Orongo and the birdman cult

The birdman cult’s village on the rim of a volcano

On the rim of the Rano Kau crater at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui, with a 300-metre cliff dropping to the ocean on one side and a steep slope to a freshwater marsh inside the caldera on the other, stands a village of 53 low, round, windowless stone houses with doors lower still. From the 18th century into the 19th this was the centre of the birdman cult. Each year came the race to bring back from the islet of Motu Nui the first sooty tern egg of the season, the manutara, unbroken; it was very dangerous, and hunters fell to their deaths from the cliffs or were killed by sharks. The rocks around the village are carved with birdmen, tangata manu, perhaps to remember the winners. In the 1860s most islanders died of disease or were enslaved, the survivors converted to Christianity, and Orongo fell out of use. In 1868 the crew of HMS Topaze carried off the basalt moai Hoa Hakananai’a from here; it is in the British Museum. The houses were restored in the 1970s, and Orongo is part of the Rapa Nui National Park World Heritage Site.