Marae Tour
Explore sacred Taputapuatea Marae, and learn of
Oro, the fierce god of war and fertility, who dwelled in the crater
of Raiatea's extinct volcano.
Taputapuatea's political, religious and social significance are
unequalled in Polynesia. All over the Society Islands in the 18th
Century, the cult of Oro displaced the cult of the creator, Taaroa.
Oro's legendary dwelling on earth was the Opoa Valley in Raiatea,
where Taputapuatea is located. (There is evidence that Taputapuatea
replaced the Vaerarai marae, also in the Opoa Valley, as this change
took place). While the cult of Oro was spreading to the Windward
Islands, discoverers from Raiatea were setting out in mammoth va'a,
or double-hulled canoes, to populate the Polynesian triangle. The
prestige of Taputapuatea grew.
 At
the lagoon entrance to the marae stand upright coral "stones of
investiture." These stones give silent witness to some of the official
ceremonies that took place here in the 18th and early 19th Centuries.
Opoa Valley was the home of the ruling Tamatoa family and the political
center of an alliance of chiefs from all over Polynesia. New Zealand,
the Cook Islands, Tonga, and the Austral Islands sent representatives
to Taputapatea and surrounding maraes. Animal sacrifice was common;
human sacrifice took place at very high-level meetings. This of
course ended with the 19th Century arrival of Christian missionaries.
Today the marae is home to an international festival of Polynesian
tattooing.
North of Opoa, in the Avera Valley at Point Utufara, is another
fascinating marae. Archaeologists have uncovered stone dwelling
platforms and workshops where stone tools were fashioned before
the arrival of European metal. |
