Wahiawa

"The Healing Stones of Wahiawa," that was what I saw in a book about places to visit on Oahu. On the way to the beach one day, I decided to take a visit to them. The book directed me to an address on 110 California Ave.

When I entered the structure housing them. All I found was this cement platform and images of the stones just like the one I found in the book. I left and continued with the rest of my day but when I got home I researched the stones story.

They were taken here during modern times and worshiped by locals that would pour water and awa over them, but also by a Hindu sect called LOTUS that would instead pour oils on them and relate them to a form of the goddess Shiva. Recently they were in the middle of a debate and they were removed. They are currently in the works of being repatriated into Kukaniloko. Which is awesome, but can I please see these stones with my own eyes already?!?!

 

(Image, Courtesy of Hawaii State Archives)

Named Keanianileihuaokalani, they were originally one tongue shaped stone somewhere near Kukaniloko. Another story goes that they marked a burial of an important cheif although his name is lost to history. It is said that these stones had the power to heal people but they need to be powered by the rain of Wahiawa. Which in turn was the rain of Helemano above Wahiawa. Where the washing of the royal mother's blood after childbirth would mix with the water and become the rain over Waiawa also interpreted as Wai'ihiawa.