► Molokai's Iliili-Opae - 5: It's Great Size

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Friday, January 18, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor  

     To get an idea of the size of the great heiau Iliili-Opae built on Mapulehu Ridge, Molokai, imagine a stone floor twice the size of Kawaiahao Church.

Front entrance to Kawaiahao Church, Honolulu, HI

Photo Credit

     The platform remains of Iliili-Opae today measure 268 feet in length and 85 feet wide, a total surface of 20,340 square feet.

     Kawaiahao Church measures 196 feet in length and 63 feet in width, a total floor surface of 12,348 feet.

Inside chapel of Kawaiahao Church

Photo credit

OXEN AND SLEDS

     The construction of Kawaiahao Church was considered a great feat - but the builders used oxen, sleds and wheelbarrows to move the great stones and building materials required.

     All construction work on Iliili-Opae heiau was done by hand. Ropes and timber slings were the only aid Hawaiians had.

     Their axes were made of hard stone - their saws were sharp-edged shells and their ropes were made of morning glory vine.

NOT SLAVES

     Unlike the Egyptian kings who built the pyramids, the Hawaiian kings did not have a slave population which they could drive with whips.

     The Hawaiian king had to treat his men decently, else they would desert him for a kinder chief.

     The Hawaiian had to be induced to work with promises of religious rewards or with threats of being made a human sacrifice.

WOULD RUN AWAY

     Too many threats would make the independent Hawaiian run away.

     Just to have built a temple the size of the ruins today would have been a big undertaking, but historians tell us that the first Iliili-Opae temple covered three times the area of today's ruins.

     Probably today's ruins are those of the temple proper.

 Photo credit

 HAD A SCHOOL

     At the time the original temple was built, it covered a site sufficiently large to house a school of priests and other small buildings which clustered about.

     The construction of Kawaiahao Church was comparatively simple compared to the work of building the great terraces which led to the main platform at both ends of the rectangular platform and the wide stone steps along the entire length of the platform.

NEXT: Use of Heiau

► Molokai's Iliili-Opae - 4: Materials

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Thursday, January 17, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor 

     Before the Molokai king started the construction work on the great heiau (stone temple) to be erected at Mapulehu, the high priest drew the outlines of the propose temple in the sand.

     The high priest was his own architect. He did not require a professional; neither did have to follow the plans of other heiau.

      He could improvise and follow the outlines of the site to make the most of his beauties.

ENORMOUS TASK
     The king at once saw the enormities of his task. The stone walls would require great boulders and the great platforms would need tons of small water polished pebbles for paving.

     You would think that the priest would be satisfied to have the king's men go onto Mapulehu ridge and quarry the big stones for the walls.

     Anything so simple would not do.

     The priest had been visited by a god, in a dream and had been told to bring the rock and pebbles for the heiau from across the mountains at Wailau on the north coast of Molokai.

Wailau

  Photo Credit

 3,150 FEET HIGH
     This required the carrying of great stones from Wailau at sea level, up to Wailau stream through forests to the mountain ridge 3,150 feet high, down the Mapulehu stream to the ridge site.
     To accomplish the feat, the king set everybody in his realm to work - even the chiefs and their women. He himself worked to set an example.

     The people were lined up across the mountain ridge in a single file to Wailau.

HAND TO HAND
     The great rocks were passed from hand to hand and the women carried baskets of waterworn pebbles.

     The job was so tremendous that the people grumbled, particularly when the food began to give out and the workers were issued one little opae (shrimp) each day.

      Modern Hawaiians say the temple received its name, Iliili-opae (single shrimp) from the starvation days when the workers were fed a single shrimp.


PRACTICAL MAN
      The Molokai king was a practical man and did not attempt to build the great heiau all in one year.
     He probably put the priests off by telling that they too would starve unless the people were allowed to go back to their farming and fishing.


NEXT: Great size

► Molokai's Iliili-Opae - 3: Construction

Note: Although No. 2 indicates this section as "The Predication," it was entitled as "Construction." The title exchange does not take away from the flow of the story. Enjoy.

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Wednesday, January 16, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor 

     The construction of a great heiau (stone temple) in ancient Hawaii was a community undertaking.

     It required the co-operation of the Ke Alii (reigning king) who could commander every man, woman and child in his kingdom to work on the project.

     Construction work could not be started until the crops had been harvested and sufficient food stockpiled to feed the king and priests (in the manner to which they were accustomed) and the workers.

FORGOTTEN
     The Iliili-Opae heiau on Molokai is so many hundreds of years old that the people long ago forgot the name of the king who built it, so they began to believe that the menehunes had built it.

As a matter of fact, it is probably about 700 years old and was built in the 13th century about the time of Umi.

     This conjecture can be made because the heiau architecture follows the pattern believed to have been introduced by Umi of the Island of Hawaii.

     In all probability, the high priest who first obtained the beautiful site from the ruler said nothing about a heiau plan until after the king had accompanied a successful raid on Maui (as predicted by the priest).

     The priest waited until the following winter when the King again wanted a prophecy.

     At the oracle service, attended by the King, the priest prophesied success to the king, provided the king first built a temple at Mapulehu.

COMMON DEVICE
     This was a common device and justifiable, for the king was not allowed to go to war during the Makahiki (fall harvest festival).

Dedication of the first fruits to Lonoikamakahiki

 Photo Credit

     At the close of Makahiki, the dutiful king was supposed to go about the land rebuilding old temples and rededicating them or build a new temple according to the oracle.

     A king had to do what the priest said in the oracle or he was certain to be punished by the gods.
     Old Hawaii legends are full of stories of kings who were sassy to their high priests or who refused to obey the oracle.

     In every case, the king was severely punished. He generally ended life as a sacrifice on the temple altar to the gods.

     The Molokai king who built Iliile-Opae probably threatened his high priest with death, but he went ahead and ordered the constructed started.

NEXT: The Work

He mana'o

Kahuna (priests) held a lot of power to influence an Alii (king). Makes me question who was in charge of the land, people and procession of developments. What if a kahuna was corrupt? Who is in charge when an Alii is murdered by order of a Kahuna? Imagine the fear of the people - emotionally and spiritually? Another interesting part of the story is the indication of forgotten Alii and works were explained away as having Menehune involvement.

Did you catch the word, "sassy" in the text?  - "... kings who were sassy to their high priests..." I liked how the author used the word to describe uncooperative kings. I remember my grandparents using that context.