For years, people have
been fascinated for years about the place in the Easter Islands where the
mysterious moai stand...researchers have never been able to decipher why these
figures were ever constructed…there are about 1,000 of these moai and some are
up to 40 feet tall…sometimes they are incorrectly referred to as ‘The Heads On
Easter Island’ and although only the
heads are exposed, the rest of the constructed body is buried…what exactly was
the purpose of these large figures featuring exaggerated heads being placed in
certain locations?...some researchers have suggested that the statues were
symbols of authority and power…used by both the religious and political
alike...however they were not just symbols...it is said that to the people who
erected and used them, it was believed that they were actual repositories of
sacred spirits...spirits who were all powerful…it is a fact that carved stone
and wooden objects in ancient Polynesian religions, when correctly created and
ritually prepared, were believed to be charged by a magical spiritual essence…
that is what they called mana…archaeologists further these beautiful works were
a representation of the ancient Polynesian's ancestors…deified
ancestors…interestingly, the moai statues face away from the ocean and towards
the villages and its peoples as if to watch over those who lived there…the only
exception is the seven Ahu Akivi which face out to sea to help travelers find
the island, or so it is said.
