Visitor Center - The Orongo Ceremonial Village - Rapa Nui - Easter Island - Isla de Pasqua

            There is a very nice visitor center (with bathrooms!) at Orongo.  Here an entrepreneur has set up a pineapple stand for refreshment.

Located in the southwestern corner of the island, Orongo was a ceremonial village of 54 houses that was used only in the spring of the year.  The island would wait for the return of a bird called the Sooty Tern.  Then the tribes on the island would send their most important members to Orongo, for a month-long celebration called the Birdman Competition.

Each tribe had a competitor, a young man who had trained specifically for the event.  When the signal for the competition to begin was given, the representatives of each tribe would climb down the 1,000 ft cliffs, swim two kilometers to an island called Motu Nui, then camped in caves, waiting for the first Sooty Tern egg to be laid.  The first man to grab one would become the winner and become the Birdman for the year (he did need to return to Orongo with the egg intact, swimming back with the egg in a pouch around his head.

The birdman would then live alone for the first five months of his rule, with only a servant to get him food.  

This competition was started by warrior tribes in the 16th century.  Moai worship and the old culture were being cast aside because of  shortages and natural resource depletion.  The warrior tribes replaced the old belief structure with a cult for Make-Make god, a god closely tied with fertility, spring and migratory seabirds.  From this cult the Birdman competition originated and continued to 1867 when Catholic missionaries made them knock it off.

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Taken in: Chile / Región de Valparaíso / Isla de Pascua / Hanga Roa (show map)

Taken on: February 1, 2018

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Sets appears in: • Rapa Nui - Easter Island - Isla de Pascua

Camera: Nikon D500, f/6.3, 1/400 sec, 24mm (=36mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D500
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/400)
Focal Length:	24mm (35mm equivalent: 36mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.13
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