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These four basalt boulders, which
weigh several tons apiece and sit on a lava rock platform, are held
sacred by the Hawaiian people.
The story goes that sometime before the 15th century, four powerful
healers from Moaulanuiakea, in the Society Islands, named Kapaemahu,
Kahaloa, Kapuni, and Kihohi, lived in the Ulukoa area of Waikiki.
After years of healing the people and the alii of Oahu, they wished to
return home. They asked the people to erect four monuments made of
bell stone, a basalt rock that was found in a Kaimuki |
quarry and that produced a bell-like
ringing when struck. The healers spent a
ceremonious month transferring their spiritual healing power, or mana,
to the stones. The great mystery is how the boulders were transported
from Kaimuki to the marshland near Kuhio Beach in Waikiki! Over time a
bowling alley was built on the spot, and the stones got buried beneath
the structure. After the bowling alley was torn down in the 1960s,
tourists used the stones to eat lunch on or to drape their wet towels
over. In 1997 the stones were once again given a place of prominence
with the construction of a $75,000 shrine that includes the platform
and a wrought-iron fence. Since then the stones have become something
of a mecca for students and patients of traditional healing.
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Oahu
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