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Like most cultures and religions, the Rapa Nui culture has a god.
They only have one god, Makemake, the creator god. The concept of
one god who created everything, can be found in several other
religions. The written language of the Rapa Nui is called
“rongorongo”, a hieroglyphic picture writing. Rather
than each shape representing a letter of the alphabet, it seems that
each of them represents a word or idea. Every year, the whole
participates in the Birdman competition. The Birdman competition
is a competition to decide on a “Birdman”, who has control
over the island and it’s vegetation. The Birdman is also
considered the human representative of the creator god, Makemake.
Each tribe chooses one of their people as a competitor. In the
competition, the competitors must swim through shark-infested water to
a small island where birds come every year to nest, get an egg, and
return with the egg, unbroken. The first person to return with an
unbroken egg becomes the Birdman. Another important part of
culture is art. The Rapa Nui made many carvings of wood and
stone, including the Moai. Most think the Moai were made to
represent a god, but they were actually made to represent people who
have passed away. Average Moai statues range from 18 to 32 feet
tall. The smallest Moai ever made is only a little more than 3
feet tall, while the largest one ever made, still in the quarry where
the statues were made and not yet erected from the ground, is 62 feet
long! The smaller statues are believed to represent earlier times
and the larger ones later times.
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