Marae

The Story Of A

How Destruction Symbolised "End of Idolatry in Tahiti"

By A. C. Rowland

IN a spinney of tangled undergrowth in the district of Tautira, on Tahiti, lies a scattered heap of rough and partially worked stone. This is all that remains of one of the most ancient and formidable temples of the sanginary cult of the war-god ’Oro, in Central Poly nesia—Marae Vaiotaha.

The first European notice of this marae appears in an entry, under the date, “28th of November, 1774,” in the Jour nal of Don Thomas Gayangos, Senior Lieutenant of the Frigade “Aguila.”

The Ari’i Vehiatua had consented to donate a parcel of land as a site for the house “the Commandante designed to set up on shore as a dwelling for the two missionary padres and the marine (Max imo Rodriguez) who was to be with them as interpreter.”

Unfortunately, for the future peace of mind of the two timid padres, they selected a site within sight and hearing of “an oratory that stands hard by.”

Doctor Bolton Granvill Corney has appended the following note: “Investiga

tions I made on the spot (in 1908), with the kind co-operation of the chiefs descended from the collaterals of Vehia tua and Amo, show this ‘oratory’ was the marae called ‘Vaiotaha,’ which had been founded about twenty generations before the date of Boenechea’s and Gayangos’ visit, with a sacred stone then brought over from Pora Pora—Vavau as it was anciently called—by a renowned chief and navigator named Raa-Mauriri.”

The present state of Marae Vaiotaha at Pora Pora—whence the sacred corner stone was, undoubtedly, brought to Tau tira—is described by Mr. Kenneth P.

Emory in Bishop Museum Bulletin 116, as follows: “The marae has been des troyed; nothing remains but two upright stones . . . facing on a roughly paved court which has two slight terraces . . .

Whether the ahu (pryamid) was low or high, we have no way of telling from our record. As the ruins of the court occupy a width of only about 45 feet, it would appear that the ahu was not any longer than 42 feet and the marae therefore a very small one.”

The marae at Tautira was, likewise, a comparatively small structure; yet, like that most tapu of all temples in Central Polynesia, Marae Vaeara’i at Opoa (where none but the highest royalty and the high priest alone were permitted to set foot), certain smaller marae, of great antiquity, overshadowed in sanctity and pre-eminence, the more modern megalithic structures noted by the early voyagers.

Miss Teuira Henry explains the origin of “Vai’otaha” and the reason for the precedence of marae so named, in the following paragraphs: “Taputapuatea (at Ra’iatea) was not always so called. At a very remote period, before ’Oro was bom at Opoa ... it was briefly called ‘Feoro.’

When ’Oro, god of war, was born of Ta’aroa and Hina, at Opoa, his father gave him Opoa, with the marae, Feoro, as his home. The name was changed to Vai-’otaha which, in addition to their local names, became the clerical name of all marae dedicated to ’Oro, because the man-of-war bird (’Otaha) was ’Oro’s shadow, and the water (vai) meant human blood. At the ancient royal marae of Fa’anui in Pora Pora, kings, called Ari’i Maro-tea, received the Maro tea (yellow girdle of parrakeet feathers) instead of the Maro-ura (red-feather girdle) of the kings of Opoa. Another name for this marae, ‘Vai-’otaha,’ indi cates that the royal scions of the house of Pora Pora, from Opoa, took then chief corner-stone from the parent marae while it was so named.”

As it was anciently the first sanctuary established on the island of Tahiti for the worship of ’Oro, so Marae Vai-’otaha at Tautira, after the passing of many centuries, became the last stronghold of that terrible deity when, in the year 1815, the final battle, to determine the destiny of the old and new faiths, was fought on the beaches of Rina’auia.

On the day of his victory, Pomare II “despatched a select band to demolish the idol temple . . . The party sent by the king to the national temple at Tau tira, proceeded directly to their place of destination . . . They entered the depo sitory of Tahiti’s former god . . . They brought out the idol, stripped him of his sacred coverings and threw his To’o (body) contemptuously on the ground.

Thus was idolatry abolished in Tahiti, The idols hurled from the thrones they had for ages occupied.” (Ellis.) Mr. Bert Shearman, manager of Bonar & Shearman and for many years Euro pean Member of the Island Council, left Rarotonga in May for a holiday in New Zealand.