Dreams Come True
Easter Island
02 CHAPTER
SACRED VOLCANOS
Easter Island looks like a tiny moon, situated between the sky and the ocean, penetrated by the craters of extinct volcanoes, completely harmless. The time of eruptions ended a long time ago here, and now you can safely walk on these densely green slopes.
Birdman Cult
I am sitting on the slope of an extinct volcano. This is an unusual place – a unique ceremonial site. А village was once built here, which was inhabited only once a year when the first flock of sea swallows arrived at the nearby rocky island of Moto Nui to nest. During that time, the competitions were held to determine the name of a future leader. А person who could swim the fastest to the island, steal an egg out of a bird's nest, and manage to bring it back to the village safely secured on his head, would get a title of a Bird Man and be considered the supreme ruler. Looking at those dangerous cliffs and the raging waves, plus the gusting winds that blow you right into the crater of the volcano, I absolutely cannot imagine how this was possible!
Here it is – the birthplace of the Moai, the quarry on a steep slope of the Rano Raraku Volcano, where almost all of the statues, which are now scattered around the island, were made. Anywhere you turn or look, stone faces are staring at you. A whole army of giant idols lined up in rows, waiting in vain for their turn to go.
You come closer to the burrowed under the ground Moai, and you cannot even reach the giant's chin, which is kind of scary. It turns out that the stone heads that stick out of the ground near the volcano are only part of what is hidden. If you thoroughly dig up the earth, then the rest of the body parts will be revealed: a chest, an abdomen, hands, hips, and even elongated, thin fingers with bent nails.
Now, we see blind and hairless Moai. In fact, they remained blind only until they left the quarry chapels. As soon as the statues were brought into place, and erected on the corresponding ahu (stone altar, about two meters high), only then they were given eye-sockets, and a headdress (Pukao, which means a bundle of hair) was put on their head, weighing up to ten tons.
How did the sculptors manage to transfer fully completed statues from their workshop on the slope of the volcano Rano Raraku to all corners of the island, without damaging anything? No one will ever know. This secret will be kept forever by the speechless Moai.
