STAGING Namo magazine

Namo Intro

Benedict De Saram — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 23:02:56 +0000

THE LOUDEST BANG IN HUMAN HISTORY

Rohan Leanage — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 00:49:08 +0000

What caused that monstrous explosion over Siberia? On the 30^th June 1908 at around 7:17 a. m. local time the sky above the Siberian taiga (coniferous forests) in central Russia was split by what sounded like tremendous gunfire. The inhabitants in this sparsely populated region sighted a huge fireball hurtling across the early morning sky and emitting a light more dazzling than that of the sun. A deafening noise could be heard and the resulting shock waves flattened over 80 million trees that littered the ground like toothpicks, setting the forest alight. Although it has been generally conjectured that an asteroid, a meteorite or a comet, piercing the earth’s atmosphere, may have exploded, the scientists, even after more than 100 years, are still at odds with each other, over what really triggered the approximately 30 megaton blast that affected an area in extent of 2,150 km². Some Russian scholars have even attributed the incident to a spacecraft from a distant planet that crashed over this region. Caravans winding through the Gobi Desert halted and looked in awe at a fireball skimming across the sky and disappearing over the border of Mongolia. Then the desolate marshy region of peat-bogs and pine forests in Central Siberia, near the Stony Tunguska River, trembled under the impact of a cataclysmic explosion when the descending object struck the ground, leaving a gigantic and blinding “pillar of fire” that flared up into the clear blue sky, casting a red glow over the landscape and visible above the horizon to stunned Siberians in far-off towns, accompanied by dark masses of thick clouds billowing to an altitude of over 20 km. The entire area was showered by an ominous “black rain” and intermittent thunderclaps, resembling heavy artillery, reverberated throughout central Russia. Powerful ballistic waves resulting from the enormous explosion knocked over trees, blowing down the semi-nomads’ huts of the terrified indigenous Evenk people of this remote and deserted area, who were scattered like specks of dust. The noise was so great that some herdsmen closer to the blast were deafened and others were thrown into a state of dazed shock that rendered them speechless. Three Evenk were killed and many of them, some 500 km away, were injured. About 1500 reindeer were wiped out as well while the frightened passengers aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, near the station town of Kansk, to the south, were almost jolted out of their seats. As the train was jarred and shook wildly on its newly completed tracks, the startled engine-driver quickly brought the train to a screeching halt. The huge shock waves encircled the world twice and were recorded on barographs in London. They were detected in Germany, Denmark and Croatia and as far away as Java in Indonesia and Washington. For three successive nights, people in London and Paris were able to read their newspapers without the aid of any artificial light while in Moscow it was even possible to take photos at night without the aid of flashbulbs. In some places, the resulting shock waves were equivalent to an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale. The nearest settlement was Vanavara, founded in 1932 as a trading post for hunters, trappers and fishermen, some 65 km away from the blast which scorched the tall conifers and ignited fires that would continue to burn for days. The hurricane that arose above the taiga tore roofs from houses and shattered windows. These huge shock waves flooded the banks of the Angara River, formerly known as the Upper Tunguska. The survivors gave oral accounts of the devastation that were transcribed into Russian. These eye-witness accounts graphically narrated an atomic explosion 1500 times more powerful than the bomb over Hiroshima in Japan in August 1945. Later, a 1969 Russian study disclosed that the genetic structure of the remaining trees had been strikingly altered, possibly due to radioactivity, when it turned out that larches and birches aged between 40 and 50 years (which had therefore germinated after the explosion), which should normally have been 7-8 m high, were in fact 17-22 m in height.

Kulik’s theory of a meteorite

The Siberian forests, too, are as impenetrable, as desolate, hostile and inaccessible as the tropical wilderness in Africa or South America. Until the 1917 Revolution of the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924), that toppled the Tsarist regime of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union (1922-1991), fewer Europeans had ventured to enter them than had gone into the southern jungles. The Evenk people of the region were extremely primitive and superstitious and they were afraid of the place where Ogdy, god of fire and thunder, had come down from heaven to earth to destroy by fire all those who ventured there. After the blast, the villagers dashed out into the streets in absolute panic; some wept in terror, convinced that the end of the world had come. Russian mineralogist Leonid Alekseyevich Kulik (1883-1942), though self-taught and with no proper academic training, was inspired by the event, grasping the fact that the Tunguska affair was scientifically very important. In the spring of 1928 Kulik, after having hacked his way through the immeasurable fallen forest, reached the epicentre of the explosion: an open spot ringed with trees lying on the ground, all with their roots pointing in the same direction. He concluded that the awe-inspiring destruction was caused by a huge meteorite. Nevertheless, he did not come across any fragments of such a meteorite and neither did he succeed in finding the crater which must have been made. Vasili Sytin, one of his colleagues, formulated the most absurd of the 77 theories: that a very violent wind was the cause of the disaster, but Kulik adamantly clung to his belief that it must have been a meteorite. Finally, he assumed that fragments of the supposed meteorite would be found underneath 25 metres of frozen ground and marsh water must have filled the crater, but half a century later, it was clearly shown that the impassable swamp in the epicentre was a normal taiga formation. Prof. Vasiliy Grigorievich Fesenkov (1889-1972), the eminent Russian astrophysicist, admitted that the Tunguska catastrophe was not caused by a meteorite. The disturbance of such severity could not have been brought about by meteorites and the light phenomena that lasted three nights in succession in 1908 could not be due to any cloud of particles of a terrestrial origin.

The epicentre of the Tunguska event in Siberia. Photo: Tungussky Nature Reserve

Was it a comet?

Therefore, Prof. Fesenkov argued that a comet blew up above the taiga. This, in any way, was not a brand-new idea, since the American astronomer Fred Lawrence Whipple (1906-2004) had favoured this notion in 1930, supported by the Russian astronomer I. S. Astapovich. It was particularly the skies that were aglow during the nights of 30^th June and 01^st and 02^nd July both in Siberia and Central Europe which were the major reasons for adopting the comet hypothesis. It was assumed that this glow could have been cast by the comet’s tail within the earth’s atmosphere. The periodic comet Encke orbits the sun every 3.3 years and it was in the vicinity of Tunguska on the date of the explosion. This comet was first recorded in 1786 by French astronomer Pierre François André Méchain (1744-1804) and its orbit was computed by German astronomer Johann Franz Encke (1791-1865). Yet, the hypothetical Tunguska comet cannot have been small in view of the fact that the energy released has been estimated today at 10²³ ergs at least (equivalent to about 30 million tons of TNT-fifteen hundred times as great as that at Hiroshima). If in 1908 a comet of that size had hit the earth a crater several kilometres across and hundreds of metres deep would have been made, but the swampy epicentre did not show any trace of such a thing. Another reason for rendering the comet theory highly questionable, has to do with ballistics. The felled trees proved beyond doubt that there were two shock waves: one before the explosion and the other after the object had burst. Russian aircraft designer A. Y. Manotskov, by means of electronic calculating machines and by reconstructing the flight as seen by eye-witnesses, proved that the “thing” slowed down its velocity, which at the moment of impact was 0.7-1 km per second in place of the usual 10-60 km per second for normal comets and meteorites. This comparably low velocity is close to that of modern supersonic jet aircraft and if it had plunged down at this speed-an insignificant one for planetary bodies-then according to the laws of aerodynamics, it would have needed a mass of one thousand million tons to bring about the destruction which has now been assessed and mapped. The remains of such a monster have not been found. Therefore, Prof. Felix Yurievich Zigel (1920-1988), an aerodynamics professor at the Moscow Institute of Aviation, also regarded as a founder of Russian ufology, threw away the comet theory.

A guest from the cosmos?

In 1946, in the Russian magazine Vokrug Sveta (meaning Around the World), the science-fiction writer Alexander Petrovich Kazantsev (1906-2002), suggested that the Tunguska blast could have occurred when a spaceship from another planet, supplied with nuclear energy, tried to land in the Siberian forests. As this was a nuclear explosion nothing would have remained of the spacecraft, especially as it burst above ground, thus leaving no crater as such. According to the writer, this would explain why, right in the epicentre, some trees remained upright but dead whilst in other areas, trees were uprooted. Kazantsev’s theory was debunked by some scientists as being fantastic. But, in the terminal phase of the descent of the object, according to the most recent speculation, the object appears to have approached in an eastward direction, then changed the course westward over the region before exploding. The same opinion was reached by Zigel, who was involved in the training of many Russian cosmonauts. Based on the eye-witnesses’ accounts and the physical data, Zigel was convinced that the object, before it exploded, carried out a manoeuvre of which no natural object is capable. Thus, Zigel, together with the Russian rocket and aviation experts, supported Kazantsev in believing that the remarkable cylindrical object could only have been “an artificial flying craft from some other planet”. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917-2008), the famous English science-fiction writer and futurist, who co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is regarded as one of the most influential films of all time, was a proponent of the meteorite theory, but ironically, his novel Rendezvous with Rama, set in the twenty-first century, focuses on a cosmic intruder entering our solar system, initially mistaken for an asteroid, but eventually discovered to be an interstellar craft. Clarke immigrated to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1956 to practise scuba driving. Nevertheless, the evidence of a vehicle from an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation, carrying travellers who were vapourised in a blinding flash of light, cannot be viewed as absolutely conclusive.

Antimatter or black holes?

Another theory, put across in 1965, suggested that a small body of antimatter floating through space might have collided with the Earth. This accident produced gamma rays and an explosion. Scientists asserted that this would explain the absence of any residual material. In 1928, British scientist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984), regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20^th century, theorised that there must be a particle identical to the electron with a positive electric charge instead of a negative one. Four years later his theory was proved right in the laboratory. As soon as antimatter meets an atom of ordinary matter, they are destroyed, unleashing a destruction with an intense flash of light and violent radiation. The latest explanation was that a tiny “black hole” hit Siberia, passing through the entire earth and emerging in the North Atlantic. The concept of black hole, on the surface, appears to be vague and to many scientists the idea seems to have been directly lifted from science fiction. Yet some scholars, like the British physicist, mathematician and author John Gerald Taylor (1931-2012), the author of Black Holes-The End of the Universe?, have taken the subject seriously. In theory, a black hole forms when a massive star collapses at the end of its life cycle. It is a huge lump of matter that has shrunk so much that it has become invisible. Owing to its enormous density it generates gravity of such a magnitude that not even light could escape it. Taylor labelled a black hole “a bizarre object” and compared it to a “cannibal, swallowing up everything that gets in its way…” Russian experts of the Tunguska event have examined these new theories, but ultimately rejected them on the basis that they did not match the actual evidence.

Other hypotheses

A test of a nuclear bomb; a consequence of testing of Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor (1870-1924), who designed the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system; 2.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas igniting; and a chunk of the Sun that broke away and was flung towards the Earth, landing catastrophically in Tunguska.

Theory of midges

American science writer and author Brian Andrew Dunning (born in 1965) has put forward another exceptional but interesting theory to account for the mysterious explosion. He says that the detonation of a cloud of midges could have caused the blast. Pointing out how sawdust, when dispersed in the air, is violently explosive, a swarm of midges, if sufficiently dense, could produce the same effect, he says. According to Dunning, the cloud, as has been calculated, would need to measure some 5 cubic kilometres to cause a blast sufficiently large to match the seismic data of the event. Midge is a small two-winged fly that is often seen in swarms near water or marshy areas where it breeds.

Other natural and man-made explosions

Human History is marked indelibly with the destruction caused by great explosions. In about 1500 B. C. most of the island of Thera (later called Santorini) in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek mainland, disappeared in a volcanic blast while in 62 A. D, an earthquake, caused by the eruption of Vesuvius in Italy, toppled the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum near Naples. The Tunguska explosion, that scarred the face of the earth, is thought to be the loudest in the history of mankind. Yet, the 200 megaton 1883 volcanic eruption on 21^st October on the island of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, was equally destructive and the explosion was heard 4800 km away and its soundwave travelled around the globe seven times, causing over 36,000 deaths and ensuing tsunamis. Then, on 30^th October 1961, the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba, a hydrogen aerial bomb, designated as “AN602”, was tested in Russia (then the Soviet Union) by a group of nuclear physicists. The bomb was dropped by a parachute and the crown of the resulting mushroom cloud was 65 km high. The mystery surrounding the Siberian holocaust, however, cannot be erased from human memory or allowed to sink into oblivion. Even though more than 100 years have slipped by, the ultimate clue to the riddle is still confounding us. ***

least we can do is give them some respect

Namo Magazine — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 00:52:53 +0000

Why do Sri Lankans still frown upon LGBT rights?

Part two | Continued….

LGBT Community is active in the underlying

The writer while compiling this article, inquired from acquaintances where Sri Lankan gay people could be got hold of. His ready answer was that if you go to the public washroom of Majestic City or the bus halt opposite the public library adjacent to ViharaMahaDevi Park (formerly Victoria Park) in Colombo at office signing off time, you will be in for a luck. These places were supposed to be the meeting places of gay people. But, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and prevalent economic crisis in the country, physical movements on public roads and transport are restricted so like-minded gay people mostly browse internet sites to find partners now. These sites are freely available on social media as described in the part-01 of this article. According to the information gathered from reliable sources, LGBT community is very much active in the underlying society discreetly. With advancements in the information technological field, finding a partner for LGBT people has become quite easy now. About a decade back, Thunmulla Junction in the close proximity of University of Colombo was an infamous joint for gays and transsexual. Now, it is no more a meeting place for them. Just by carrying an advertisement on social media would suffice to find an ideal partner.

Security Forces: A haven for Gays and Lesbians

Sri Lankan Security Forces are held in high esteem by the people of Sri Lanka especially after the famous victory against LTTE. But, with all due respect to the members of the security forces, it needs to be told though with reluctance that the environs of security forces are a haven for gays and lesbians in particular. One could find a multitude of examples in this stride in the security forces. There was a well-known drill instructor in Sri Lanka Air Force some years back who was a gay. His interest was in blow jobs and sodomization so that he kept some of his own recruits for indulgence of his sex desires. For parental pressure, he got married but couldn’t satisfy his wife sexually. It was a known fact that he used to send his ‘boys’ to satisfy his wife while they were on leave. He was so addicted to gay sex so that when he was to leave the service, he couldn’t bear it. He chose to commit suicide instead. There was another senior officer who was an Air Traffic Controller. He was also well known for his explicit sexual desire for blow jobs. Although he was a marvel at job, he was looked down upon by superiors and peers. In a similar case, there was a woman soldier who was happily married with children. Her marriage life was ruined as she kept a lesbian partner secretly beside.

Common phenomenon in the society

In Sri Lanka Army too, there were famous gay officers. There were two noted characters who held the rank of Brigadier. In short, they preferred boys to girls. One Brigadier was implicated in a mass murder in 88/89 era and incarcerated. But, he was acquitted after a brief imprisonment. Another one was of a Burgher descent and he died after leaving the Army. Similarly, there was a Navy Officer who was cashiered from the service for indulgence in gay sex. In fact, he was later found to be a bi-sexual guy. Now, he is happily married with a child but he still goes for ‘boy encounters’ on and off but in absolute secrecy. This is common to civil society as well. Some years back, a top CEO of a company was murdered in his car on Marine Drive, Colombo when he was on a hunt for boys. Apart from that, a top notched Civil Servant who served for a number of Prime Ministers in Sri Lanka was a known bi-sexual. It was highlighted in my last article how the previous government openly championed LGBT activities and fell short of legalising them. Sri Lanka has a small population of transsexuals as well. Most of them are in the profession of prostitution mostly in Colombo and suburbs. Thailand is a famous hotspot for transsexuals. Since Thailand being a popular place for prostitution, young boys go to extent of removing their genitals to pose as transsexuals to make money. In Sri Lanka, it is something that doesn’t happen.

Whither LGBT rights in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a way from the thinking pattern of the west. Therefore, Sri Lankans are not yet ready to accept this notion of homosexuality in the society. In spite of this, it is commonplace everywhere but Sri Lankans still frown upon LGBT community. People consider it a taboo in society. Usually, the LGBT people are considered to be extraordinarily intelligent. Judging by the people who indulge in LGBT sex, it could be a proven fact. Sri Lanka being a highly conservative society, is unlikely to recognize LGBT rights in the near future. This gives vent to the fact that Sri Lankan LGBT community has to go underground in satisfying their sexual desires for eternity. It is because Sri Lanka has been deep rooted in religious beliefs and perceptions which cannot be reversed in a mediocre effort. So, the Sri Lankan LGBT community has no alternative but to carry on discreetly until a conducive environment is created for them to live in dignity as of western countries. But, it is a pipe dream for LGBTers as far as the local mindset on them is concerned. Before, I conclude, I need to mention about Dr Sonali Deraniyagala who lost her entire family for 2004 Tsunami, has openly live in a same sex marriage in United States. She had reportedly undergone a trauma and found solace in her new relationship. Sri Lanka is too far behind to understand this human nature.

Russia’s Losses Continue to Mount

Namo Magazine — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 00:52:05 +0000

The losses continue to hurt Russia in Ukraine. Such losses are not sustainable and will result in Putin having to implement a change of strategy.

Russia’s military lost two jets, 13 tanks and a helicopter over the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s military claimed Friday, despite Putin claiming the annexation of four Ukrainian regions a few hours later.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine detailed Russia’s combat losses between the beginning of the war on February 24 and September 30, as well as those from the last day.

It estimated that 59,080 Russian troops and military personnel had died in the fighting since the war started in february 2022, including 500 over on Friday.

They also said Russia had lost 13 tanks in the last day, and more than 2,300 since the beginning of the fighting. Russia lost two jets last friday, contributing to the 264 it has lost in total since the start of the conflict.

On Friday, Russia lost one helicopter to Ukrainian forces; it has lost 225 overall since February 24.

Incredibly, in the last 24 hours before the announcement, Russia lost 23 armored combat machines (APVs), six artillery systems, an anti-aircraft warfare system and eight UAVs.

Russia cannot replace the tanks and planes lost and has started pulling outdated models out of retirement to replace their losses.

Namo Intro

Namo Magazine — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 15:56:22 +0000

AI helmet helps

Namo Magazine — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 15:56:19 +0000

Ukraine

Namo Magazine — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 15:56:07 +0000

Three Sweet Victories but?

Lasitha Mendis — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:54:32 +0000

Amidst the worst economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka in the post-independent era, the country’s sportsmen and women excelled to clinch two major Asian titles on 11^th September 2022. Sri Lanka national Cricket team was crowned the Asian Champions while the national netball team beat Singapore to bag the Asian title in Singapore. Incidentally, these two tournaments took place on the same day in two corners of the world. On the top of it, Sri Lanka’s veteran Cricket team led by Thilakaratne Dilshan beat the formidable Australian team in the ‘Road Safety World series’ held in India once again on the same day.

Sri Lanka national Cricket squad entered the Asia Cup tournament virtually as underdogs due to the team’s ‘not very impressive’ performance in the recent past. At the qualifying first round, Sri Lanka team was surprisingly routed by minnows of World Cricket; Afghanistan in the very first match faced by them. This upset win by Afghanistan broke the spirits of the local fans to such an extent that they expected a humiliating exit of the team from the first round itself. But, it was not to be. Thereafter, the spirited Sri Lankan team maintained consistency and supremacy throughout the tournament.

The turnaround began with Sri Lanka cruising to a victory against Afghanistan in the quarter finals. After that, The Indian team which was the hot favorites to defend their Asian title was convincingly beaten by Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka continued to maintain its winning streak to beat Pakistan and enter the final in style. Before the beginning of the tournament, Sri Lanka was rated down the table with remote chances of winning the Asian title. Furthermore, the Sri Lanka team was downgraded, humiliated and belittled by some biased commentators and social media activists. But, Sri Lanka team went to the tournament with their head high undeterred by outrageous comments cast against them.

This was notwithstanding the fact that even some Bangladeshi and Afghanistan players and administrators unleashed a verbal barrage against Sri Lanka to lower their morale. But, Sri Lanka’s new outfit was a highly inspired lot which they proved in no uncertain terms at the end. Sri Lanka encountered Pakistan once again in the final and emerged victorious putting all ill-conceived predictions of Cricket pundits into the dustbin. Sri Lanka won the final by 23 runs. It is apparent that the poor Sri Lanka team had to face this humiliation because of the chaotic situation back in Sri Lanka. This is a good indicator how the world is looking at bankrupt Sri Lanka as of now. It was indeed a commendable act of plucky Sri Lankans who annexed its 6^th Asian Championship title in a no nonsense mindset against all odds.

Before Sri Lanka’s triumph in Asian Cricket circuit, Sri Lankan women Netballers beat Singapore convincingly to clinch the Asian Championship for the second consecutive time. In fact, Sri Lanka’s victory was spearheaded by 6’9’’ tall Tharjini Sivalingam from Jaffna. Sri Lanka’s netballers dominated in the last three quarters to record the victory in the margin of 63 to 53 at the end. This win was further sparked by the Sri Lankan Cricket team later in the day. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Legends Cricket team taking part in the ‘Road Safety World Series’ pulled off an exciting win against a strong Australians. Sri Lankan skipper Thilakaratne Dilshan played a captain’s inning thereby scoring a splendid century. He was ably assisted by another frontline veteran Dilshan Munaweera. Sri Lanka being the runner up in the first episode of this world series is hoping to bag the championship this time. All Sri Lankans hope that their determination will bear fruits in the coming days.

However, Sri Lanka’s economic woes are far from a permanent solution. The government seems to heavily bank on the forthcoming IMF bail-out loan of USD 2.9 Billion. In the run up, chaos still prevails in the country. Meanwhile, the government is being accused by local and international communities for suppressing protestors and the spree of arrests being made. In the underlying, Sri Lankans have nothing to rejoice over in the economic front. Inflation is uncontrollably high in Sri Lanka at present. Basically, Sri Lankans are pressed to the wall. Sri Lanka is now a country in peril. People are so hopeless. It is a great thing that our sportsmen and women were able to bring a smile on 22 million people in Sri Lanka.

Namo magazine would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sri Lanka’s national Cricket and Netball teams for their flamboyant feats in the international sports arena and also to extend best wishes for veteran Cricketers to rewrite the history this time.

“EYES LOOKING TO THE SKY”

Rohan Leanage — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:53:45 +0000

Although Easter Island, located in the mid-Pacific Ocean, in Eastern Polynesia, is one of the loneliest and the most isolated spots on earth, the Rapa Nui, as its inhabitants are called, have carved impressive human figures from volcanic ash. What was the motive behind embarking upon such a massive statue-building project? How did a civilisation evolve on such a remote island? What were the reasons that caused its destruction? The solemn faces of the stone giants of Easter Island keep on looking up into the sky, perhaps inviting scholars to unravel their mystery.

The tiny Easter Island, a special territory of Chile since 2007, covering an area of 163.6 km² and separated from the rest of the Polynesian chain by the ocean water, is surrounded by three volcanoes that give the island a triangular shape. Although the island is full of volcanic soil, it is a picturesque place with surging breakers, precipitous cliffs, towering volcanoes and open, windswept slopes. But, what attracts the visitor most, are the island’s iconic giant stone statues with their brooding eyes staring into the far-off sky over a barren landscape, facing away from the ocean.

The statues or moai, meaning “statue” in Rapa Nui language, are carved out of buff-coloured volcanic stone called moai. The average height of the moai is about 4 m, usually weighing around 13 tons. The tallest of some 900 such statues erected, stood almost 10 m and weighed 82 tons. The heaviest moai was shorter, but weighed 86 tons. One unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been nearly 21 m tall with a weight of about 145-165 tons.

A notable research on the statues was done in 1914-15 by Katherine Maria Routledge (1866-1935), an English archaeologist and anthropologist. She described the island as a place where the past is the present and where the shadows of the departed builders still possess the land. Other researchers include the American W. J. Thomson (1886); Alfred Métraux (1902-1963), Swiss and Argentine ethnologist; Henri Alfred Lavachery (1885-1972), a Belgian who was the first professional archaeologist to visit the island; Fr. Sebastian Englert (1888-1969), a German Franciscan missionary and linguist, known for his pioneering work on Easter Island in 1935-39, where a museum is named after him; Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), the famous Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer (1955-56); and American anthropologist William Thomas Mulloy (1917-1978). Due to the painstaking efforts of these scholars many toppled statues in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, possibly resulting from European contact or internecine tribal wars, were restored to their original positions.

Who built the statues and what did they signify?

The inevitable question as to who carved such magnificent statues has given rise to many surmises. Some scholars have disclosed amazingly interesting stories, saying that Easter Island was the Lost Continent. Others opined that it could have been inhabited by beings from outer space or the islanders were direct descendants from ancient Egyptians. However, modern researchers are unanimous in theorising that the people who carved the moai were none other than the Polynesians.

Contrary to these suppositions, the islanders have their own tale of descent. Their legends have it that their religious leader named Hotu Matu was defeated in a battle and was forced to leave his homeland: archipelago of Hiva. One of his men had a vision of a new homeland somewhere in the direction of the rising sun and seven men were sent to locate it, thus discovering Easter Island. Hotu Matu arrived in Easter Island with various plants and animals, but he did not live for long. Before his death he divided the island among his children: a reason for the island being divided into so many groups. Scholars do agree to this native legend to some extent. They believe that the descendants of Hotu Matu created these great statues, possibly from 1110 A. D. till 1650 A. D. the year in which all construction was halted as revealed by the radiocarbon dating.

Today many archaeologists are of the view that the statues signify symbols of religious and political authority and power and also a representation of the deceased ancestors of the indigenous clans. In ancient Polynesian religions, carved stone and wooden objects, when properly fashioned and ritually prepared, were thought to be charged by a magical spiritual essence called mana which, according to local tradition, was preserved in the hair. The more recent moai carried pukao on their heads. Pukao were hat-like structures or topknots, carved out of red scoria (a basaltic lava). Red is considered a sacred colour in Polynesia. Meanwhile, a 2019 study concluded that the moai might be related to improving soil fertility and thereby critical food supplies.

American archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, who has studied the moai for many years, believes that they may have been carved in the image of various paramount chiefs. According to her, the statues may have played the role as ceremonial conduits for communication with the heavenly gods. She asserts that their physical position between earth and sky puts them on both secular and sacred ground, thus mediating between sky and earth, people and chiefs, and chiefs and gods.

In another 1979 study, a team of archaeologists discovered that the hemispherical or deep elliptical eye sockets of the moai were designed to hold coral eyes with either black obsidian (a kind of volcanic glass) or red scoria pupils.

The transportation of the statues

The question as to how the moai were transported has given birth to many assumptions. According to the traditions of the island, the statues were filled with supernatural powers (mana) and they themselves walked to their appointed places. Another interesting story is that carpets of sweet potatoes and crushed yams were laid on the slopes and the statues were slid along them. Recently, Mulloy suggested that the statues were put on a Y-shaped curved bottom sledge, arguing that the jutting out belly and chin of the moai was not executed to give any style but was a result of the use of the Y-shaped sledge. Once the statue was placed on the sledge, the statue was pulled by the ropes on a road covered with reeds and grass.

Explorers become exploiters

The first recorded European visitor to the island was the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729). He found it on Easter Sunday on 05^th April 1722 and named it “Paasch-Eyland” (18^th century Dutch for “Easter Island”). (“Isla de Pascua”, the island’s official Spanish name after it was annexed by Chile in 1888, also means “Easter Island”). But, the island has been known by many other names as well. The phrase Te pito o te henua is said to be the original name of the island. French linguist Alphonse Pinart (1852-1911), based on the Rapa Nui word pito, also meaning ‘navel’, translated the phrase as “the Navel of the World”.

Roggeveen found out that the islanders were living in thatched huts and could barely make a meagre living by doing a little bit of cultivation. In 1770 the Spanish navigator Felipe González de Ahedo (1714-1802) visited the place and named it “Isla de San Carlos” or “St. Charles’ Island”. Four years later the great English explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779) came to the island, followed by the French Admiral Jean François La Perouse (1741-1788). All these visits were very brief and hardly gave any new information to the world about the island except that the islanders numbered 3000-4000, that they practised cannibalism, and that tribal chiefs were always warring against each other.

By the 19^th century the situation changed and soon the isolated islanders were transformed into slaves. In 1805 the American ship ‘Nancy’ carried away 22 islanders as slaves while Peru also invaded the island from 1859 to 1862, about 1000 islanders being shipped off to Peru as slaves. Many of the enslaved inhabitants were skilled artists and with them the secrets of the carving trade too died out. Of the 100 islanders who were released, only 15 managed to reach the island but they were infected with the dreaded small pox which spread rapidly and the island population decreased further. By 1877 only 111 inhabitants were left and when the Chilean colonists arrived they found the islanders living in complete misery and poverty. The island became a possession of Chile and the giant statues began to arouse the interest of the world.

An ecological disaster?

It is evident that formerly Easter Island, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, was covered with green vegetation, teeming with animal life. Around 1000 A. D. palm forests had covered about 70% of the island. Today there are hardly any trees, except for a few bushes, ferns, grasses, sedges, etc. The natives grow bananas, sugar-canes and sweet potatoes and breed domestic fowls, goats, cattle and sheep.

What denuded this once fertile island of its ancient palm woodland has puzzled many ecologists. In 2005, Pulitzer prize-winner Jared Diamond of the University of California concluded that the inhabitants of the now depopulated island had cut down the palms to build sledges for statues and roofs for homes: an act of self-destruction.

But, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo of the University of Hawaii, presented another explanation in a series of papers. Based on DNA evidence and chewed palm remains, they proposed that Polynesian rats which the immigrants brought with them had eaten palm tree nuts, thus triggering deforestation.

However, German ecologists Andreas Mieth and Hans-Rudolf Bork from the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel do not subscribe to this hypothesis of a major rat impact to account for the deforestation of the island. Referring to the several millimetre-thick charcoal layers from fires, distributed over large areas of the island, they presume instead that widespread fires in the woodland can be the only reason for the landscape denuded of trees.

Still a fourth suspected cause has been proposed: drought. But, according to scholars, this does not seem to have a big effect on the lush vegetation which the island was once covered with.

The unfolding of events on Easter Island may sound a note of dark warning and forebode a bleak future for humanity. “Easter Island’s isolation makes it the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by overexploiting its own resources”, writes Diamond. He says that humanity contains the seeds of its own destruction. ***

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, dies aged 96

Namo Magazine — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:55:10 +0000

Prince Charles, 73, heir to the throne since the age of three, is now king, and the Duchess of Cornwall is now Queen Consort.

In statement, the new king said: “The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. “We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. Flags on landmark buildings in Britain were being lowered to half mast as a period of official mourning was announced. Royal residences that are open to the public will be closed. Liz Truss, Prime minister of UK addressed the nation from outside 10, Downing Street. The prime minister paid tribute to the Queen, saying: “It’s an extraordinary achievement to have presided with such dignity and grace for 70 years. Her life of service stretched beyond most of our living memories.