Passport to Palau: Monoliths & Story Boards

MONOLITHS

Ngarchelong is the northernmost state in Babeldoab, only an hour's drive from Koror. An amazing site of mysterious stone monoliths called Badrulchau can be found in Ngarchelong. The largest grouping of monoliths found on the Palauan islands, numbering 37 surviving, six have rough faces carved into them. The purpose of this monument is largely unknown, but some archeologists believe these stones date back to around 161 A.D. and could possibly have been supports for a massive bai (men's meeting house) - possibly constructed for the demigods. The basalt-rock monoliths, the largest stone weighing 5 tons, often remind visitors of the famous faces of Easter Island (the Moai), but archeologists have determined them to be unique to the Palauan culture. Traditional Palauan religion regarded these ancient monoliths as sacred prayer ground.

STORYBOARDS

Palauans have long been good storytellers and skilled wood carvers, but the art form of the storyboard did not come to Palau until the 1930's when Japanese artisan Hirikatsu Hijikata arrived on the scene and taught Palau's craftsmen to combine the two. The stories depicted on these boards are usually old Palauan legends, or sometimes stories from other islands such as Yap.

The storyboards are generally carved in dort (the Palauan word for ironwood). Storyboards may sometimes take up to weeks to complete, depending on its size and intricacy. When it is complete, the board may be painted, or it may be polished with black or brown shoe polish to retain its shine and show the natural color of the wood.

Some examples of Palauan legends portrayed on these storyboards are:

Ngirngemelas - the story about a brave Palauan warrior and his deeds
Uwab - a story about a legendary giant
Surech ma Tulei - the story about two lovers
Melechotech-a-chau - the legend of a giant with an unbelievably large penis

You may purchase storyboards in various shops, the Etpison Museum, or the senior center, but probably the best selection and prices will be found at the jail in Koror's town center. Make sure to take cash to the jail because that is all that can be accepted. Storyboards may range in prices from $35 USD - $500 USD depending on size and detail.

THE LEGEND OF WHY A GIRL BECAME A DUGONG IN PALAU

Once there lived an old man and his wife. One day the wife went to her taro patch while her husband remained at home. While she was away, the husband was turned into a nut tree by an evil spirit and when she returned he was nowhere to be seen. She called out for him but could get no answer and she knew something strange must have happened. She then called out the names of all the plants nearby hoping for a response. She called the lemon tree, the banana tree, the pineapple plants, the breadfruit tree and the many others but she got no response.

For a while she sat down to rest and then remembered that she had not called out to the nut tree. So she gathered all her strength and shouted loudly to the nut tree. She shouted so loudly that she caused a branch of the tree to bend and the blood dripped down from it. The wife then cried because she knew that her husband had been turned into that nut tree.

She then remained alone until one day she felt a stirring in her wound and she knew that she was pregnant. Soon she delivered a beautiful baby girl and as the girl grew up she asked about her father only to be told that he had died a long time ago and not to think about him.

The girl was very obedient and her mother treated her kindly. She was well looked after and fed but was told she must never eat the nuts from the nearby nut tree. The girl obeyed her mother's wishes.

The girl eventually became very curious about the nut tree and one day while her mother was working in the taro patch, the girl picked some nuts from the tree and cracked them. When she was about to eat the nuts, her mother suddenly appeared and the girl felt very ashamed for disobeying her mother. What she did was to put the nuts in her mouth so her mother could not see them and ran towards the sea. Her mother saw what happened however and followed the daughter begging her not to swallow the nuts. The daughter continued running into the sea and was turned into a dugong and then disappeared.

The girl had the nuts in her mouth but had not swallowed them when she was turned into the dugong. Today, one can see a bulging in the jaws of the dugong where the nuts were in the girl's mouth. [1]

[1] http://www.janesoceania.com/palau_storyboard/index.htm