Tiki- Kanaloa – the god of the sea realm Traditional Cache

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Hidden : 5/19/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
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Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

You will be looking for a camo'd tupperware container. Please note the FTF prize is a Tiki man statue.

Kanaloa – the god of the sea realm

The ancient Hawaiians kept their gods close using many creative forms of communication. Tikis were created as a medium of connection or interaction. Through continued communication with these all-powerful deities, the Hawaiian people were sure to follow the right path to appeasement. All Hawaiian people were said to have descended from the lineage of the gods. It was the job of the alii nui, or high chiefs, to make sure everything was in societal balance and that the ultimate respect was paid to the gods through many avenues.

The ancient system of religion called aikapu was abolished by King Kamehameha II in 1819, and the majority of temples and religious images, including tikis, were destroyed. However, some tiki artifacts remain to this day in remembrance of a time when strict religious beliefs guided the Hawaiian society. According to Hawaiian history, there was a time when gods walked the earth as men, and tiki images recognize not only their divinity, but also their human qualities as well. Tikis reminded the people just how close the realm of the gods was and reinforced their acknowledgement of the awesome power the gods sustained.

Beginning in the 1930s, an entire “tiki culture” representing the island life of the South Pacific began to form around these odd statues. Tiki-themed restaurants displayed kitschy memorabilia, such as tiki carvings, tiki torches, rattan furniture, tropical-print fabrics and wooden or bamboo items. Tiki bars served mai tais and other fruity island drinks. Before long, tiki culture had a large following in the United States, using South Pacific themes in everything from clothing to interior design. After Hawaii became a state in 1959, tiki culture, the aloha shirt and other island representations were incredibly en vogue.

Today, you can find giant wooden figures in several spots around the Hawaiian Islands, including the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu’s North Shore. At La Marianas on Sand Island in Honolulu, possibly the most popular tiki bar in Hawaii, visitors can enjoy a tropical cocktail amidst an overwhelming amount of tiki memorabilia. Visitors to Hawaii can find a tiki image pretty much anywhere, but when you are browsing through the tourist-aimed mass-manufactured tiki items, remember how these images once represented the beloved and revered Hawaiian gods.

Kanaloa – Ancient Tiki God the Sea Kanaloa is one of the four great gods of Hawaiian mythology, along with Kane, Ku, and Lono. He is the local form of a Polynesian deity generally connected with the sea. Roughly equivalent deities are known as Tangaroa in New Zealand, Tagaloa in Samoa, and Ta'aroa in Tahiti. In the traditions of Ancient Hawaii, Kanaloa is symbolized by the squid, and is typically associated with Kane in legends and chants where they are portrayed as complementary powers (Beckwith 1970:62-65). For example: Kane was called upon during the building of a canoe, Kanaloa during the sailing of it; Kane governed the northern edge of the ecliptic, Kanaloa the southern; Kanaloa points to hidden springs, and Kane then taps them out. In this way, they represent a divine duality of wild and taming forces like those observed (by Georges Dumezil, et al.) in Indo-European chief god-pairs like Odin-Tyr and Mitra-Varuna, and like the popular yin-yang of Chinese Taoism. Interpretations of Kanaloa as a god of evil opposing the good Kane (a reading that defies their paired invocations and shared devotees in Ancient Hawaii) is likely the result of European missionary efforts to recast the four major divinities of Hawaii in the image of the Christian Trinity plus Satan.

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