The Legend of the Birdman - Another Easter Island Strange Oddity

The Giant figureheads on Easter Island filled a spiritual void for the people who lived at this isolated place.   Among many explanations for the massive objects is that they were gravestones or in this case "head" stones for deceased ancestors. 

People need something to believe in - and if they don't have it, they often invent it.  Many ancient cultures developed some rather unusual or bizarre "religions."




 
In this case we will focus in on the very extraordinary Cult of the Birdman on Easter Island.  

Turns out that the important faith associated with the gigantic carved stone idols of the remote island only lasted a few hundred years.  Nobody knows exactly when these beliefs started or finished.  The lineage of kings and nobility eventually descended into war and chaos. 

 
Hey, and we're not talking about a whole lot of people here.  The population of this small enclave in the middle of nowhere was around 18,000 tops. 

As a people group, they were a pretty small sample size.  They were so isolated for so long that they developed their own quasi-religion of the figureheads.

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But what came next was truly ... weird.  Following the collapse of the old belief system, the powers that be - the ruling class of the citizens of Easter Island - needed a new way to pick a king or deity for them to follow or worship.  

So someone - not sure how to describe the process, maybe a committee? - decided they would have a contest that would determine who the next winner (or sacred holy man, or king, or ruler) would be.

Thus became the legend of the Birdman:  
a) a select group of warriors would 
b) descend a potentially fatal cliff to the sea 
c) swim across open water to a dangerous island 
d) wait sometimes weeks for a sacred bird to lay an egg 
e) and the first one to return with the egg 
f) would swim back across the shark infested waters
g) climb the deadly cliffs
h) and the winner would determine the sacred holy emperor for the next year. 
i) who would then live isolated in a cave and let his hair and fingernails grow for 365 days until the next "contest". 

Got it?  Hunh?  Who thought this up?  Do I want to follow a god/king that was the first to win an Easter egg hunt?  What the hell?  No wonder they call this Easter Island!

 
Sorry, I don't mean to poke fun ... but you couldn't make this up.  There are a whole lot of beliefs, religions, cults and cross currents of faith crashing into each other on this one!

The Birdman thing survived until Captain Cook and other explorers showed up, and eventually brought along some missionaries who put a stop to this nonsense with a few ... umm ... possibly unusual practices of their own?  Party poopers!

I've never been to such a place as this.  A tiny island in the middle of the vast South Pacific Ocean with so many layers of unusual things related to it.  Wow ... travel opens your mind. 

Now we are in Tahiti

So we have flown more than halfway across the South Pacific, and find ourselves in the islands of a nation actually known as French Polynesia, but everyone calls it Tahiti.

This is of course a wonderful tropical climate with amazing mountains rising out of the sea, covered in green.

It's just as you might imagine, sandy beaches, beautiful blue water, palm trees swaying in the breeze.  Pretty idyllic. 

It's been a restful couple of days in the middle of a consistent travel schedule.  And here in Tahiti, in addition to their native tongue, they speak French.  After three weeks of Spanish, we've had to switch gears again.  

But hey, our next stop after this is New Zealand, and then Australia.  English at last!  In our travels, we haven't often been to English speaking countries.