancestors, those who had a lot of ‘mana’. These statues were in contact with the gods.The moais thus protected as it were, the population and helped ensure prosperity. They were always directed to the village where they watched over. Here at Ahu Akivi there must therefore have been a village situated between the statues and the water. The seven statues are of medium height, and which were the first to be restored by William Mulloy. He wanted to start small...

We learn more about these fascinating statues tomorrow.