02-07-2019, 08:45 AM
From the link HOTPE posted earlier:
In Keauhou, a mile-long engineering marvel allowed alii (chiefs) to ride down a mountain at 50 miles per hour all the way to the sea...Tom Pohaku Stone...has helped to uncover dozens of kahua holua sliding courses throughout the Islands... And, “all [slides] were on top of old flows or what was once a very significant place ... They all have Pele names … so we ride across solidified lava to honor her.”
https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/content/h...ian-chiefs
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So Hawaiians historically rode dirt, so to speak, on some significant sites, but when non-Hawaiians do it with non-traditional methods on Mauna Kea, it's suddenly a huge cultural offense?
Upshot: Hawaiians are pissed off that they haven't been able to reign in the telescopes. So they are throwing their weight around on Mauna Kea to target other mountain users. Who knows what cultural outrage they'll come up with next. They probably haven't decided yet either.
From some other posters: "Pee on a statute at the Louvre....skateboard at the Vatican"
Poor comparisons, these are structures with a documented religious history. The top of Mauna Kea, taking into account the steep terrain, probably spans 6 square miles or more, and as has been shown, archeological documentation of revered sites in this vast area is lacking.
But I'll do a small walk back...
If Hawaiians want to take a section of mountaintop (or two), possibly even the entire cinder cone where the dirt skiing took place, and declare it a religious site and close it to all public use, that should be considered. (But not to include the slope/valley where skiing has historically taken place.)
But indications are that Hawaiians want way more than that. They are still fighting the telescopes and seem intent on issuing edicts for acceptable behavior for the entire mountain top. Both should be resisted.
In Keauhou, a mile-long engineering marvel allowed alii (chiefs) to ride down a mountain at 50 miles per hour all the way to the sea...Tom Pohaku Stone...has helped to uncover dozens of kahua holua sliding courses throughout the Islands... And, “all [slides] were on top of old flows or what was once a very significant place ... They all have Pele names … so we ride across solidified lava to honor her.”
https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/content/h...ian-chiefs
- - - -
So Hawaiians historically rode dirt, so to speak, on some significant sites, but when non-Hawaiians do it with non-traditional methods on Mauna Kea, it's suddenly a huge cultural offense?
Upshot: Hawaiians are pissed off that they haven't been able to reign in the telescopes. So they are throwing their weight around on Mauna Kea to target other mountain users. Who knows what cultural outrage they'll come up with next. They probably haven't decided yet either.
From some other posters: "Pee on a statute at the Louvre....skateboard at the Vatican"
Poor comparisons, these are structures with a documented religious history. The top of Mauna Kea, taking into account the steep terrain, probably spans 6 square miles or more, and as has been shown, archeological documentation of revered sites in this vast area is lacking.
But I'll do a small walk back...
If Hawaiians want to take a section of mountaintop (or two), possibly even the entire cinder cone where the dirt skiing took place, and declare it a religious site and close it to all public use, that should be considered. (But not to include the slope/valley where skiing has historically taken place.)
But indications are that Hawaiians want way more than that. They are still fighting the telescopes and seem intent on issuing edicts for acceptable behavior for the entire mountain top. Both should be resisted.