Paradise Lost Paradise Found - Free Yourself and Come To Molokai

Some 2,200 miles (3540km) southwest of California, in the heart of the Hawaiian islands, is the island of Molokai. Shaped somewhat like a fish (the locals say a shark) with its head facing east, its tail in the west and a dorsal fin rising from its back on the north shore.

That dorsal fin is the nearly flat, ten-square-mile (25.9 sq km) Makanalua Peninsula which juts into the Pacific below the world's highest sea cliffs. A place of stunning beauty, it's been blessed by nature's grandeur, and cursed by humanity's ignorance and fear.

While this area is generally referred to as Kalaupapa, in fact, Makanalua Peninsula is divided into three districts: The Kalawao district on the eastern edge; Kalaupapa and the settlement of Kalaupapa to the west; with Makanalua in the center.

Inhabited from about 650 AD, the Hawaiians fished the rough surrounding ocean by outrigger canoe with nets and spears for over 1200 years .

They also farmed the land, coaxing sweet potatoes, onions and taro from the harsh volcanic soil. With the vines of the sweet potato, their main vegetable, they fed their pigs, which in turn they used to barter with other villagers in the eastern valleys.

While the peninsula was not largely settled, it was traveled much and used extensively. The entire area is divided and subdivided by low rock walls that continue for mile after mile, creating thousands of small lots of every imaginable shape.

There is no written history of the people who built them; historians theorize that they were constructed as pens for raising pigs, as windbreaks for growing crops and possibly as property boundaries and land divisions.

The early Hawaiians built fishing shrines called heiau as places to make offerings for their safety while fishing in the rough waters that surrounded the peninsula. These heiau were platforms built of stone in circular and square shapes. Some of their surfaces are filled with coral, while others have elaborate enclosures lined with flat rocks on which offerings of fish or shells were placed.


Today, the trail from Topside Molokai to Kalaupapa is traveled by mule, by hikers, and on foot by some of the workers at the settlement.

Hugging the nearly perpendicular cliffs, the trail is over three miles (5km) long and descends 1,600 feet (488m) to the peninsula. Along its course are 26 switchbacks that corkscrew in and out of canyons and ravines.

There is also a small airstrip at the northern edge of the peninsula, used daily to bring in food, supplies and visitors.

Once a year in the summer, when the seas are calm, a barge from Honolulu anchors at Kalaupapa, delivering thousands of pounds of rice, cases of beer, drums of gasoline and supplies to stock the grocery store and hospital.

Father Damien and the Lepers of Kalaupapa

Kalaupapa's reputation as a leprosy colony is well-known. Hansen's disease, the proper term for leprosy, is believed to have spread to Hawaii from China. The first documented case of leprosy occurred in 1848. Its rapid spread and unknown cure precipitated the urgent need for complete and total isolation.

Surrounded on three sides by the Pacific ocean and cut off from the rest of Molokai by 1600-foot (488m) sea cliffs, Kalaupapa provided the environment.

In early 1866, the first leprosy victims were shipped to Kalaupapa and existed for 7 years before Father Damien arrived.

The area was void of all amenities. No buildings, shelters nor potable water were available. These first arrivals dwelled in rock enclosures, caves, and in the most rudimentary shacks, built of sticks and dried leaves.

Taken after Damien had constructed most of the houses seen here, this photo shows the stark, barren peninsula and settlement at Kalawao in the 1880s.

Folklore and oral histories recall some of the horrors: the leprosy victims, arriving by ship, were sometimes told to jump overboard and swim for their lives. Occasionally a strong rope was run from the anchored ship to the shore, and they pulled themselves painfully through the high, salty waves, with legs and feet dangling below like bait on a fishing line.

The ship's crew would then throw into the water whatever supplies had been sent, relying on currents to carry them ashore or the exiles swimming to retrieve them.

In 1873, Father Damien deVeuster, aged 33, arrived at Kalaupapa. A Catholic missionary priest from Belgium, he served the leprosy patients at Kalaupapa until his death. A most dedicated and driven man, Father Damien did more than simply administer the faith: he built homes, churches and coffins; arranged for medical services and funding from Honolulu, and became a parent to his diseased wards.

Shown here in a rare pencil sketch from December, 1888, Damien contracted the disease, and after 16 years of selfless service, died in 1889.

In 1886, Brother Joseph Dutton arrived at Kalaupapa to assist Father Damien. Dutton, an energetic and dedicated missionary priest, assumed many of the duties Damien was unable to perform as his leprosy progressed.

Mother Marianne, another revered servant, devoted 29 years on the peninsula as an administrator, nurse and educator. She spent her life on the go, even as her age climbed well into the seventies. She died in 1918.

In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Father Damien to be venerable, the first of three steps that lead to sainthood. Pope John Paul II declared Damien blessed in 1995, the second step before canonization as a saint.

With the advent of sulfone drugs in the 1940s, the disease was put in remission and the sufferers are no longer contagious. The fewer than 100 former patients remaining on the peninsula are free to travel or relocate elsewhere, but most have chosen to remain where they have lived for so long.

The few cars on the peninsula travel at a top speed of five miles per hour, as there is nowhere to go and no reason to hurry.

A broad smile and a friendly wave of the hand are commonplace and integral to the lifestyle.
At Kalaupapa are the administration building, post office, book store, fire station, never-used jail and of course the hospital which, considering the size of the population, is one of the best staffed and equipped in Hawaii.

In the center of the village stands the large town meeting hall, with a big blackboard nailed on its front and some chalk hanging nearby, just in case a message for someone needs to be written.

While Kalaupapa is now a National Historic Site, it is also the home of the few former patients who chose to remain there. So access, is by law, strictly regulated.

Unless you are invited by one of the residents, you must take the tour offered by Damien Tours of Kalaupapa (about $60.00). The peninsula can be reached by air or by way of the trail from upper Molokai. Visitors can hike in and out at no cost or ride one of the Molokai mules, which will add about $125 to the cost. Visitors must be at least 16 years old.

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MOLOKAI IS A GREAT ISLAND!!!

One and a half million years ago (give or take a week) two large volcanoes pushed through the surface of the Pacific Ocean and created the island of Molokai. Kamakou in the east, and Maunaloa in the west. A couple days later a third and much smaller caldera, Kauhako, popped up to form the Makanalua peninsula on the north side.

Over eons, the north side of the island eroded and fell into the sea, leaving behind the vertical sea cliffs which today make up most of Molokai's spectacular North Shore.

It's the fifth largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago; 260 square miles (420 sq km) in area, 38 miles (61km) long, and ten miles (16km) wide at its widest point.

Anchored in the center of the 8 major islands, Molokai is 25 miles (40km) southeast of Oahu, and a 25-minute flight from Maui. From the eastern end of the island, it's only 8 miles (13km) across the Pailolo Channel to Maui.

The population is estimated at 8,000 residents, half of whom live in or near the principal town of Kaunakakai. Nearly 40% are of Hawaiian descent, thus the nick name, "The Most Hawaiian Island."

According to the experts, Hawaiians first came to live on Molokai about 650 A.D. Those first settlers most likely originated from the Marquesas, with later migrations, in double hulled canoes, from Tahiti and other areas in the South Pacific.

As the Hawaiians had no written language, most of their pre-contact history has come from chants, passed down from generation to generation, which have kept a chronology of events, battles and genealogy.

In November, 1778, Captain James Cook sighted Molokai on his first visit to the Sandwich Islands, as he named these islands, but it wasn't until 1786 when Captain George Dixon anchored off Molokai's coast, that Europeans first visited this island.


In 1832 a Protestant mission was established at Kalua'aha on the East End by Reverend Harvey Hitchcock, to serve an estimated population of 5,000. His church has not been maintained, but the walls and part of the roof stand today at the 14.5 mile marker. A white marble headstone marks his grave on the hill east of what remains of the church.


The oldest known Hawaiian settlement on Molokai occurred in Halawa Valley, at the eastern end of the main highway that crosses the length of the island. The eastern side of the island was heavily populated in pre-contact Hawaii, a result of ample water from the mountains, fertile and level land for farming, and a rich and abundant ocean.

More than 60 fish ponds were built along the south shore of Molokai. Most have nearly disappeared, but a few have been reconstructed and are used daily by residents for aquiculture. A drive along the south shore of the island bears testimony to the reliance on the ocean by early Hawaiians.

Molokai was renowned for the wisdom and power of its religious leaders, greatly respected and often feared by others in the archipelago. In the 1500s, the famous prophet, Lanikaula, was so revered that pilgrims came from all the Islands to seek his wisdom and advice. Molokai became a place of retreat, protected from war by its religious prestige and the marital alliances of its chiefs.


Others were reputed for sorcery. Legend tells of the Kalaipahoa, or poisonwood gods, entering trees on Maunaloa. The grove is said to have been so poisonous that birds fell dead as they flew over it.

Legend also tells us that Laka, goddess of the hula, gave birth to the dance on Molokai, at a very sacred place in Ka'ana. This is recognized on Molokai every May, at a celebration of the birth of hula, called Ka Hula Piko.

When Laka died, her remains were secretly hidden somewhere beneath the hill, Pu'u Nana. The hula was finally established, the work of Laka was complete, and the dance flourished throughout Hawaii.

Molokai was praised as "Molokai Ka Hula Piko," Molokai, the center of the dance.

This design, by John Kaimikaua and Wainwright Piena, uses traditional Hawaiian motifs to depict the essence of the saying, "Molokai Ka Hula Piko."

To the early Hawaiians the mo'o (lizards) were a symbol of spirituality and good fortune.


The central design depicts this spiritual continuity with the mo'o arranged in a circle. The triangle depicts a Hawaiian value called "Lokahi," which is symbolic of a balance between man, nature, and God. Petroglyphs within the triangle portray a man and woman in dance. In the uppermost part of the triangle is a rising sun with a dot in the center symbolizing the piko of the hula.

Beneath the circle is a motif depicting water, while at the top, the triangles represent fire. In the real world, water and fire are the two elements that cannot be mixed, but the spiritual essence of these elements mix in the hula. The ancient kumu hula of Molokai stressed to their students that they should dance with the fluidity of water and with the spark of fire.

The middle row of diamonds, is a design called by the Hawaiians "na maka ke akua," or "eyes of the gods." Eyes are symbolic of the past, because our ancestors look upon us and guide us in this life. Eyes also represent the living, as we look back upon the paths of our ancestors for inspiration and guidance.

The hula provides a means for us to look back to the works of our ancestors through its movements, motions and chants.

Above the "na maka ke akua" design are ferns representing the greenery worn by the dancers and below is the half-circle-point motif representing the rays of the sun rising in the east.

To the early Hawaiians, the rising sun was symbolic of constant renewal and rebirth in the hula.