Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

The Moai statues at Ahu Akivi, Easter Island. Photo: Jason Devitt.

Easter Island (Polynesian: Rapa Nui; Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is an island in the South Pacific belonging to Chile. The name "Easter Island" derives from its rediscovery by a Dutch explorer on Easter Sunday in 1722.

Located in the South Pacific between Chile and Tahiti, Easter Island is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island, located1,290 miles to the west. The triangular-shaped Easter Island covers only 64 square miles and was formed out of an ancient volcanic eruption.

Easter Island is famous for its tight-lipped statues that stand across the island. Exactly why and how the people of Rapa Nui assembled these ancient wonders is not fully understood. But here is what we do know about Easter Island:

Easter Island get its name from its discovery on Easter Sunday, 1722.
Easter Island is located in the middle of the South Pacific between Chile and Tahiti.
Only one airline flies to Easter Island: LanChile, out of Santiago.
Flights only come and go every few days, so an overnight stay or day excursion to Easter Island is impossible.
The original inhabitants, their language, and the island itself are referred to as Rapa Nui.
The Rapa Nui people probably arrived from Polynesia around 400 AD.
There are about 800 moai (statues) on Easter Island.
The written language of the Rapa Nui has yet to be deciphered.
Although the arrival of white explorers and missionaries had a detrimental impact on the island, Easter Island was deforested and nearly destroyed before their arrival due to overpopulation of the tiny island.
In 1995, the film Rapa Nui was released. Directed by Kevin Reynolds (of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves fame), the movie was a flop. It is nice to look at, though, as it was filmed on location.
Easter Island's only festival is the Tapati Rapa Nui in February, which celebrates traditional Rapa Nui culture.

History

Although many imaginative theories have been offered for the origins of the Easter Island people and statues, archaeologists and historians believe they have a reliable outline of most of the island's history.

Moai of Ahu Tahai.

Easter Island's human history began with the settlement of the island by Polynesians around 400 AD, who probably arrived from the islands of Mangareva or Pitcairn to the west. These Polynesian settlers brought bananas, taro, sweet potato, sugarcane, paper mulberry and chickens and established a relatively advanced and complex civilization.

It is well known that "Easter Island" is a European name, but even "Rapa Nui" was not the original name for the island. It was coined by labor immigrants from the original Rapa in the Bass Islands who likened it to their home island. The Rapanui name of Rapa Nui is Te pito o te henua ("Navel of the World") due to its isolation, but this too seems to be derived from another location, possibly a Marquesan landmark.

The European discovery of the island, by the Dutch navigator Jakob Roggeveen, occurred in 1722 on Easter Sunday. Roggeveen found about 2,000-3,000 inhabitants on the island, but it appears that there were as many as 10,000-15,000 of them in the 16th and 17th centuries. The civilization of Easter Island had already degenerated drastically during the 100 years before the arrival of the Dutch, owing to the overpopulation, deforestation and exploitation of the extremely isolated island with its limited natural resources.

Easter Island has very few trees. The island once possessed a forest of palms, but it is thought that the native Easter Islanders completely deforested the island in the process of erecting their statues, as well as constructing fishing boats and buildings. There is evidence that the disappearance of the island's trees coincided with the collapse of the Easter Island civilization. Midden contents from that time period show a sudden drop in quantity of fish and bird bones as the islanders lost the means to construct fishing vessels and the birds lost their nesting sites. Chickens and rats became leading items of diet. There is also some evidence of cannibalism, from human remains.

Birdman petroglyphs at Orongo, Easter Island.

The small surviving population of Easter Island eventually developed new traditions to allot the few remaining resources. In the cult of the Birdman (manutara), a competition was established in which every year a representative of each tribe, chosen by the leaders, would dive into the sea and swim across to Motu Nui, a nearby islet, to search for the first egg laid by a Sooty Tern during the season. The first swimmer to return with an egg would secure control of the island's resources for his tribe for the rest of the year. This tradition was still in existence at the time of first contact by Europeans.

However, by the mid-19th century the population had recovered to about 4,000 inhabitants. Then in a mere 20 years, deportation to Peru and Chile and diseases brought by Westerners almost exterminated the whole population, with only 111 inhabitants left on the island in 1877. The island was annexed by Chile in 1888 (by Policarpo Toro). The native Rapanui are gradually recovering from their low population levels.

Cave paintings on Easter Island.

Today, the tremendous increase of tourism on the island coupled with a large inflow of people from mainland Chile are threatening to alter the Polynesian identity of the island. The possession of the land has created political tensions in the past 20 years, with part of the native Rapanui opposed to private property and in favor of the traditional communal property of the land.

What to See

Ahu Tahai
The ahu (ceremonial platform) at Tahai sits near a canoe ramp made of rounded beach stones and is thought to be among the earliest ahu structures on the island, dating from 690 AD. It was restored by the American archaeologist William Mulloy.

Rano Raraku
The island's famous moai statues were made from the volcanic rock of this mountain quarry and are scattered across its slopes in various stages of completion.

Rapa Nui National Park
The landscape of Rapa Nui, the indigenous name for Easter Island, is an eerie exhibit of ancient cultural remnants of an abandoned desert-dwelling people.

Moai at Ahu Tongariki.

Rano Kau
A hike to the summit of this 400m volcano offers panoramic views of the island's solitude in the South Pacific.

Ahu Tongariki
15 of the island's famous moai statues stand here in a military lineup upon a flat rock platform.

Orongo
This lake-filled crater is filled with remnants of the Birdman cult practiced until 1867.

Location Map

Location map and satellite view of Easter Island. Using the slider on the left, zoom in for a closer look or zoom out to get your bearings. Click and drag the map to move around. You can explore Easter Island from space on a much larger image with our Easter Island Map or on Google Earth.

Explore Easter Island – PBS Nova Secrets of Lost Empires
An excellent resource that is probably the second-best thing to actually begin there. You can click on any area of the island and see several pictures and commentary on the area. There are also QuickTime movies and panoramic photographs.
Secrets of Easter Island – PBS Nova
Follow a team of archaeologists and a 75-person crew as they attempt to move a 10-ton moai using only ancient tools.
Easter Island - Met Museum Timeline of Art History
Easter Island – Mysterious Places
Easter Island - Wikipedia
Moai - Wikipedia
The Easter Island Foundation's Guide to Easter Island
Provides "All you'll need to know when preparing your trip to Easter Island." Includes an extensive photo gallery and debunking of numerous theories that explain the Easter Island "mysteries." A useful resource.
A Heady Experience - Washington Post, April 24, 2005 - Travel review of Easter Island.
"Let Sleeping Moai Lie" by Roderick Eime - Eime describes his lifelong fascination with such mysteries as Easter Island and chronicles his recent three-day trip there. He also includes background information, history of the island, several photographs and travel tips (he stayed at - and recommends - a local guesthouse instead of a hotel).