Holy places in Hawaii are areas with important ancient and traditional significance. At several of these sanctified places, critical old events took place like the births of royals and other main occasions. Consecrated spots are also known as first places and consist of sanctuary sites or tombs, stones, rock statues, fishponds, and other prehistoric structural remnants. As these areas are sanctified, it is essential to be deferential when people stop over and observe specific modest instructions (“Sacred Places,” n.d.). The two sacred sites are discussed below:
Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park
For eras, Hawaiian civilization layered into classes of commanders, fathers, trained employees, and masses, functioned underneath a scheme of commandments called kapu. The penalty for violating the kapu, put forward by the gods, was decease—except if the criminal escaped to a pushout (area of protection). Though existing at the holy place, they could involve a pastor and appear formally pardoned and capable of returning to society. One of the best-protected puuhonua is situated on the west bank of Hawaii (“Six Sacred Sites,” 2011).
The puuhonua at Honaunau was in use for around a thousand years until the elimination of kapu in the first 19th century. It continues today as a valued area by National Park Amenity, where Hawaiians have faith that they can still sense the affirmative liveliness of a place of protection (“Sacred Sites,” 2017).
Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site
The most recent and crucial holy place, constructed in Hawaii’s ancient rock structure, has been sanctified by many Hawaiians since it signifies the amalgamation of Hawaii (“Sacred Sites,” 2017). However trying to unite the Hawaiian Islands at the end of the 18th era, Kamehameha the Great directed his aunt to pursue guidance from a forecaster known as Kapoukahi. The memo transmitted from the pastor was that if Kamehameha constructed a place of worship on the mountain called Puukohola in Kawaihae, on the northwest bank of Hawaii, he would achieve the authority of the gods and defeat his opponents. In 1790, a lot of men made an effort to construct the holy place. As the tale tells, the laborers designed a line over 20 miles extended to easily hand pass flat molten rocks through a valley to the spot. They didn’t have grout or cement, yet the squad loaded the rocks in a skillfully prearranged way and accomplished the building within a year (“Six Sacred Sites,” 2011).
The evidence that it has been still there for two eras is a witness to their hard work where tourists can view the 224-by-100-foot holy place still undamaged. The heiau was mainly a platform to execute individual surrenders. When a sufferer was made ready, they would genuinely roast the body and eradicate the skeletons. Some particular frames were assumed to have mana and those presented to Kamehameha’s combat god Kukailimoku. Puukohola Heiau is the single human-sacrificing holy place under the patronages of the National Park Provision (“Six Sacred Sites,” 2011).
Up till now to somewhat a small number of innate Hawaiians, the location is a sign of Hawaiian harmony. Through 1810, Kamehameha had occupied authority of the whole land mass, and he governed the Realm of Hawaii for nine years. Being one of the most recent primary holy places constructed in Hawaii, Puukohola Heiau denotes the termination of prehistoric conduct and the escorting in of a modern era. It was the time when, for the first time, Hawaii’s greatest King started to merge all his controls. Here, the periods of combat ended in their true meaning, and modern Hawaii was initiated (“Six Sacred Sites,” 2011).
References
Sacred Places in Hawaii. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2018, from https://www.to-hawaii.com/sacred-places.php
Sacred Sites of Hawaii. (2017, April 19). Retrieved February 12, 2018, from http://religioustravelplanningguide.com/sacred-sites-of-hawaii/
Six Sacred Sites of Hawaii. (2011, November 16). Retrieved February 12, 2018, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/six-sacred-sites-of-hawaii-272451/
