Easter Island - Orongo

 

Leaving Ranga Roa, I had a gentle uphill hike for about 3.5mi (5.6km) to Orongo. The terrain is mostly grassland with spots of woodland on either side of the trail leading to the edge of Rano Kau, a dormant volcano with a massive crater lake. Skirting around the crater’s edge, I arrive at the ceremonial village of Orongo.

The village is located on the edge of the crater wall with a gentle grassy slope on one side and a 980ft (300m) sheer cliff drop into the ocean on the other. The village consists of 50+ restored stone houses that were originally built around 1400 AD and later centred around the Tangata Manu (Birdman Cult) ceremony. Each house is oval in shape with a grassy rooftop and an internal height of between 3-6.5ft (1-2m), making it impossible to stand up in most of them. The doorway is extremely low, requiring a person to crawl in order to enter the building. Internal wall paintings depict images of bird-headed men, some carrying eggs, that relate to the Birdman Cult. 

In the centre of the village, one of the buildings once housed Hoa Hakananai’a, an 8ft (2.5m) tall basalt Moai. A rare piece, as it is one of only 14 made of basalt, the statue was extracted in 1868 by the crew of an English battleship (HMS Topaze) and transported back to England. It weighs approximately 4.2 tonnes and took about 500 people to get it on the ship. Today, it can be viewed in the British Museum.
  
Sometime around 1760 AD, a new ritual began in Orongo. Each year, chief male members of prominent families would gather at the village and select a hopu manu (a servant or male of lesser status) to compete in collecting the first Sooty Tern egg from the rocky islet of Motu Nui. The patron of the winning competitor would then be declared Tangata Manu and go into seclusion for a year where he would be considered sacred, spending time eating, sleeping and showered with gifts of food. His clan would also have sole rights to the wild birds’ eggs and fledglings on Moto Nui during this period.

However, the competition was incredibly treacherous. The competitor would first descend 300m down the sheer cliff face to the shore. If he made it intact then, with the help of a narrow float made of reed, he would swim for a kilometre (4,000ft) through strong currents frequented by sharks to Moto Nui, the furthest of three islets. Here, he would wait for days and sometimes weeks for the arrival of the Sooty Terns. During this waiting period, contestants would often pit against each other, stealing food and taking refuge in the numerous caves on the islet.  

The contestant to obtain the first egg would then shout his patron’s name, place the sacred egg in a reed basket tied to his head, swim back to Rapa Nui, climb back up the cliff face and present it to his patron. As you might imagine many contestants met with tragedy either by falling from the cliff face, drowning or shark attack. This tradition lasted for 118 years, when it was suppressed by the missionaries. 

I marvel at the bravery of these men who undertook such a perilous journey, in order to bestow honour upon their patron.