THIS BLOG ATTEMPTS TO SHOW HOW SCIENCE IS CATCHING UP WITH REVEALED RELIGION

THIS BLOG IS AN ATTEMPT TO PUT ALL THE COOL STUFF THAT I BUMP INTO ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND EVENTS THAT LEAD UP TO IT INTO ONE LOCATION.
THE CONTENTS WILL BE FROM AN LDS PERSPECTIVE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING IN HERE, I DO NOT PARTICULARLY CARE TO ARGUE, UNLESS YOU CAN ADD TO THIS BODY OF WORK. I HAVE AN OPEN MIND, THAT IS WHY I READ STUFF FROM ALL DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND SEEK LEARNING FROM THE BEST BOOKS. I JUST AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE ABOUT IT - BUT TO PUT IT OUT THERE WHERE OTHERS CAN PERUSE/PURSUE IT. I TAKE PARTICULAR INTEREST IN HONEST SEEKERS OF TRUTH AND BELIEVE THAT SCIENCE IS REVEALED RELIGION'S BEST ALLY. YOU WILL SEE ALOT OF TOPICS IN THIS BLOG THAT SHOW SCIENCE BACKING - AND SLOWLY CATCHING UP WITH - REVEALED RELIGION.
ENJOY!!

Saturday, November 3, 2012

HAWAIIAN TRADITIONS AND LDS BELIEFS

This is in from a reader of Hawaiian descent.  Very interesting history I did not know:

The Ancient America Foundation (AAF) is pleased to present AAF Notes: a series of research articles by scholars of Book of Mormon culture and history and reviewed by AAF editors. Visit our Web site:  HYPERLINK <http://www.ancientamerica.org/>



1920^ Wm. M. Waddoups             "Traditions and Legends of the Polynesians," in Improvement Era 23,
                                                 October 1920, pp. 1072-76.

     In 1920, William M. Waddoups, Secretary of the Hawaiian Mission would write:
     Judge Fornander, Messrs. Alexander, Dibble, Ellis, and others, who have spent much time in collecting Hawaiian tradition and folk lore, have brought together much that is interesting and of vast importance in establishing the paternity and origin of the Polynesian family, located upon widely separated islands in the Pacific Ocean.  While widely separated and scattered, yet they are so homogeneous in physical characteristics, language, tradition, and customs as to leave no doubt in the mind of the investigator that they are one people, with a common origin, and yet that origin has not been satisfactorily established.  Upon this matter Judge Fornander has this to say in the opening paragraph of the first volume of his excellent work, The Polynesian Race:
     North and South America, Malays, Papuans, Chinese and Japanese, and even the lost tribes of Israel, have all at different times and by different writers, been charged with the paternity of this family, and made responsible for its origin and appearance in the Pacific Ocean.

     The purpose of this brief article is to point out the wonderful and astonishing similarity between the traditions, customs, religious practice and ceremonies of the Polynesian race, and the teaching of the Hebrew scripture known as the Bible.  The reader may draw a conclusion as to where and to what people these traditions, customs and practices rightfully belong. . . . These traditions were had among the Hawaiians many generations before these islands were discovered, and long before the Bible was introduced among them by Christian missionaries. . . .
     The Hawaiians recognized three supreme gods, Kane, Ku and Lono.  These three form a triad known as Ku-Kaua-Kahi, a fundamental supreme governing unity.  These gods existed in number.  Next they created the sun, moon, and stars; then expressed it, "Mai ka po mai."  They created the heavens, three in number.  Next they created the sun, moon, and stars; then a host of angels or spirits were formed.  Last they created man in the image and likeness of Kane.  The body of the first man was made of red earth, lep ula, and spittle from the mouth of Kane.  The head was made from white clay collected by Lono from the four quarters of the earth.  After the man was formed the three gods breathed into his nostrils and commanded him to arise, and he became a living man.  After the man was created a woman was formed from one of the ribs of the man.  This first man and woman are known by different names in different chants and traditions, but the most commonly known and accepted are for the man, Kumuhonua, and for the woman, Kealokuhonua.
     This primordial couple were placed in a home of which the Hawaiians speak in glowing terms.  It was called by various names, such as Kaluna-i-hau-ola (Kalanla with the life-giving dew); or Aina-wai-akua-a-Kane (The land of the divine water of Kane).  It was known as a sacred place, and a man must be righteous in order to dwell therein.  Among the adornments of the Polynesian paradise, were two trees, the Ulu kapu a Kane, the forbidden breadfruit of Kane, and the Ohia hemolele, the sacred apple.  It was said among the ancient Kahuna or priests of Hawaii, that the eating of the forbidden breadfruit of Kane, brought sorrow, trouble and death to Kumuhonua and Keola-kuhonua, the first man and woman.  The tradition further says that the gods made spirits from the spittle of their mouths, to be their ministering servants.  A number of these spirits rebelled because they were not allowed to drink awa. (Awa was used in sacrificial worship in olden times.  It is a plant from the roots of which a drink is made which intoxicates if taken very freely.)  The god Kane, however, was victor in the struggle which followed this rebellion, and these rebellious spirits were cast down into darkness (ilalo loa i ka po).  The chief spirit or leader of these seditious spirits is called variously, Milu, Kanaloa, Po, Kupu ino, etc.
     Another tradition says that after the gods Kane, Ku and Lono had created man and breathed into him the spirit of life, that Kanaloa also made a man, but when his clay model was completed and he commanded him to live, he failed to arise and live.  This angered Kanaloa and he swore to cause the death of the man whom the gods had created.  The ancient Hawaiians looked upon Kanaloa as the prince of evil, the origin of death, a disobedient spirit, and that he was severely punished by the supreme god Kane.  The tradition further says that the first man and woman had two sons, the first Laka and the second Ahu, that Laka was a bad man and killed his brother Ahu.
     There are three Hawaiian genealogies from the first man Humuhonua to Nuu or Kahinalii.  The first counts thirteen generations, the second gives fourteen generations, and the third counts only twelve ([Similarly] The line of Seth from Adam counts ten generations to Noah.)  It is said in this tradition that it was in the days of Nuu that a great flood (known as Ke kai a ka hinalii) came upon the earth, and that Nuu, his Lilinoe and his three sons, with their wives, were saved in a large vessel called in their chant, He waa halau alli o ka Moku.  After the flood subsided they found themselves upon the top of Mauna Kea (the thirteen thousand foot peak on the island of Hawaii).  It is said that after Nuu went out from the ship he took a pig, coconuts and awa and offered sacrifice to the god Kane.  As he looked into the sky he saw the moon, and thinking it to be Kane he worshiped it.  Kane is then said to have descended on the rainbow and reproved him, but owing tot he mistake he had made he was forgiven, and Kane left the rainbow in the heavens as a token of his forgiveness.
     Ten generations from Nuu, according to this genealogy, there arose another great Kahuna or priest, called among other names, Kane-hoa-lani.  It is said that he introduced circumcision among his people. . . . His grandson, Kini,lau-a-mano, was the traditional father of twelve sons from whom sprang the Menehune people, who are said in this tradition to be the progenitors of the Polynesian family.
     We also find in Hawaiian folk lore a tradition closely resembling the story of Joseph who was sold into Egypt.  It runs thus: Waiku had ten sons and one daughter.  Waikelenuiaiku one of the sons, was much beloved by Waiku, but hated by his brethren.  Owing to their hatred they cast him into a pit belonging to Holonawole.  His oldest brother gave strict charge to Holonaeole to take good care of Waikelenuiaku.  He is said to have escaped from the pit and fled to a country under the rule of King Kamohoalii.  He was thrown into a pit underground where were confined other prisoners.  Four of these fellow prisoners dreamed dreams, one dreamed that he saw a ripe ohia (native apple), and his spirit ate it; the second dreamed that he saw and ate a ripe banana; while the third dreamed that he saw a pit, killed, dressed and ate it, and the fourth dreamer pressed awa juice from the awa plant and drank it.  The interpretation given to the first, second and third dreamers were that they should die.  The awa dreamer, however, was told that he should be released from the pit and restored to service in the house of the king.  As was predicted, the three dreamers who saw the ohia, the banana, and the pig, were killed, but the fourth was liberated.  He subsequently told the king of the wonderful powers of Waikelenuiaiku, and he was released from prison and placed in the service of the king.  He afterwards became one of the principal chiefs in the kingdom.
     Another tradition closely resembling the story of the deliverance of Israel through Moses, is found in the legend of Kealii-waha-nui. . . .A . . . story of lengthening the day until a certain work was accomplished is also told concerning Maui-a-kalana, an ancient chief of great power.  A legend is also found concerning an Oahu prophet called Na-ula-a-Maihea, who left Oahu on an important mission to Kauai.  His canoe was upset, he was swallowed by a whale, and afterwards thrown up on the beach near Wailua, Kauai.
     You will note that in none of these traditions do we have anything seeming to point to important events in the Christian era.  So far as I can learn there is nothing in Polynesian mythology and traditional folk lore that in any way points to the important events recorded in the New Testament.  I have learned that there was a common belief among some of the Polynesians that one of the governing gods visited them and left a promise that he would visit them again, and that they should be watchful and prepared for his second coming.  The Hawaiians speak of this god as Lono.  When Captain Cook discovered these islands, in 1778, the natives at once deified him and gave him the name Lono, saying that their god had returned again as he had promised.
     If, as Judge Fornander maintains, the Polynesians peoples have received their traditional knowledge of Biblical characters and events as follows, "That during the time of the Spanish galleon trade, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, between the Spanish main and Manila, some shipwrecked people, Spanish and Portuguese, had obtained sufficient influence to introduce these scrips of Bible history into the legendary lore of this people," it is strange at least that not a single mention is made in the legends of the people of the all-important and crowning event of the New Testament, the birth and crucifixion of our Savior Jesus Christ.
     If, however, the theory of the origin of the Polynesians, as believed by the Latter-day Saints, be accepted, then the total absence of legendary knowledge among them, concerning the chief characters and events of the New Testament is easily explained.  Hagoth and his company, from whom we believe the Polynesian islanders originate, sailed form the northern part of South America some fifty-four years before the birth of Jesus Christ.  They would, therefore, of course bring nothing with them concerning the ministry of Christ, and the travels and labors of his disciples.  They were, however, fully conversant with the chief events and characters of much of the Old Testament, perhaps all that which precedes the year 600 B.C., or the time when Lehi left Jerusalem under divine command.

     Note*  If according to Waddoups, Hagoth "sailed from the northern part of South America," then this implies a Hemispheric Theory for Book of Mormon geography.

Copyright © 1999-2002 Ancient America Foundation. This message may be forwarded with identifying information. For more information or to subscribe or unsubscribe to AAF Notes or utilize the AAF order form, visit < http://www.ancientamerica.org/> and click “Contact us”. Refer, by e-mail, comments or questions to aaf@ancientamerica.org

No comments:

Post a Comment