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Published: February 27th 2006
Easter Island
A Maoi abandoned part way between the quarry and its final destinationA few things to clear up first,
no bunnies or Easter celebrations in sight but its definitely an Island. Although a part of Chile
Easter Island is really a pacific island, the flight from Santiago was nearly 5 hours! its apparently one of the most remote habitable places on the planet. See the white dot -
Easter Island The island is a small triangular shape with a population around 4000, famous for its
Maoi statues. Most of the islands inhabitants are
Rapi Nui - the native peoples of Easter Island.
I went on a guided tour with an Australian guy from
Taura Tours, really knew his stuff. The next paragraphs are my complete Rapa Nui knowledge, if your interested....
The
Moai are
large statues which can be found all over the island, ranging from
10m to 20m in height. For over 500 years the Rapa Nui believed they could be used to hold a persons spirit once they´ve died. A Moai (or statue) was commissioned, quarried, carved and erected while the person was still alive. Once the person died the
eyes were added and this then held that persons spirit.
The Moai were all quarried and carved at the
Easter Island
The quarry, Rano Raraku same place, Rano Raraku an extinct volcano. There were then transported from Rano Rarako to where the person lived. How exactly they transported a solid rock statue over 10m by 1m nobody is quite sure. Its reckoned the
Rapa Nui were carving Maoi for over 500yrs, with each one being bigger than the last.
The Island was a two tier society,
Masters and Slaves. The Moai were of the Masters, at some point civil war broke out, the slaves revolted killing then eating all the Masters! In the early 90s a set of intact Maoi eyes were found, replicas were made and added to all the Maoi still standing. The local Rapa Nui didn´t like this at all, they thought it might bring back the spirits of the Masters - all the current inhabitants are descendants of the (cannibal) slave class.
The Rapa Nui also had a
Birdman Cult upto about 100yrs ago, it involved birds eggs and virgins and was all a bit strange. I´m not going into it.
I also tried
snorkeling but this didn´t go too well as it involved two things I don´t do well, a long rocky boat trip and alot of
Easter Island
Maoi carved at the quarry and ready for transporting sun. These combined with drinking way too much sea water put a dampener on the whole experience. On my last day I hired a bike and went sightseeing (much more fun) around one of the islands extinct volcano
Rano Kau. Fantastic scenery and got really burnt, the sun down there was extremely strong. Interesting place though.
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Rob Meades
non-member comment
An interesting way of thinking - to spend your life preparing for your death. Go on, tell us about the bird-men and the virgins; people will only go and look it up on the internet for the boring version if you don't.