Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Moʻokini Heiau

“Ancient Hawaiians had many types of heiau, each with their own distinct function and use by particular segments of society. Heiau ranged in size from single upright stones to massive and complex structures.”

“Larger heiau were built by ali’i (chiefs), but the largest and most complex, the luakini heiau (sacrificial temple), could only be constructed and dedicated by an ali‘i ‘ai moku.”

“Luakini heiau were reserved for rituals involving human or animal sacrifice and were generally dedicated to the war god Ku. Rituals performed at a luakini heiau highlighted the ali‘i ‘ai moku’s spiritual, economic, political, and social control over his lands and his authority over the life and death of his people. (NPS)

“According to her genealogical chant, passed down orally from generation to generation of kahuna nui in her family, [Mo‘okini Heiau in Kohala] as built in the year 480 by her ancestor, Kuamo’o Mo’okini.”

“The ancient chant reveals that her people came to Hawaii from the shores of Kapakapauaakane in the Persian Gulf. Wherever the migrating Mo‘okini priests stopped, they built a temple to house their god, then continued on.” (Momi Lum; Pitzer, Kahuna)

Kuamo’o Mo’okini accompanied the high chief Mo‘ikeha, famous for his trip and sojourn to another Polynesian island group in the South Pacific and who returned to Hawai‘i to become the ruling chief of Kauai Island and whose numerous descendants became famous in their own rights. (NPS, National Register)

“’We have two bloodlines in the family, the priestly line and the kingly line,’ she says. ‘The kingly line is secondary to the kahuna line.’”

“‘We belong to the highest order of the priesthood, the order of Ku. We have to be masters of everything.’” (Momi Lum; Pitzer, Kahuna)

“Mo‘okini Luakini, located near the northernmost tip of the Big Island, is the largest ancient temple of its type in Hawaii – a war heiau, dedicated to the god Ku. Here the kings and ruling chiefs fasted, prayed and offered human sacrifices.” (Pitzer, Kahuna)

“The well-preserved walls and interior paving and platforms, built without mortar, testify to skills of ancient Hawaiian stonemasons and their ability to assemble unworked basalt rocks into massive and complex structures.”

“Hawaiian oral literature and Western historical accounts indicate Mo‘okini was the principal temple for centuries in the Big Island district of Kohala; associated with ruling chiefs and their high priests; and was of the class of temples called luakini, the highest class, and which required regular human sacrifices.” (NPS, National Register)

“This masonry structure is an irregular parallelogram in plan, about 267 feet (8l meters) on the west side; 250 feet (76 m) on the east side; 135 feet (41 m) on the north side; and 112 feet (34 m) on the south.”

“This ancient Hawaiian temple features an open paved stone court that is enclosed on four sides “by stone walls, which in 1977 vary in height from about seven feet (2 meters) to l4 feet (4 m). The original walls may have been as high as 20 feet (6 meters).”

“The walls are of basalt boulders; stacked and without mortar; with bases as thick as ten feet (almost 3 meters). The enclosing walls have tapered sides, both exterior and interior.”

“Hawaiian oral tradition says that the boulders were passed hand to hand from Niuli‘i, about 10 miles (l6 kilometers) distant for the construction, possibly involving as many as 15,000 men standing in line.”

“The ground-level entrance, wide enough to pass one person at a time, is in the middle of the west wall. Inside and across the northerly end is a raised stone platform, three or four stones high, which once held images, fires, the altar and perhaps wooden towers.”

“Detached stone platforms, one or two stones high, are scattered within the courtyard and once held thatched temple buildings.”  (NPS, National Register)

“It was typical of ancient Hawaiian settlement patterns for a ruling chief’s housing complex to be near and associated with a Luakini class heiau. This is one of the few cases in Hawai’i when the exact locations of the temple and its associated housing complex are known.”

“Over the centuries, Kapakai as a royal housing complex served as the residence of ruling chiefs and their associates when ceremonies were conducted in Mo‘okini Heiau. Nothing would have been permitted to intrude visually between these two associated areas of sacred land.”

“Temple ceremonies lasted several nights and days. During this time, ruling chiefs and high priests would leave the temple for short periods to return to their housing complexes, still under some restrictions as to their behavior.” (NPS, National Register)

“Alapa‘i probably conducted pre-war ceremonies in Mo‘okini before his invasion of Maui ca. 1753. It was during this ceremonial period that Kamehameha was born in the Kapakai housing complex. Later, Kamehameha, and still later his son Liholiho, probably stayed at Kapakai while they led rituals in Mo‘okini.:

“Mo‘okini temple was last active as a war temple for Kamehameha the Great in the last two decades of the 18th century. It is said to have housed the Kamehameha family war god, Ku-ka-‘ili-moku, and this feathered god transferred to Pu’ukohola Heiau, Kawaihae, Kohala District, Hawai’i Island, in 1791, when Kamehameha the Great built this new war temple to assure his conquest of all the Hawaiian Islands.”

“Mo‘okini Heiau was one of the luakini and other state temples used regularly by Kamehameha the Great’s son and heir, Liholiho, in the second decade of the 19th century.”

“It was Liholiho, who as Kamehameha II, abolished in 1819 that part of the ancient religion that depended on such temples as Mo‘okini. He ordered the destruction of the temples. The walls and platforms of Mo‘okini were not destroyed.”

“On all islands, platforms of a number of temples as important as Mo‘okini were not disturbed in spite of royal orders. Mo‘okini and the others had acquired a spiritual significance (mana) which protected them against human destruction, a significance which has been retained, in part, through today. (NPS, National Register)

“Throughout the centuries, Mo‘okini descendants have continuously acted as its guardian / priests . Currently, Oliver Lum and his daughter, Mealani are the guardians and before them Oliver’s mother Leimomi Lum, her father Dewey Lum and her uncle Heloke.” (Wizinowich)

“My father Dewey Oliver Mookini was the assistant chief of police, my husband Alexis Theodore Lum was the state adjutant general, and I was the first policewoman in Hawaii.”

“Growing up with the Sacred Hearts sisters in Catholic school helped form me in my faith. Going to church with my parents and receiving the Holy Eucharist every Sunday and on holy days is important to me. Being brought up a Catholic is something no one can take from me.” (Momi Lum, Hawaii Catholic Herald)

“Some question how I can be the kahuna nui of the Mookini heiau and also a Catholic? As a kahuna, I respect what the kahunas believe in. I respect Kuamo‘o Mo‘okini from the year 480 A.D. I respect my uncle’s beliefs in his religion, the Hawaiian religion.”

“If not for my bloodline, I would not be here. However, I was raised by the nuns and love my parents for the way they brought me up. I don’t think I would be as strong as I am today, otherwise.”  (Momi Lum, Hawaii Catholic Herald)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Sneyd-Kynnersley

I ‘ike ‘ia no o Kohala i ka pae ko
a o ka pae ko ia kole ai ka waha.

One can recognize Kohala by her rows of sugar cane
which can make the mouth raw when chewed.

The Kynnersley estate and castle in Loxley Park (near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England) was in the possession of the Kynnersley family back to the time of Edward III (early-1300s.) In 1815, Clement Kynnersley, the last male in the line, dying, left it to his nephew Thomas Sneyd, who added the name of Kynnersley to his own, upon his accession to this estate.

Fast forward to about 1882 … brothers John (Ralph) Sneyd-Kynnersley (1860-1932) and Clement (Cecil) Gerald Sneyd-Kynnersley (1859-1909) left Uttoxeter and made their way to Kohala on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

At that time, sugar was changing the landscape. Kohala became a land in transition and eventually a major force in the sugar industry with the arrival of American missionary Elias Bond in 1841.

Bond directed his efforts to initiating sugar as a major agricultural industry in Kohala; his primary concern was to develop a means for the Hawaiian people of the district to compete successfully in the market economy that had evolved in Hawaiʻi.

What resulted was a vigorous, stable, and competitive industry which survived over a century of changing economic situations. For the Hawaiian people, however, the impact was not what Bond anticipated. (Tomonari-Tuggle; Rechtman)

Beginning in the 1850s, portions of Pūehuehu Ahupua‘a were divided and sold by the government as land grants. In 1873, the English born Robert Robson Hind moved to Kohala from Maui to invest in the booming sugar industry.

He purchased land in the flat plains of Pūehuehu west of Kohala Sugar Company, although rainfall was less than ideal, and established the Union Mill. Months prior to formal opening in 1874, a fire broke out destroying the mill.

The mill was rebuilt and Hind sold the mill; a January 31, 1887 ‘Partnership Notice’ in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser noted the co-partnership of the Sneyd-Kynnersley brothers and Robert Wallace organized as the Pūehuehu Plantation Company.

After several mergers with other growers, at its peak, the mill cultivated three thousand acres. The Union Mill was purchased by the Kohala Mill in 1937, the cane harvested from the former Union Mill planting fields was then transferred to Hala‘ula for processing.

Prior to the 1880s, the sugar companies hauled their product by ox-cart to landings at Hapu‘u, Kauhola Point, and Honoipu. With the completion of the North Kohala Railroad in 1883 – with its twenty-mile length, crossing seventeen trestles, and running from Mahukona to Niuli‘I – almost all sugar companies began shipping the processed sugar to the newly improved Māhukona Harbor facility.

Construction of the Kohala Ditch, which runs east/west, began in 1904 and was completed two years later. “(I)ts construction marked the virtual end of the frontier period; it was the last major effort by the sugar pioneers in fully developing their industry in Kohala”. (Tomonari-Tuggle; Rechtman)

Back to Sneyd-Kynnersleys … in 1887, King Kalākaua presented ceremonial lei to Daisy May Sneyd-Kynnersley on her baptism (daughter of Ralph Sneyd-Kynnersley.)

The discussion of American annexation of the Islands in 1893 got Clement Sneyd-Kynnersley riled up – to the point it was referred to as the ‘Kynnersley affair.’ (PCA, February 14, 1893)

“CS Kynnersley, of Kohala, does not like the new movement and his overwrought feelings may get him into trouble. Information came from to the effect that when the news about establishing the government reached Kohala he stamped around and commenced an agitation for an indignation mass meeting to be held.”

The Hawaiʻi Holomua came to his defense, “The ‘Advertiser’ has an editorial this morning in which it states that the supporters of the late government are certainly not to be consulted in regard to the future order of things in Hawaii nei.”

“As the supporters of the monarchy include all the Hawaiians and more than one-half of the foreigners in the country, the proposition of the ‘Advertiser’ to ignore this large majority indicates that it is the intention of the Provisional Government to hold the reins of the government at all hazard”.

“The ‘Advertiser’ seems to despise the feelings or sentiments of the taxpayers in the country districts, and sneers at Mr C Sneyd-Kynnersley’s letter in this morning’s issue.”

“When men like Kynnersley … openly denounce the annexation scheme and the action of the followers of the (Provisional Government) the ‘Advertiser’ will find it a more serious matter than can be disposed of in a dozen lines of editorial.”

Sneyd-Kynnersley “defied the deputy-sheriff to arrest him. The matter was before the Executive and Provisional Councils of the government … and it is now in the hands of Attorney-General Smith.” (Hawaiian Gazette, February 7, 1893) (“(T)he Government has very wisely decided to let the matter drop.” (PCA, February 14, 1893.)

A lasting Sneyd-Kynnersley legacy remains in North Kohala – the mauka-makai road through the Pūehuehu ahupuaʻa the brothers once raised sugar is named Kynnersley Road (it appears the name reverted to the older version.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kohala Shark Hunt

In the old days, folks used to catch and kill sharks.  The accepted attitude was, “the only good shark is a dead shark.”

In an attempt to relieve public fears and to reduce the risk of shark attack, the state government of Hawaiʻi spent over $300,000 on shark control programs between 1959 and 1976. Six control programs of various intensity resulted in the killing of 4,668-sharks.

Subsequent evaluation of the 1959-1976 efforts noted, “Shark control programs do not appear to have had measurable effects on the rate of shark attacks in Hawaiian waters.  Implementation of large-scale control programs in the future in Hawaiʻi may not be appropriate.”  (Wetherbee, 1994)

At the turn of the century, my grandfather and his brothers (Young Brothers) used to have various jobs in Honolulu Harbor; one was taking paying customers out to harpoon sharks off-shore.  My great-uncle, William, wrote books about his adventures shark hunting.

I remember Kohala shark “hunts” on the Big Island where a donated steer carcass was tied between points in a cove and “hunters,” on surrounding cliffs using high-powered rifles, shot at sharks feeding off the carcass. 

“For both spectator and participant thrills it would be hard to beat a shark hunt, a sports event that originated in Kohala and perhaps is still unique in this community.”

“The shark hunt is the brain child of Pierre Bowman, personnel manager for Kohala Sugar Co, and these day-long events are staged a couple times a year with hundreds of people turning out with family picnics to watch the kill from along the low cliffs two miles west of the Kohala mill.” (HTH, July 2, 1952)

“The shark hunts originated [in about 1950 and appear to have been run into the mid-1970s] … [on each hunt] hunters have bagged as many as a half-dozen sharks, ranging in size to 29 feet, in good years.” (HTH,  July 26, 1965) Some years, no sharks showed up.

“The shark hunt conducted annually be the Kohala group has drawn the interest of persons all over the state.”  (HTH, July 24, 1965)

“The affair goes like this: Forty eight hours before the shark hunt begins, a mule [steer] or a horse is shot and the carcass is lashed securely to the reef, out of reach of the sharks but so that the water will wash over it.”

“The vicious monsters of the sea eventually scent the bait and begin to collect.  Sharks are always ravenous.  When the hunt begins the bait is allowed to float out into the sea, and the sharks close in. The bait is hauled slowly shoreward and the hungry sharks fighting for food come right along with it.”

“Three or four men with harpoons strike when a shark comes close enough, and then the real fun begins for the trick is to get 700 to 1,000 pounds of thrashing hell and fury out of the water and onto the reef for the kill.”

“Then the shore battery, which includes almost everything from .22 rifles to Revolutionary muskets, closes in to finish off the monster.” (HTH, July 2, 1952)

Occasionally, “The Kohala High School stage band played swing music from the 1930s – rather incongruous music to watch sharks while the now bloated cow bobbed in the sea.”  (Adv, June 25, 1975)

“Over the years, shark hunts have been staged to raise money for all sorts of school projects in North Kohala.” [i.e., Future Framers of America, Kohala high basketball team, Boys Scouts, Kohala squadron of the Civil Air Patrol,  …] [HTH, June 19, 1975)

Times have changed.

We have learned that tiger sharks (the ones most implicated in attacks on humans) don’t simply dwell in small coastal territories but are instead extremely wide-ranging.

They are opportunistic predators and typically move on soon after arriving in an area, because the element of surprise is quickly lost, and potential prey become wary and difficult to catch.

We know more now and recognize that sharks are an important part of the marine ecosystem.  Sharks are often the “apex” or top of the food chain predators in their ecosystems because they have few natural predators.

As top predators, sharks help to manage healthy ocean ecosystems.  Sharks feed on the animals below them in the food chain, helping to regulate and maintain the balance of marine ecosystems; limiting the populations of their prey, in turn affects the prey species of those animals, and so on.

To some, sharks are ʻaumakua (ancestral spirits that take possession of living creatures) that make appearances to express parental concern for the living, bringing warnings of impending danger, comfort in times of stress or sorrow or in other ways being helpful.  (Kane)

Sad and Tragic, yes – we continue to have shark attacks.  However, many believe it is typically mistaken identity – the sharks mistake surfers and floaters as turtles or seals.   (Remember, we are visitors to their realm in the ocean.)

I still vividly recall Halloween morning, 2003, when DLNR’s shark expert came to my office to brief me on the shark attack on Bethany Hamilton on Kauai.  It was a somber day at DLNR.  Unlike the old days, there was no “hunt” called for.   Other incidents and attacks continue to occur.

“The number of shark attacks has nothing to do with how many sharks are in the water and everything to do with how many people are in the water,” said Kim Holland, University of Hawaiʻi shark researcher and Shark Task Force member. (Honolulu Advertiser, following the Hamilton attack)

John Naughton, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist, said previous efforts to remove large predatory sharks saw the proliferation of smaller ones, which harassed fishermen and their catches.

“It’s an archaic way to manage the resource.  It’s like the turn of the century, when they shot wolves. It doesn’t make sense anymore.”  (Honolulu Advertiser, November, 2003)

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by Peter T Young 5 Comments

James Wight

James Wight was born in India in 1814 of Scotch-Irish parentage; he received liberal education at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1836.

At 22 years of age, he went to Australian with the intention of practicing his profession as physician, but his interest was for business pursuits.  After thirteen years practicing medicine, there he abandoned the profession and migrated to Hawaiʻi.  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

Wight, with the initial intent to go to the gold fields of California, came to Hawaiʻi in 1850 with his wife (Jane Tompkins Wight – formerly of Cape Colony, South Africa, now called Cape of Good Hope.)

On August 2, 1850, they went from Honolulu to Kawaihae and from there to Mahukona in an open boat.

While attempting to land ashore at Mahukona on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, the small boat was ship wrecked during a storm.  Their 13-month old daughter Ada Wight drowned during the tragedy.

Once ashore, Dr. Wight was made aware of white parishioners living close by. He made the decision to venture out and get help for his ailing family.  (Restarick)

They were given a grass house and there during the night, Jane Wight gave birth to a child while the dead one lay in the room.  (The Wights had 13 children, six of whom died before they were grown.)

The Wights were persuaded to stay in Hawaiʻi; he became an influential community leader, serving as postmaster, circuit judge (1852-1863,) representative to the territorial government (1886) and a member of the house of noble (1886-87.)  In the House, he was noted for his independent stand and those were trying times.

He enjoyed remarkably good health during his long life and Dr. Wight’s home was noted for its hospitality. His word was his bond and during his long residence he was seldom involved in litigation. Of the thousands who have been in his employ, all speak of him as a generous though firm employer.

Although he had no inclination to practice medicine, he was always ready to assist any sufferer needing the services of a physician.    (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

He had initially established a store with a pharmacy and carried on business until 1884, when he sold it to SG Wilder.  Wight then turned his business interest to land investments and Hawaiʻi’s emerging sugar and cattle industries.

He became interested in sugar when the Kohala Plantation was started and paid quite an interest in that concern. He established the Hālawa Plantation and conducted it for a number of years.    (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

Wight bought Puakea and built the first animal mill on the Island to process sugar and began raising cattle.  (Wight’s daughter Clara and her husband Howard Rattenbury Bryant continued the cultivation of sugar cane at Puakea until 1930 when the last crop was milled and the operation closed.)  Parker Ranch later leased the Puakea lands from the Estate and finally purchased the ranch in 1944.

Wight was reportedly one of the first to import orchids from England and ironwood trees from Australia.  Mrs. Wight owned the first carriage seen in Kohala. It had a single seat with a perch forward for the driver.

In approximately 1860, the family purchased a large parcel of land that looked out over the ocean on which to build their homestead.

They built a home, Greenbank, on 22-acres in Kohala; it was once a showcase home and social center of the Kohala district for many years.  (The property is reportedly haunted; a stone shark god idol at the property was later given to Bishop Museum.)

Several buildings were added to the estate, including additional residence, caretaker quarters and a carriage house for his buggy. Later years would include a greenhouse adjacent to the main house where some of the first botanical species in the state were grown.

Dr. James Wight passed away on the morning of September 2, 1905 at Kohala; he was the oldest and one of the most respected of the foreign settlers in that district.

He had been closely identified with the progress of the islands for more than fifty-five years.  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)  (Lots of images and information here from greenbankhawaii.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka Paepae Kapu a Līloa

Nowhere on the island of Hawaiʻi do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipiʻo, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.  (Kalākaua)

Waipi‘o (“curved water”) is one of several coastal valleys on the north part of the Hāmākua side of the Island of Hawaiʻi. A black sand beach, three-quarters of a mile long, fronts the valley, the longest on the Big Island.

For two hundred years or more, Waipiʻo Valley was the Royal Center to many of the rulers on the Island of Hawaiʻi, including Pili lineage rulers – the ancestors of Kamehameha – and continued to play an important role as one of many royal residences until the era of Kamehameha.  (UH DURP)

Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The Hawaiian court was mobile within the districts or kingdom the aliʻi controlled. A paramount’s attendants might consist of as many as 700 to 1000-followers made of kahuna and political advisors (including geologists, architects, seers, messengers, executioner, etc.); servants which included craftsmen, guards, stewards; relatives and numerous hangers-on (friends, lovers, etc.).

Although thinly populated now, Waipiʻo was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and the tabus of its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaiʻi. It was the residence of the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.  (Kalākaua)

Waipiʻo valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Līloa, about the end of the fifteenth century.  (Kalākaua)

Līloa, the son of Kiha and father of ʻUmi, had become the peaceful sovereign of Hawaiʻi; Kahakuma, the ancestor of some of the most distinguished families of the islands, held gentle and intelligent sway in Kauai; Kawao still ruled in Maui, and Piliwale in Oʻahu.  (Kalākaua)

The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects.  (Kalākaua)

The reign of his son Līloa was as peaceful as that of Kiha, his distinguished father (Līloa ruled about the same time that Columbus crossed the Atlantic.) He did not lack ability, either as a civil or military leader.

Līloa’s wife, Pinea, was the younger sister of his mother from a line of chiefs on O‘ahu. They had a son, Hākau. From another wife, Haua, a Maui chiefess, he had a daughter, Kapukini. Both of these marriages established ties between high-ranking families outside the Kingdom of Hawai‘i Island.  (MalamaWaipio)

Līloa was much given to touring through the districts of his kingdom, by which means he acquainted himself with the needs of his people and was able to repress the arbitrary encroachments of the chiefs on the rights of the land-holders under their authority. In this way he gained popularity with the common people.  (Malo)

The story of another of Līloa’s sons, ʻUmi, suggests that while Līloa was on a journey across Hāmākua he met a beautiful woman, Akahiakuleana (Akahi.) They spend the night together and conceive a child. Līloa told Akahi that if she has a son, to name him ʻUmi.

Līloa left his malo (loincloth), his niho-palaoa (whale-tooth necklace) and laʻau palau (club) to be given to the child as proof of ancestry.  ʻUmi later united with Līloa and ultimately ruled the Island of Hawaiʻi (he moved the Royal Center from Waipiʻo to Kailua (Kona.))

At Waipiʻo, Pakaʻalana was the name of Līloa’s heiau. It is not known by whom the Pakaʻalana heiau was built, but it existed before Kiha’s time and so did the sacred pavement leading to the enclosure where the chief’s Royal Center – called Haunokamaahala – stood, though its name has come down to our days as Paepae-a-Liloa.  (Fornander)

“It was a large enclosure, less extensive, however, than that at Honaunau….In the midst of the enclosure, under a wide-spreading pandanus, was a small house, called Ke Hale o Riroa (The House of Līloa), from the circumstance of its containing the bones of a king of that name…..”

“We tried, but could not gain admittance to the pahu tabu, or sacred enclosure. We also endeavored to obtain a sight of the bones of Riroa, but the man who had charge of the house told us we must offer a hog before we could be admitted”.  (Ellis 1826)

Līloa carried a long stone on his shoulder and placed it at the side door of his house. He called this stone “The Sacred Slab of Līloa,” (Ka paepae kapu o Līloa). No one, not even a chief was allowed to stand or walk on this stone. Only two people were allowed to step on “The Sacred Slab of Līloa:” Līloa, the ruler, and Chief Laea-nui-kau-manamana. (Williams)

“The expression ‘Ka Paepae Kapu a Liloa’ as at present used, whether in speaking or writing, refers to the reigning sovereign as to the sacredness of trust imposed upon and reposed to him, and as to the dignity and honour of the position where no intruders are supposed to trespass.  It also refers to the pavement and the way that leads up to royalty, and as to the footstool of sovereignty and power.”  (Bacchilega)

Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, the tabus of its great temple of Pakaʻalana continued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when the heiau was destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.  (Kalakaua)

“There are many references to this famous place (Pakaʻalana) … the tabus of its (Waipi‘o) great heiau were the most sacred on Hawaiʻi, and remained so until the destruction of the heiau and the spoliation of all the royal associations in the valley of Waipi‘o by Kāʻeokūlani, king of Kauai, and confederate of Kahekili, king of Maui, in the war upon Kamehameha I, in 1791 …” (Stokes)

King Kalākaua moved the slab (Ka Paepae Kapu a Liloa) to Honolulu.  It sits silently and often unnoticed, outside the Archives Building on the grounds of ʻIolani Palace.  The stone holds the historical and cultural significance of a Royal Center in Waipiʻo associated with Līloa; he was “sacred in the eyes of his people for his many good qualities.”  (Bacchilega)

An ancient chant, later put to music, notes: Aia i Waipiʻo Pākaʻalana e; Paepae kapu ʻia o Līloa e (There at Waipiʻo is Pākaʻalana; And the sacred platform of Līloa.)

The March 10, 1899 issue of the Hawaiian Gazette noted that Līloa (1500s,) Lonoikamakahiki (late-1500s) and Alapaʻi (1700s) are among the reburied at Mauna ʻAla.

It is believed that the corner stones used in the construction of Mokuaikaua Church (1837) and Hulihee Palace (1838) were Līloa and ʻUmi stones.

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