Trifter

At the very top of the path, right on the rim of the crater, I sat down to watch the sun rise.

To the east, a corner of Easter Island known as the Poike peninsula. In centuries past the Rapanui islanders would prostrate themselves before the statues which stand on their sacred platforms like Ahu Tongariki on the coast a mile away below me. They celebrated the new day as the sun appeared over the top of Poike’s hilltop.

Ahu Tongariki…Author’s image

No-one lives on this side of the island now. You have to make a special effort to get up early and leave the village, Hanga Roa, on the western side of the island to witness this moment. In the village, cocks will be crowing and dogs barking. Here, it is absolutely silent except for the wind, the constant wind, blowing through the grass.

Easter Island is known to the islanders as Rapa Nui. It is one of the most isolated, inhabited places on earth. It is, I suppose, best known for its giant statues, the moai. There are 887 of them recorded and 95% of those were carved out of the cliffs of the volcanic cone that I am sitting on. This is Rano Raraku and, as I walked through tangles of wild guava bushes and fallen moai in the half-light of dawn, I could see dozens of them standing along the bottom of the cliff. There were many more partly cut out from the cliff face itself along with rows of slots from where others had been carried way to be placed on the ahus.

The approach to Rano Raraku…Author’s image

Three hundred or so moai cover the cliffs and slopes of Rano Raraku, far more than I had realised. The largest one is about 70 feet long and lies in the space it was carved out from. How on earth anyone imagined they would be able to move it I don’t know. Still less, how would they lift it onto one of the stone platforms, the ahu. Nearby is a kneeling statue. This is unique, there is no other like it on the island. No-one knows why it was carved thus.

I walked up the path that winds among these silent staring heads alone. I can feel the weird atmosphere of the place. The statues are said to represent ancestors who became gods and were set up to watch over their people. As I walked by, a white bird, a white-tailed tropic bird I think, screamed from the cliff above. A ghostly sound. 

The moai…Author’s image

A frenzied effort must have taken place here. Terrible things happened as the system fell apart. I feel something or someone wants to talk about it. Perhaps those spirits, the aku-aku they call them, do live here. Perhaps the moai are searching for something, wondering what happened. Where did everyone go? What went wrong?

Crater lake of Rano Raraku…Author’s image

The sun is up, illuminating the crater lake behind me and I’m feeling warm at last. Breakfast is calling. The moai wait, enigmatic, silent, for whatever the future brings.