Rapa Nui: a living portrait of Polynesian culture in the heart of the Pacific Ocean
Easter Island or "Rapa Nui" is a small triangular-shaped island located in the South Pacific, about 3,700 km from the Chilean mainland. It owes its origin to the eruption, approximately 3 million years ago, of the Poike, Rano Kau and Maunga Terevaka volcanoes, located in the three vortices that form the island. It is actually the top of a huge underwater mountain 200 kilometers on a side at its base and about 4000 meters high. Its undulating topography, with gentle slopes and numerous volcanic cones distributed over its entire surface, attest to this.
It is believed that the island was settled towards the end of the first millennium of the Christian era by a small group of humans from Eastern Polynesia, whose culture manifested itself between the 11th and 17th centuries. During their isolation, the inhabitants of Rapa Nui developed a complex culture that in many aspects continues to be a mystery.
When it was discovered in 1722 by a Dutchman, on Easter Day, the depletion of natural resources had already determined an ecological crisis and the decline of the ancient Rapa Nui society. However, European colonization, the introduction of livestock, the confinement of the original inhabitants to small areas, the dramatic effect of foreign diseases and, above all, slavery, would end up decimating the Rapa Nui population to the point of almost making it disappear.
Home to the famous monumental volcanic stone sculptures, Easter Island keeps its primitive Polynesian culture alive. The archaeological resources such as the moai, the ahu, manifestations of rock art or their villages make the park and the island an extraordinary open-air museum, unique in the world.
Dancers from the Rapa-Nui ethnic group.
Important vestiges of it and its past have been preserved, protected at the national level since the 1930s and since 1995 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This territory is known for preserving the ancestral ceremonial villages and petroglyphs of the ancient natives of Rapa Nui, where you can also find caves with cave paintings, altars of the time and archaeological sites. The park, which represents 43% of the island's surface, houses most of the sculptural and architectural manifestations of the Rapa Nui people.
The legacy of the Rapa Nui culture is expressed materially in unique architecture and sculptures, as well as in writing that has not been deciphered to this day. Polynesian society flourished in this territory after crossing the Pacific Ocean in canoes, settling in one of the most remote places on the planet, leaving mainly the moais -statues- and ahu -altars-, built with volcanic rock extracted from quarries.
The colossal statues, which represented the ancestors, measure an average of 4 meters high and weigh 14 tons, they are the most impressive and representative element of this small island and its mysterious civilization.
The Rapa Nui National Park is today an archaeological reserve managed by the local indigenous community, which maintains a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, ensuring the best preservation of both the island's culture and ecology. The development of sustainable tourism actively contributes in addition to being the main economic activity of the island.
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