PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU NHS • KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NHP • PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NHP A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island

CHAPTER IX:
PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (continued)

E. Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (continued)

3. Later History of the Pu'uhonua and of Hale-o-Keawe

The pu'uhonua, as indicated, was not needed as a sanctuary after the abolition of the ancient Hawaiian kapu system. The Hale-o-Keawe was spared destruction at that time possibly because of its special status and its extreme sacredness due to its connection with the Kamehameha dynasty and its function as the repository for the ancestral bones of the reigning family. Russell Apple has theorized that possibly Liholiho himself, in agreement with Ka'ahumanu, decided to retain the repository of his famous ancestors' bones as a "royal mausoleum of the Kamehameha dynasty." [49]

Despite the acculturation taking place in Hawai'i at that time, many continued to adhere to the old traditions. Although worship at the old temples and of the old gods was almost impossible with their destruction after 1819, the fact that Hale-o-Keawe still existed provided opportunities for relic worship and placement of offerings to ancestors. Ka'ahumanu and others who had converted to Christianity considered this a pagan and objectionable practice and probably an embarrassment. [50]

Therefore, threats to the structure's existence arose with the visit of the regent Ka'ahumanu to the Hale-o-Keawe in 1829. Ka'ahumanu was a strong convert to Christianity and steadfastly resolved to completely sever Hawaiian ties to the old religion by getting rid of this last vestige of "paganism." Missionary Hiram Bingham recounted that

The regent visited the place not to mingle her adorations with her early contemporaries and predecessors to the relics of departed mortals, but for the purpose of removing the bones of twenty-four deified kings and princes of the Hawaiian race, and consigning them to oblivion. But at that time she thought Naihe was wavering in respect to their removal, and Kekauluohi, whose father's bones were there, she thought still cherished an undue veneration for them; and Boki she feared would treat her with abuse and violence if she should disturb the house or remove its mass of relics. But when she saw it ought to be done, she determined it should be done: and in company with Mr. Ruggles and Kapiolani, she went to the sacred deposit and caused the bones to be placed in large coffins and entombed in a cave in the precipice at the head of Kealakekua Bay. In doing this she found an expensive article of foreign manufacture, comparatively new, placed near the bones of the father of Kekauluohi, and which appeared to have been presented as an offering since the date of the prohibition of the worship of idols. [51]

The removal of the bones took place in late December 1828 or early January 1829, and at least partial destruction of the house occurred soon thereafter. [52] The deified bones were removed from Hale-o-Keawe and placed in two large coffins, or wooden boxes, which were secretly interred in Hoaiku cave in the Ka'awaloa cliffs at Kealakekua Bay, where they remained for almost thirty years. Sometime afterwards (ca. 1836?) the Hale-o-Keawe's surrounding fence was dismantled and its sacred timbers and perhaps part of the palisade were used in construction of a government building in Honolulu. According to Professor W.D. Alexander, in January 1858 Kamehameha IV toured the windward islands in the British sloop Vixen commanded by Captain Meacham. Arriving at Ka'awaloa, he ordered the keeper of the royal burial cave to unseal it during the night and allow the coffins from Honaunau to be loaded on board ship. Transported to Honolulu, they were entrusted to the protection of Governor Kekuanaoa, who was also official guardian of royal tombs. In 1865, after completion of the royal mausoleum in Nu'uanu, the coffins were carried there during the night in a torchlight procession and laid to rest. [53]

Illustration 159. Woven sennit caskets thought to belong to Kings Liloa and Lonoikamakahiki. The braid has been woven around their skulls; the torso holds the rest of the skeleton. Mother-of-pearl is used for accent. From I'i, Fragments of Hawaiian History, p. 156.

Missionary Levi Chamberlain had been present at the removal of the bones from Hale-o-Keawe and listed the names of the chiefs whose bones went to Ka'awaloa. Barrère, after studying the list and genealogies, discovered that possibly as many as sixteen of the chiefs were direct descendants of one chiefly mating. She concluded, therefore, that Hale-o-Keawe was primarily the depository of bones of one family descended from Keawe-nui-a-'Umi, whose son was the first hereditary ruler of Kona. The earliest interments in the house were probably designated for deification as ancestral gods for the next generations. Not all descendants of the family were placed there, notable exclusions being that of women, because this was a heiau, and of priests, a class that could not be be deified. [54]

Several questions concerning the Hale-o-Keawe remain unresolved. After being emptied of relics, and after souvenir pieces of kauila wood had been given to the missionaries, what happened to the structure? It appears to have remained standing, possibly by intention on the part of Ka'ahumanu, who either believed that the removal of relics had so decreased its power among the people that it no longer posed a threat to Christian beliefs or who left it to Na'ihe to destroy. Na'ihe continued as guardian of the bones secreted in the cave in the Kealakekua cliffs until his death in 1831, and he might have managed to procrastinate on the house's destruction until Ka'ahumanu's death that same year. [55]

Missionaries Ephraim W. Clark and Levi Chamberlain saw the Hale-o-Keawe still standing in February 1829 as they passed in a canoe by Honaunau Bay, and the Reverend John D. Paris noted it again in 1841. Yale astronomer and surveyor Chester Lyman, visiting in Hawai'i, noted in 1846 the walls "yet quite entire," the stone foundation of the Hale, and remains of the wooden palisade. [56] Henry Cheever stated about 1850 that only a fence of posts remained on site, and Samuel Hill about the same time spoke of a few stakes remaining as well as the temple refuse pit. [57]

A series of earthquakes beginning in 1868 and resulting tidal waves (tsunami) probably aided the obliteration of the temple platform and any associated structures. Damage through neglect and natural forces, plus sinking of the land over time, had basically cleared the site of the temple by 1902 and dramatically changed the coastline. [58]

Questions concerning Hale-o-Keawe still await definitive resolution. We can only make educated guesses about who built it and when and where the bones of its original inhabitants now finally rest. The presence of associated structures, such as quarters for temple priests and for caretakers of the royal tomb or shelters for the refugees, has not been conclusively determined through either documentary research or archeological fieldwork to date.