Ancient Hawaii

Ancient Hawaii, by Herb Kawainui Kane:
KAHUNA

KAHUNA KALAI KI'I ( the carver of images)
Collection of the Hawaii State
Foundation on Culture & the Arts

As leading experts, kahuna were cultural counterparts of the guildmasters and priests of Mediaeval Europe. Beyond serving as the leading practitioner of his craft or profession, each acted as an interface between his guild and its patron spirits. As the guildmaster represented his colleagues at the cathedral, praying to their patron saint for spiritual assistance, so did the kahuna perform rituals at temple or shrine to solicit mana from the patron spirits of his guild. As in Europe, a guild was often dominated by an extended family, but exceptionally talented novices from other families might gain admittance.

The kahuna nui advised his king on spiritual matters and conducted rituals to invoke spiritual help. Kahuna pule performed invocations for assistance from the major spirits; some were of great length, and all required word-perfect recitation. Kahuna kilo hoku were experts in weather, seasonal changes, astronomy and navigation. Kahuna ho'oulu 'ai were agricultural experts. Kahuna kalai were carving experts. Kahuna kalai wa'a were the master canoe builders. The kahuna la'au lapa'au was a medical practitioner. There were also such specialists as kahuna hui, who performed mortuary ceremonies for the deification of a king; kahuna kilokilo, who observed the skies for omens, and kahuna kaula, regarded as prophets.

The term kahuna (plural, kahuna), derives from kahu (caretaker). Custodians of esoteric knowledge kept secret in order to preserve its mana, they no doubt also knew, as do leaders of modern trade and professional organizations, that the control of knowledge by restricting entry to the group (publicly justified today as a way of maintaining high standards) preserves the group's status and a favorable demand/supply ratio. Then, as now, knowledge was power—a manifestation of mana easily lost if not kept private to those deemed worthy of it.

Of several types of temples (heiau) the luakini was the most elaborate and largest. Dedicated to Ku as patron of politics and warfare, these were the heiau of the ruling chiefs. Gifts of food were regularly offered to propitiate Ku at the luakini altar, for it was believed that a spirit that was not fed would drift away. When deemed necessary, the gift of a man's life was made ("sacrifice" is the conventional term, but "gift" is descriptively more accurate). The act of killing was not part of the ritual—an enemy slain in battle, a criminal or slave knocked on the head and carried to the temple would do nicely—but it had to be a healthy man, never a woman, child, or a man with a deformity or wasted by age. As stated earlier, only the king could order it.

Waihau were heiau at which humans were not offered. Of these, the mapele were agricultural shrines to Lono, spiritual source of fertility, abundance and peace. Heiau ho'ola were for healing.

Pu'uhonua were sanctuaries where fugitives could find safety from those pursuing them. Little is known about the conditions and terms which governed them, but it's believed that after some penance or adjudicated reconciliation a fugitive could depart without fear. The best known is Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, the sanctuary at Honaunau Bay, within the Ahupua'a of Honaunau, in the South Kona district of Hawai'i Island, now partially restored and preserved as the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park.

HONAUNAU BAY
Collection of Robert and Sandra Kamigaki

The power of the kahuna largely ended when the Kingdom of Hawai'i officially abandoned the ancient religion in 1819. For the ruling chiefs to abandon the mana/kapu system that was the very foundation of their power must have been a wrenching decision; and, despite 40 years of contact with foreigners, this was entirely their own decision. Christian missionaries did not influence them, having not yet arrived.

Polynesians saw Europeans not as superior beings, but as another people who had apparently been blessed with materials and technology as beneficiaries of a god more powerful than their own akua. Moreover, their akua seemed powerless to protect them from foreign diseases against which Westerners seemed to have greater protection. And for thirty years Hawaiian sailors had been crewing on foreign ships, returning home with tales of powerful nations, any of whom could gobble up the Kingdom of Hawai'i. Clearly, the protection of international recognition was necessary. To gain recognition the Kingdom must become accepted by the West, which meant that Hawai'i must become westernized as rapidly as possible. Logically, this would require acceptance of the European God as the original source of all Western mana.

Pressured by advisors, including his kahuna nui, Liholiho (Kameha-meha II) abolished the kapu system, symbolically announcing his edict by violating the kapu against men and women eating together. To reinforce the point, images in local heiau were ordered destroyed.

Chiefs and priests who disapproved of Liholiho's actions gathered forces, rallied behind his cousin, Kekuaokalani, and marched on the capitol, Kailua, in Kona. The government force met them in Keauhou, in what became the Battle of Kuamo'o.

Accustomed to fighting in close quarters with hand weapons, many combatants were now armed with muskets. The battle became one of bloody attrition in which both sides stood their ground and shot it out. The government force prevailed, and the ancient religion went out in a blaze of musket fire.

Missionaries arrived a few months later to discover that their most difficult challenge had been swept aside. They endured a probationary period, but acceptance was inevitable. In requests for more funding from New England, however, it would not do to make their work seem too easy, and to contrast themselves with their native predecessors they were wont to cast themselves in an aura of goodness and refer to the kahuna as evil seers and sorcerers. Foreigners as well as later generations of native converts came to cast all kahuna in the mold of the kahuna 'ana'ana, specialist in spells which could cause death simply because the intended victim believed it.


A CEREMONY AT PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU
Collection of the National Park Service

Without writing, kahuna were the living libraries of the old culture, preserving knowledge in trained memories. Some feats of memory seem incredible today. The story of Kamapua'a required sixteen hours of word-perfect recitation. Some temple invocations, we are told, in which any mistake would break the power of the words, required two days to deliver. Early Christian missionaries were astonished to find among their converts some who could recite entire books from the Bible soon after learning to read. Knowledge kept in living memories and shared only among a select few is extremely fragile, which helps explain why so much has been lost. One epidemic of an introduced disease could wipe out the masters of a guild, and with them knowledge accumulated over millennia. Disenfranchised in 1819 and subsequently condemned by Christian missionaries as sorcerers and witch doctors, their veil of secrecy became their shroud.

The image of the kahuna has gone through another transform-ation in this century with highly speculative books about kahuna mysticism and magic. But by their own lights, within their perceptions of their world, I believe the kahuna regarded themselves not as mystics but as intensely pragmatic practitioners.

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