Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park |
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Reconstructed Hale o Keawe
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 Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park
Location in Hawaii
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| Location | Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States |
| Nearest city | Holualoa, Hawaiʻi |
| Area | 420 acres (170 ha) |
| Established | July 26, 1955 |
| Visitors | 421,027 (in 2016) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park |
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park is a special place in Hawaii. It's located on the west coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. For hundreds of years, this park was a "place of refuge" or puʻuhonua for Hawaiians.
Imagine if you accidentally broke an important rule, called a kapu. In ancient Hawaii, breaking a kapu could mean death! But if you could reach a puʻuhonua, you would be safe. A priest would forgive you, and you could leave freely. This place also offered safety to warriors and others during battles. Powerful chiefs lived in the area just outside the main refuge wall.
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau is one of only four places in Hawaii where the flag of Hawaii can fly by itself. The other places are ʻIolani Palace, the Mauna ʻAla, and Thomas Square.
What's in the Park?
This park covers about 420 acres (1.7 square kilometers). It was first created in 1955 and was called "City of Refuge National Historical Park." In 1978, its name changed, and in 2000, it was updated to the correct Hawaiian spelling, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau.
The park protects the puʻuhonua itself and many old Hawaiian sites. These include:
- Platforms where temples once stood
- Royal fishponds
- Old sledding tracks
- Parts of coastal villages
You can also see a rebuilt temple called Hale o Keawe and several traditional thatched houses.
Hale o Keawe Temple
Hale o Keawe was an ancient Hawaiian heiau, which means a temple or sacred place. It was built around 1650 AD. This temple was a burial site for important Hawaiian chiefs, especially for a ruler of the Island of Hawaii named Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku. His son, Kanuha, built it.
Many chiefs from the Kona area continued to be buried here. The last person buried at Hale o Keawe was a son of Kamehameha I in 1818.
People believed that the bones of the chiefs held special spiritual power, called mana. This mana helped protect the place of refuge. Because of this, Hale o Keawe survived longer than other temples when the old Hawaiian religion was banned.
In 1825, a man named Lord George Byron took some items from the temple. Later, in 1829, a powerful woman named High Chiefess Kapiʻolani moved the remaining bones of the chiefs to a secret place in the cliffs. She then ordered this last temple to be taken apart. The bones were later moved to the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in 1858.
The Hale o Keawe temple you see in the park today was carefully rebuilt in the 1960s.
Images for kids
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The entrance to the park.
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Hawaiian hale (house) at the Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park.
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Protector kii (statues) at the Place of Refuge.
See also
In Spanish: Parque histórico nacional Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau para niños
