Easter Island - The Big Rapa!

One of the many things that doesn't seem to be that well known about Chile is that Easter Island is...part of Chile. When we left for Chile, we knew that we'd have some time after our second semester of teaching and hoped to spend some of it on Easter Island, as a memorable and very different end to our time in this amazing country. And so it passed, we bought tickets and have just returned from a great trip to the Island! Here are some highlights! 

Easter Island is located in the middle of the Pacific, about 3,500 kilometres off the coast of Chile, and is not much like the rest of Chile (and Chile from top to bottom is pretty different in different places as our blog has hopefully shown). Culturally it's a Polynesian island - the local language, Rapa nui, is spoken alongside Spanish (although its use has declined a little among younger islanders and so has become compulsory in the (two primary, one secondary) schools on the Island). Rapa nui is also the name of the indigenous people, and the name they use for the Island itself - meaning "Big Rapa" to distinguish it from the Polynesian island Rapa Iti ("Little Rapa"). The last couple of hundred years have seen the Island's Polynesian connections strengthened with many Islanders having to relocate to other islands, and the indigenous language is understood (due to similarity with other Polynesian languages) in other parts of Polynesia. The Polynesian name Rapa nui is a relatively recent naming, nobody knows what the pre-(European)contact Islanders called themselves and the Island, nobody can read the few surviving fragments of what is believed to be the original written version of the indigenous language, and the indigenous population present on the Island was at one point about 150 years ago less than 200 people - but modern archaeology seems to have proven now that the roots of the Rapa nui are ethnically and culturally Polynesian.   

The Island is largely volcanic, making for some beautiful landscapes - white waves from the blue sea crashing against black rocks and some interesting features such as caves.

waves crashing against the wild southern shore of the Island

natural volcanic crazy paving

these are banana plants growing from a cave mouth - it's an underground water store so the ground is very fertile

in the banana cave

another cave that Struan scrambled into, it splits into two passages which both lead to holes ("windows") in the cliff side with a sheer drop to the ocean

Something we didn't know when we arrived is that the runway serving the airport on Easter Island was actually built by NASA as an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle program.

the flights from Santiago continue to Tahiti

the smallest international airport we've been to

our awesome hosts welcomed us with flower collars!

We stayed in a cabaña owned and run by a super friendly Swiss guy, Peter, and his Rapa nui wife, Tiare. We will give them a good Tripadvisor write-up but for now, if anyone reading this wonders where to stay on the Island, we can very happily recommend Hareswiss.

the Hareswiss cabañas

inside

The location of this place is perfect as it has an excellent view of the West coast of the Island, so you get a beautiful sunset every night... we've got a few of these pics...

first the view from the terrace during the day

There are different ways to get around the Island to see all the views, natural phenomena, and archaeology. It's perfect for walking because, although the geology of the Island consists of three main dormant volcanic peaks (joined together through past eruptions), with the exception of those steep peaks the terrain is relatively flat. We got around through a combination of day long hikes and tours in our hosts' van.  

Here's some pics from our hike up to the highest point on the Island, Terevaka - from where you can get a 360 view of the sea - and back along part of the coast:

much of the Island is used for cattle farming, when one dies they just leave it there

look at the blue sea!

Struan at the top of Terevaka - it was windy...

the bowl of one of the many mini-volcanoes on the Island

view down onto Hanga Roa

Chile annexed the Island in 1888 after a tragic period in its history. Having been repeatedly ransacked by Peruvian slave traders, which depleted and impoverished the population, a group of Islanders returned from captivity carrying various deadly contagious diseases which immediately spread - not only absolutely decimating the remaining population but critically killing off the few remaining elders who retained some genuine knowledge of the ancient beliefs, rituals, ability to read the ancient rongo-rongo script, and other elements of the Island culture. The small population remaining lived for some time under the despotic rule of a French rancher - who kicked out the Christian missionaries living on the Island, and sent hundreds of Islanders to work in Tahiti (part of what would become French Polynesia) - and the less than 200 Islanders that remained eventually murdered him in 1877. Had Chile not annexed Easter Island it would probably today be part of French Polynesia.

When Chile took over the Island it was perhaps seen as a saviour, but any good feeling was probably short-lived as the Chilean Government almost immediately leased the whole Island to a British company which used it as a sheep ranch. The Island still has a very pastoral feel to it today:   

many of the dry stone walls are modern

Now it's time to get into some ancient history! The majority of the archaeological sites on Easter Island are the ahu, ceremonial platforms and crypts, on the majority of which stood the super-famous moai statues. The first ahu were built from around 800AD, but were all abandoned and their moai toppled over during a period of anarchy which seems to have begun relatively soon after, or shortly before, the first European contact with the Island. The first European to record visiting the Island was a Dutch sailor in 1722 (who spent Easter Sunday exploring it, so that's where the "European" name comes from...) who reported seeing the moai standing on ahu. Captain Cook visited in 1774, and reported that some of the statues were not standing and lay in disorder on the ground. By 1825 all of the moai had been toppled. 

toppled moai on a ruined ahu

back of a ruined ahu

So the moai cult, generally understood to be a form of ancestor worship in exchange for supernatural protection and guidance, was becoming ancient history by the time of more sustained European contact towards the end of the 18th Century. For whatever reason the perceived power of the moai was fading, and those who had any knowledge of the ancient rites were killed off by disease imported by outsiders, so the moai cult remains something of a mystery. The cult which replaced it, before the conversion of the Islanders to Christianity, known as the cult of the Birdman, is relatively well-known, because elderly people alive around the First World War (when the first scientific study of the Island's prehistory was carried out by British researchers) had witnessed as children the last few instances of the Birdman rituals.

Aside from some near our cabaña, the first ahu and moai that we saw were at Ahu Akivi, the restored seven moai. 

This is the only ahu with moai erected inland, and the only one which faces out to sea. All of the other ahu were built on the coast, and their moai faced inland, presumably to protect the people and the land. Related to this is that some of the moai had eyes made from coral and red stone - in most cases those eyes have been lost over time, but some remained always "blind". A nice theory is that certain activities were taboo within the sight of the ones that could "see", while the "blind" moai designated other areas which were less restricted. 

not great light, but that's a moai with eyes

Much of the Island's history is based on oral traditions passed down through generations of people, some of which can be corroborated and some not. The oral history tells us that the Island was originally settled by a king called Hotu Matu'a, who was defeated in battle after a dispute with his brother on his home island, dreamt of the Island as a place to escape to, but first sent seven navigators out to locate it - Ahu Akivi and its seven moai are believed to honour those original settlers. Given the total isolation of Easter Island it's fair to wonder how any ancient navigator would begin to locate it in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean (you might use the stars to get to and from locations you already knew existed) - a nice idea is that the flight paths of migratory birds would give explorers clues as to where landmasses must exist. Easter Island and its islets were a major breeding ground for various sea birds.

Two good examples of restored ahu and moai on the coast are at Tongariki and Anakena, two sites with huge historical importance. Anakena is on the warm North coast*, a lovely beach and natural harbour where it is believed Hotu Matu'a originally landed. Before Hotu Matu'a died, he divided the Island into territories for each of his sons who created family clans which lived within those territories. The territory centred on Anakena was historically seen as important because it went to his oldest son, who became the Atariki - High King.  

* Some of Struan's students recently asked him what "North Face" means, and why the outdoor clothing brand is called that. They knew the individual words but couldn't grasp the meaning in context. As he explained that the "North Face" is the coldest, harshest side of the mountain it slowly dawned that in the Southern Hemisphere that would be the "South Face"... 

the Anakena moai are well preserved because they were covered by sand, you can see the original detail of the elongated ears - evidently a practice similar to those practised elsewhere: CHECK THESE OUT

Anna at Anakena with Peter and Tiare

the Anakena ahu from behind

The Anakena moai show very nicely the huge red "topknots" that many later moai had. These were all carved from a soft red stone quarried from a different part of the island from the main moai quarry (which we'll come to in a moment). Presumably because this stone is a striking colour, and easy to work, the earliest small moai were carved from this red stone - while the giant moai of Easter Island have no real parallel in the world, comparative research has shown that they represent a development over time of early statue carving cultures elsewhere in Polynesia, and the early small moai have direct parallels from other islands.  

a fallen topknot behind a ruined ahu

These topknots add to the practical mystery of how the Islanders erected the moai, and placed the topknots on their heads, as both elements are incredibly heavy. The best theory seems to be that the moai themselves were lifted by levering stones under the head until the moai was effectively lying face down on a slowly growing ramp, which would eventually be so steep that the statue would be almost vertical. Pictures of a reconstruction at the red stone quarry, Puna Pau, show how it might have been possible to lash the "topknot" to the head of the moai when it was face down on the ground and then lift it using the method described above simply as part of the moai itself.

Thor Heyerdahl's moai

The photo above relates to a really important individual in the recent history of Easter Island - it's the moai at Anakena that the Norwegian archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl erected with the help of about 20 Islanders. The awesomely named Thor Heyerdahl became famous for successfully sailing an ancient South American style balsa raft (the "Kon-tiki") from Peru to a Polynesian island. He was attempting to prove that Easter Island could have been settled from South America rather than other Polynesian islands. He was originally partly inspired by the stonework at one particular ahu, Vinapu, which he thought must have been created by the skilled Inca artisans who worked on Macchu Pichu (we'll go see that one day). His dating system had these Inca artisans arriving and creating the fine ahu such as at Vinapu, with the rougher stonework on other ahu representing a cultural decline over time as skills were lost by later generations. 

a bit washed out, but you can see the fine stonework clearly

Most of the evidence (including DNA analysis, though from a vastly depleted population) now suggests that Easter Island was settled from Polynesia - Hotu Matu'a and all that - and that Vinapu actually represents a late style of ahu, with the Island craftsmen refining their trade over time, and that ahu and moai are spectacular continuations and developments of an existing Polynesian tradition. One as yet unexplained detail that Heyerdahl relied on however is the presence on the Island of vegetables like the sweet potato, which is of South American origin. Oral traditions suggest that the Island had two separate original "contact events", at different times and of people of different origins, so Heyerdahl may have been partly right. 

Another really spectacular restored ahu is at Tongariki, close to the quarry where the vast majority of the statues were carved - the volcano Rano Raraku.

Ahu with moai at Tongariki

us pretending to be moai - yay!

view of the sea and other ruins around Tongariki

So the theory goes that each of the ahu represent a religious and ceremonial centre related to a particular territory on the Island, which are assumed to have been related to a particular clan. Some of the ahu have been excavated and found to be essentially giant crypts - bodies were cremated and then the bones and ashes interred in the ahu. Around many of the ahu are remains of buildings which may have been inhabited all the time by say priests, but were perhaps only ceremonial "villages", occupied only for certain festivals or religious events (for example the Ahu Akivi moai which face out to sea are actually aligned for a particular solstice) - like some of the villages we saw up in the Altiplano.

some of the buildings at a ruined ahu

The next photo is of a "boat-house" - these were shaped like canoes, with stone foundations but then wood framed walls and roof. Interestingly, really huge ones turned up late in the archaeological record dating to after European contact - it's supposed that the Islanders were inspired by the size of the European ships and decided they had to go bigger. This is just one of the various ways in which European contact influenced the later culture of the Island, and some researchers think this contact perhaps disrupted the culture to an extent that contributed significantly to the decline and failure of the moai cult.

foundation of a "boat-house"

Certainly the European contact stuck in the minds of the Islanders, here's a photo of a moai with a representation of a European ship carved into its chest.

It's supposed that Tongariki may have been a shared site or somehow independent of the clan structure, because of its proximity to Rano Raraku where the majority of the moai were quarried and carved. It's unclear whether each clan had its own specialist carvers, who all were entitled to work at Rano Raraku, or whether one particular clan controlled the carving industry. The first seems more likely.


Rano Raraku is absolutely breathtaking and photos simply don't do it justice - you come along to the side of the volcano and as you get closer you start to see all of the heads sticking out of the ground...

the outside of the quarry

don't mess

One of the amazing things about Rano Raraku is that you can see moai in all stages of construction, which means that researchers have been able to understand how they were carved. We won't recount that here, but the reason that so many moai are buried up to the neck/ shoulders is that, after being detached from the rockface the statue was slid into a pit which enabled the carvers to work all around the statue, adding decoration and so on. All of the moai at Rano Raraku are works in progress abandoned for some reason, and the pits have filled up naturally over time.

The reasons behind the loss of credibility of the moai cult are unknown but, as mentioned above, at some point it seems that the moai lost their powers over the Islanders and people started pushing them over. The likeliest scenario seems to be that the clans became ultra-competitive at the same time as resources started to become scarce (the paradox of the chicken and the egg...) - the Island today is almost completely deforested and the only trees here now were replanted in modern times. Deforestation contributes to all sorts of environmental problems and the ecology of the Island is almost uniquely vulnerable to climatic and environmental changes. Wood is obviously incredibly important in many practical ways (obvious ones for Easter Islanders being to build ocean-going boats for deep-sea tuna fishing, building houses etc), but it seems that the Islanders were probably using vast amounts of it as rollers to drag huge stone statues around the Island. It's not clear to what extent contact with Europeans contributed to the decline. When the Dutch sailor Roggeveen was exploring the Island he ended up shooting some Islanders, along with no doubt bewildering many more with his huge boat and strange tools, language and physical appearance. This contact event, along with successive recorded environmental events (such as El Niño events) must have seemed like a run of bad luck from which the moai had become incapable of protecting the Island.  

There are various unfinished moai in Rano Raraku which show how bizarre the cult had become - huge statues which would have been impossible to transport and erect lie half-finished in the quarry. Perhaps fighting had broken out amongst the clans and leaders were commissioning ever bigger statues to channel mana (something like the "Force" - this link is worth it just to find out that "Wookiepedia" exists) to protect their territory and resources without realising that in practical terms that was in itself a further waste of resources. As resources became even more scarce, fighting must have become worse. The biggest statues really shout hubris, or just plain craziness. Something bad happened anyway, which led to an almost complete rejection and destruction of the moai cult, to be replaced by a new cult based around the Birdman competition held at the sacred village at Orongo - more on that later.     

Here's some more pics from Rano Raraku:

There was a dig going on while we were here, particularly they hope to find examples of further carving on the buried moai, as these would have been protected by the earth:

he's kind of smiling!

a moai still attached to the rock face

around Rano Raraku lie many finished moai abandoned on the way to their intended homes

Anna and Tiare

grrrr

Rano Raraku is a must-see part of any trip to Easter Island, and it's definitely worth doing it with a guide who can give you the low down.

That's quite a lot of archaeology so here's a break with some food and other different stuff. Part of the sad modern history of Easter Island is that all of the Islanders were forced to give up their ancestral lands (which are now being repatriated) and were relocated to Hanga Roa - which is now the "capital" of the Island, and the only significant residential area. We stayed outside of Hanga Roa, but it's the place to go when you need to eat. Here's some of the tasty things we had:

Anna with fish and sweet potato - an Easter Island staple

up close and tasty!

Struan with more fish and other nice stuff

both of us with awesome big fish (alright Anna had chicken this time) sandwiches

the daddy: a fish parillada!

So, as you can see, with it being an island they do a good line in fish. Generally these are local white fish and, if you like fish, really good! As we've mentioned in a couple of previous posts, Chile does really good beer, and most places have their own local artesanal brew. Easter Island is no different and, if you go, get some of this stuff, it comes in blond and dark versions and is really good:

Mahina - a good brew

There are plenty of bars and cafes in Hanga Roa to relax in, and one great entertainment is the traditional dancing at Kari-Kari, here's some pics:

click to expand and see the amazing headdress

the band up close

Struan with one of the fruity dancers

Back to the archaeology... the moai cult was over time replaced by the Birdman cult, which seems to have started as a cult within one clan but eventually came to be accepted across the whole Island. Practically speaking, it's certainly a good way of deciding which clan should take primacy on the Island without killing everyone in battles, and it may have developed partly for this purpose.

twilight on the moai

The cult was centred on the extreme rim of the third of the major volcanoes, Rano Kau. This extinct volcano is huge, with a freshwater lake in the bottom, and has its own micro-climate - all sorts of interesting things grow on the inner slopes of the volcano including grapes planted by European missionaries. Once you get to the rim you get an amazing view:

looking into Rano Kau

looks like someone has taken a bite out of the end

Apart from the big bite out of one side, you can walk all the way round the rim of the volcano. The ceremonial village of Orongo sits on the rim on the right hand side of the picture above as you look at it, and we also walked to the cliff edge all the way round on the left hand side, and had a picnic! First some pics on the way up from Hanga Roa, from where you can walk up on the same route used ceremonially in the past to get up to Orongo:

looking back down onto Hanga Roa

us at the top of the hill in front of the volcano

a view to show the inner slopes - if you slip you slide all the way into the lake...

the islets used in the Birdman competition, peeking through the bite

Anna on the cliff-edge overlooking Motu Nui

Now back off round the other side to Orongo:

The details of the Birdman competition are quite well known: here's our summary. Once a year each clan appointed a champion (or the clan chief could enter himself) who had to climb down the sheer cliff and then swim out to the largest of the islets in the picture above, Hotu Nui. That water is shark-infested, and the whiteness around the islets gives some idea of how the sea crashes against the rocks... Then the competitors would sit and wait for the appearance of seabirds (sooty terns) who migrate here to nest and lay eggs.

a figurative sooty tern decorating the football stadium in Hanga Roa

Once a competitor saw an egg he had to steal it, then return swimming and climbing (without breaking the egg) and be the first to present it to the priests waiting in one of the ceremonial houses in Orongo (the photo above was taken at the edge of Orongo which is a collection of buildings perched on the seaward side, South-west, of the volcano rim.) It must have been crazy, like a super-deadly and difficult triathlon.

The chief of the clan represented by the winning champion then became the Birdman for the following year - he had to live in isolation in a special house in Orongo, was shaved all over and given special food, while his clan were entitled to special privileges - so perhaps a way to allow one clan to dominate the others for a period of time, won by a fair competition rather than a costly war. 

tangatu-manu - the Birdman

Of course there's more to it than that, the collapse of the power of the ancestors through the moai cult allowed a god to take their place as the object of the Islanders' worship: this was Make-Make, a mysterious protective figure seemingly associated with fertility and prosperity who the Birdman rituals at Orongo were somehow associated with. Environmental data suggest that in the 100 years or so prior to the collapse of the moai cult life must have been becoming more difficult, and perhaps the Islanders needed a new supernatural protector. It's also worth noting that by this time the Island was almost completely deforested, which meant that nesting places for birds on the Island itself would have been very scarce - the Islanders must have worried that the birds might no longer come to the Island.

Make-Make

Here's a few pics from around Orongo:

the round buildings at Orongo

The moai cult didn't completely die out however, there was some continuity. In one of these buildings, British sailors in 1868 found a moai which apparently had a role in some of the Orongo rituals, apparently those related to "coming of age" ceremonies for children. This moai is now the best preserved remaining Easter Island statue and is displayed in the British Museum in London. We saw him just before we left the UK so it's been great to end our time in Chile by seeing more like him, and the place where he originally stood - he even has a name: Hoa Haka Nana la, and the other interesting thing is that he was carved up near Orongo in basalt, not from Rano Raraku stone like the vast majority of moai.

Around Orongo are some fantastic rock carvings, all relating to the Orongo cult. These ones are outside the house that sits right on the edge of the cliff looking down onto the islets - where the priests waited to receive the champion with the egg.

in the centre at the back you can see the Birdman

Make-Make

the islets from the priest-house

There's loads more we could write about this (and Struan really wants to...) but the information is all out there and we're just giving a taste of how interesting it all is...

Now we'll just gather together a few other pics from life and stuff around the Island:

If Santiago is a dog city, and Valparaiso a cat city, then Easter Island is definitely a horse island. The Islanders use them as transport, and there are also many wild horses. Two of our most memorable moments were, firstly, when we were having a picnic at one of the ruined ahu and a family of wild horses went past at full gallop all jostling each other for fun - then wheeled back towards us. It took some nerve to stay sitting as six bumping horses galloped towards, and then past us within about a metre of where we were sitting. Secondly when we were walking through Hanga Roa and we saw two teenagers on a horse, dressed in tracksuits and baseball caps, one of them playing reggaeton on his mobile phone - they were exactly like some of the poorer kids we see in Santiago, just on a horse...

Some pics relating to fishing, obviously an important part of Island life:

these beautiful flowers are all over the Island

another very common variety

the turtle print from the football stadium - it's a Pacific island

the Church in Hanga Roa - decorated with the Birdman and other Island symbols

a view across the Island cemetery

but the real news is that this is a young island, with many young people and a strong sense of culture and community

Saturday football - the awesome Colo-Colo came here once

and of course, this is Chile, they have protests

Anna having a drink on our little terrace

Now we'll have some more of those amazing sunsets...

A truly amazing final trip for our stay in Chile! We can't believe it's almost over... we have a couple of other posts in mind before we stop writing this blog, but for now it's bye to Easter Island...

were we sad to leave? Yes

that's better, and those shells mean we'll defo come back

chao!