EASTER ISLAND

# What is Easter Island?

Rapa Nuis mysterious moai statues stand in silence but speak volumes about the
achievements of their creators. The stone blocks, carved into head-and-torso figures, average 13
feet (4 meters) tall and 14 tons. The effort to construct these monuments and move them around
the island must have been considerablebut no one knows exactly why the Rapa Nui people
undertook such a task. Most scholars suspect that the moai were created to honor ancestors,
chiefs, or other important personages, However, no written and little oral history exists on the
island, so its impossible to be certain.
A Polynesian society blossomed in this unlikely locale after hardy souls somehow
navigated a fleet of wooden outrigger canoes to this tiny speck in the vastness of the Pacific
Ocean. Here, in isolation some 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) west of South America and
1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from the nearest neighboring island, the Rapa Nui developed a
distinct architectural and artistic culture. That culture reached its zenith during the tenth to 16th
centuries, when the Rapa Nui carved and erected some 900 moai across the island. It is
generally thought that the Rapa Nuis demise resulted from an environmental catastrophe of
their own making.
Its not clear when the islands were first settled; estimates range from A.D. 800 to 1200.
Its also not clear how quickly the island ecosystem was wreckedbut a major factor appears
to be the cutting of millions of giant palms to clear fields or make fires. It is possible that
Polynesian rats, arriving with human settlers, may have eaten enough seeds to help to decimate
the trees. Either way, loss of the trees exposed the islands rich volcanic soils to serious erosion.
When Europeans arrived in 1722, they found the island mostly barren and its inhabitants few.
Todays tourists are numerous, and most visit the Rano Raraku quarry, which yielded the
stones used for almost all of the islands moai. Rapa Nuis ancient inhabitants left the quarry in
a fascinating conditionit is home to some 400 statues, which appear in all stages of
completion.
Meanwhile, across the entire island, many moai are reversing the creation process and
deteriorating rapidly from priceless carvings back into plain rock. The volcanic stone is subject
to weathering, and intensive conservation efforts are needed to help preserve Rapa Nuis stone
legacy in its present, awe-inspiring state.
# When we should go to Easter Island?
High season on Rapa Nui is the Southern Hemisphere summerJanuary to March.
Though winter can get a bit chilly, average maximums still hover around 72F (22C) and
minimums dip to only 57F (14C)so the weather is really rather pleasant year-round. Reduced
crowds are an added attraction in the off-season.
# Where is it located?
Easter Island or Rapa Nui is an island in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to Chile.
Although located 3,515 km (2,185 miles) west of continental Chile, it is administratively a
province of the Chilean Valparaso Region, together with its closest neighbour, Sala-y-Gomez,

Jennifer XIIA3/22 Final Speaking Test of SMAK KOSAYU MALANG 2014 2015

400 km further East. The island is approximately triangular in shape. The latitude is similar to
that for the Chilean city of Copiap, north of Santiago.
# What accomodation we can reach near the Easter Island?
There are many hotel for tourists which build near the island, so we dont need to worry
about that. Those hotels are Hotel Rapa Nui, Tupa Hotel, Iorana Hotel, et cetera.
# How is the history of Easter Island?
When the first Europeans visited the island in the eighteenth century it was completely
treeless apart from a handful of isolated specimens at the bottom of the deepest extinct volcano
crater of Rano Kao. However, recent scientific work, involving the analysis of pollen types, has
shown that at the time of the initial settlement Easter Island had a dense vegetation cover
including extensive woods. As the population slowly increased, trees would have been cut down
to provide clearings for agriculture, fuel for heating and cooking, construction material for
household goods, pole and thatch houses and canoes for fishing. The most demanding
requirement of all was the need to move the large number of enormously heavy statues to
ceremonial sites around the island. The only way this could have been done was by large
numbers of people guiding and sliding them along a form of flexible tracking made up of tree
trunks spread on the ground between the quarry and the ahu. Prodigious quantities of timber
would have been required and in increasing amounts as the competition between the clans to
erect statues grew: As a result by 1600 the island was almost completely deforested and statue
erection was brought to a halt leaving many stranded at the quarry.
The deforestation of the island was not only the death knell for the elaborate social and
ceremonial life it also had other drastic effects on every day life for the population generally.
From 1500 the shortage of trees was forcing many people to abandon building houses from
timber and live in caves, and when the wood eventually ran out altogether about a century later
everyone had to use the only materials left. They resorted to stone shelters dug into the hillsides
or flimsy reed huts cut from the vegetation that grew round the edges of the crater lakes. Canoes
could no longer be built and only reed boats incapable of long voyages could be made. Fishing
was also more difficult because nets had previously been made from the paper mulberry tree
(which could also be made into cloth) and that was no longer available. Removal of the tree
cover also badly affected the soil of the island, which would have already suffered from a lack of
suitable animal manure to replace nutrients taken up by the crops. Increased exposure caused soil
erosion and the leaching out of essential nutrients. As a result crop yields declined. The only
source of food on the island unaffected by these problems was the chickens. As they became ever
more important, they had to be protected from theft and the introduction of stone-built defensive
chicken houses can be dated to this phase of the island's history. It became impossible to support
7,000 people on this diminish ing resource base and numbers fell rapidly
After 1600 Easter Island society went into decline and regressed to ever more primitive
conditions. Without trees, and so without canoes, the islanders were trapped in their remote
home, unable to escape the consequences of their self-inflicted, environmental collapse. The
social and cultural impact of deforestation was equally important. The inability to erect any more
statues must have had a devastating effect on the belief systems and social organisation and
called into question the foundations on which that complex society had been built. There were
increasing conflicts over diminishing resources resulting in a state of almost permanent warfare.
Slavery became common and as the amount of protein available fell the population turned to
cannibalism. One of the main aims of warfare was to destroy the ahu of opposing clans. A few
survived as burial places but most were abandoned. The magnificent stone statues, too massive
Jennifer XIIA3/22 Final Speaking Test of SMAK KOSAYU MALANG 2014 2015

to destroy, were pulled down. The first Europeans found only a few still standing when they
arrived in the eighteenth century and all had been toppled by the 1830s. When they were asked
by the visitors how the statues had been moved from the quarry, the primitive islanders could no
longer remember what their ancestors had achieved and could only say that the huge figures had
`walked' across the island. The Europeans, seeing a treeless landscape, could think of no logical
explanation either and were equally mystified.
Sumber:

http://matadornetwork.com/trips/9-things-can-experience-easter-island/
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Oceaniaweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Oceania10.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/easter-island
http://www.hotelplanner.com/Hotels/31375-in-Easter-Island-Chile.html#navPanel
http://www.eco-action.org/dt/eisland.html

Jennifer XIIA3/22 Final Speaking Test of SMAK KOSAYU MALANG 2014 2015

Jennifer XIIA3/22 Final Speaking Test of SMAK KOSAYU MALANG 2014 2015

Jennifer XIIA3/22 Final Speaking Test of SMAK KOSAYU MALANG 2014 2015