When we think of Easter Island, Rapa Nui in the language of its inhabitants, we think of the moai, the great stone statues facing inland. But the island's religious history does not end with those figures. After the age of the moai, and until the mid-nineteenth century, the centre of ritual life was a different cult, linked to seabirds, the sea and a creator god: the cult of the tangata manu, the "birdman".
Makemake, the creator god
The divine figure at the centre of the cult is Makemake, regarded in Rapa Nui traditions as the creator of human beings and the god associated with seabirds. In the island's rock art he often appears as a stylised face with large eyes, sometimes associated with figures of men with bird heads.
According to tradition, it was Makemake who led the seabirds to the islets off the southwest coast, where they returned each year to nest. The return of the birds marked a crucial moment in the calendar.
Orongo, the ceremonial village
The cult was centred on Orongo, a ceremonial village built on the rim of the crater of the Rano Kau volcano, at the southwestern tip of the island. On one side lies the crater with its inner lake; on the other, a sheer cliff dropping to the sea.
The village consisted of low, oval houses made of stone slabs, with very narrow entrances, occupied during the ceremonial period. On the nearby rocks there are hundreds of petroglyphs, including many figures of the birdman with a hunched human body and a hook-beaked head, as well as faces of Makemake.
From one of the houses at Orongo comes the basalt moai known as Hoa Hakananaiʻa, removed in 1868 by a British ship and now in the British Museum. Its back bears carvings linked to the birdman cult, a sign of the transition from one religious age to another.
The race for the first egg
Off Orongo, in a sea swept by currents, lie three islets: Motu Nui, Motu Iti and Motu Kaʻokaʻo. Each year the manutara, the sooty tern, returned to nest on Motu Nui. The race went as follows:
- the chiefs of the competing groups each chose a representative, called a hopu;
- the hopu climbed down the cliff and swam to Motu Nui, supported by bundles of reeds;
- on the islet they waited, sometimes for days or weeks, for the birds to arrive and lay their eggs;
- whoever found the first egg shouted the news to companions on the cliff, then swam back carrying it, often tied to the forehead;
- having climbed the cliff, he handed the egg to his chief.
The chief whose representative had won became the tangata manu for the following year.
A year as birdman
The new birdman received sacred status. His head was shaved, sometimes his eyebrows too, he was painted and led in procession. For a period he lived in seclusion, subject to ritual rules, in a house reserved for him. His group gained prestige and, according to several reconstructions, concrete advantages in the distribution of the island's resources.
The cult thus shows a combination typical of Polynesian societies: a religious rite linked to a god and to the cycle of nature which at the same time regulates the balance of power between rival groups.
The end of the cult
The birdman cult continued until the 1860s. In that period Rapa Nui suffered a catastrophe: raids by slaving ships carried off many inhabitants for forced labour in Peru, and epidemics decimated the population. With the arrival of Catholic missionaries and the conversion of the survivors, the ceremonies at Orongo ceased.
Today Orongo is part of the island's national park and of the sites recognised by UNESCO. The memory of the race lives on in some cultural events of the people of Rapa Nui, who keep it as part of their identity.
The symbol of the birdman
The image of a man with a bird's head is ancient and widespread in many cultures: it signifies the mediator between sky, earth and sea, the one who can cross between worlds. On Rapa Nui this symbol took the concrete form of a trial of courage, endurance and luck, in which the egg, a promise of new life, became the sign of divine favour.
In short
- The tangata manu cult followed the age of the moai and lasted until the mid-nineteenth century.
- The god Makemake was considered creator of humans and lord of the seabirds.
- The ritual centre was Orongo, on the rim of the Rano Kau crater, rich in petroglyphs.
- The race consisted of bringing the first sooty tern egg back from Motu Nui.
- The winning chief became birdman for a year, with sacred status and prestige.
