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Kumulipo
In Hawaiian religion, the Kumulipo is the creation chant, first recorded by non-Hawaiians in the 18th
century.[1] It also includes a genealogy of the members of Hawaiian royalty and was created in honor of
Kalaninuiamamao and passed down orally to his daughter Alapaiwahine.

Creation chant
In the Kumulipo the world was created over a cosmic night. This is not just one night, but many nights over
time. The ancient Hawaiian kahuna and priests of the Hawaiian religion would recite the Kumulipo during
the makahiki season, honoring the god Lono. In 1779, Captain James Cook arrived in Kealakekua Bay on
the island of Hawaiʻi during the season and was greeted by the Hawaiians reciting the Kumulipo. Some
stories say Cook was mistaken for Lono, because of the type of sails on his ship and his pale skintone.[2] In
1889, King Kalākaua printed a sixty-page pamphlet of the Kumulipo. Attached to the pamphlet was a 2-page
paper on how the chant was originally composed and recited.[3]

Years later Queen Liliʻuokalani described the chant as a prayer of the development of the universe and the
ancestry of the Hawaiians.[4] Liliʻuokalani translated the chant under house arrest in Iolani Palace.[5] The
translation was published in 1897, then republished by Pueo Press in 1978.[6]

The Kumulipo is a total of 2,102 lines long, in honor of Kalaninuiamamao, who created peace for all when
he was born. There was a lot of fighting between his ʻI and Keawe family, who were cousins so his birth
stopped the two from feuding. The Kumulipo is a cosmogonic genealogy, which means that it relates to the
creation of the universe and the descent of humans and other entities. Out of the 2102 lines, it has 16 "wā"
which means era or age. In each wā, something is born whether it is a human, plant, or other creature.[3]

Divisions
The Kumulipo is divided into sixteen wā, sections. The first seven wā fall under the section of pō (darkness),
the age of spirit. The Earth may or may not exist, but the events described do not take place in a physical
universe. The words show the development of life as it goes through similar stages as a human child. All
plants and animals of sea and land, earth and sky, male and female are created.[7] Eventually, it leads to early
mammals.

These are the first twelve lines of the Kumulipo, in Hawaiian, in Liliʻuokalani's English translation and in
Bastian's German translation. Two other significant English translations - Rock's translation of Bastian and
Beckwith's translation - appear in Beckwith's 1951 book The Kumulipo.

Hawaiian language English (Liliʻuokalani) German (Bastian)[8]

1. O ke au i kahuli wela 1. At the time that turned 1. Hin dreht der Zeitumschwung
ka honua the heat of the earth, zum Ausgebrannten der Welt,
2. O ke au i kahuli lole 2. At the time when the 2. Zurück der Zeitumschwung
ka lani heavens turned and nach aufwärts wieder,
3. O ke au i kukaʻiaka ka changed, 3. Noch sonnenlos die Zeit
la 3. At the time when the light verhüllten Lichtes,
4. E hoʻomalamalama i of the sun was subdued 4. Und schwankend nur im matten
ka malama Mondgeschimmer

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5. O ke au o Makaliʻi ka 4. To cause light to break 5. Aus Makalii's nächt'gem

po forth, Wolkenschleier
6. O ka walewale 5. At the time of the night of 6. Durchzittert schaftenhaft das
hoʻokumu honua ia Makaliʻi (winter) Grundbild künft'ger Welt.
7. O ke kumu o ka lipo, i 6. Then began the slime 7. Des Dunkels Beginn aus den
lipo ai which established the Tiefen (Wurzeln) des Abgrunds,
8. O ke kumu o ka Pō, i earth, 8. Der Uranfang von Nacht in
po ai 7. The source of deepest Nacht,
9. O ka lipolipo, o ka darkness, of the depth of 9. Von weitesten Fernen her, von
lipolipo darkness, weitesten Fernen,
10. O ka lipo o ka la, o ka 8. The source of Night, of 10. Weit aus den Fernen der
lipo o ka po the depth of night Sonne, weit aus den Fernen
11. Po wale ho--ʻi 9. Of the depth of darkness, der Nacht,
12. Hānau ka pō[a] 10. Of the darkness of the 11. Noch Nacht ringsumher.
sun in the depth of night,
11. Night is come,
12. Born is Night

The second section, containing the remaining nine wā, is ao and is signaled by the arrival of light and the
gods, who watch over the changing of animals into the first humans. After that is the complex genealogy of
Kalaninuiamamao that goes all the way to the late 18th century.

Births in each wā
The births in each age include:[9]

1. In the first wā, the sea urchins and limu (seaweed) were born. The limu was connected through
its name to the land ferns. Some of these limu and fern pairs include: ʻEkaha and ʻEkahakaha,
Limu ʻAʻalaʻula and ʻalaʻalawainui mint, Limu Manauea and Kalo Maunauea upland taro, Limu
Kala and ʻakala berry. These plants were born to protect their sea cousins.
2. In the second wā, 73 types of fish. Some deep sea fish include Naiʻa (porpoise) and the Mano
(shark). Also reef fish, including Moi and Weke. Certain plants that have similar names are
related to these fish and are born as protectors of the fish.
3. In the third wā, 52 types of flying creatures, which include birds of the sea such as ʻIwa (frigate
or man-of-war bird), the Lupe, and the Noio (Hawaiian noddy tern). These sea birds have land
relatives, such as Io (hawk), Nene (goose), and Pueo (owl). In this wā, insects were also born,
such as Peʻelua (caterpillar) and the Pulelehua (butterfly).
4. In the fourth wā, the creepy and crawly creatures are born. These include Honu (sea turtle),
Ula (lobster), Moʻo (lizards), and Pololia (jellyfish). Their cousins on land include Kuhonua
(maile vine) and ʻOheʻohe bamboo.
5. In the fifth wā, Kalo (taro) is born.
6. In the sixth wā, Uku (flea) and the ʻIole (rat) are born.
7. In the seventh wā, ʻĪlio (dog) and the Peʻapeʻa (bat) are born.
8. In the eighth wā, the four divinities are born: Laʻilaʻi (Female), Kiʻi (Male), Kāne (God), Kanaloa
(Octopus), respectively.
9. In the ninth wā, Laʻilaʻi takes her eldest brother Kiʻi as a mate and the first humans are born
from her brain.
10. In the tenth wā, Laʻilaʻi takes her next brother Kāne as a mate after losing interest in Kiʻi, she
then had four of Kāne's children: Laʻiʻoloʻolo, Kamahaʻina (Male), Kamamule (Male),
Kamakalua (Female). Laʻilaʻi soon returned to Kiʻi and three children are born: Haʻi(F),
Haliʻa(F), and Hākea(M). Having been born during their mothers being with two men they
become "Poʻolua" and claim the lineage of both fathers.

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11. The eleventh wā pays homage to the Moa.

12. The twelfth wā honors the lineage of Wākea, whose son Hāloa is the ancestor of all people.
13. The thirteenth wā honors the lineage of Hāloa's mother Papahānaumoku.
14. In the fourteenth wā Liʻaikūhonua mates with Keakahulihonua, and have their child Laka.
15. The fifteenth wā refers to Haumeanuiʻāiwaiwa and her lineage, it also explains Māui's
adventures and siblings.
16. The sixteenth wā recounts all of Māui's lineage for forty-four generations, all the way down to
the Moʻi of Māui, Piʻilani.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, anthropologists Adolf Bastian and Roland Burrage Dixon interpreted a
recurring verse of the Kumulipo as describing the octopus as the sole survivor of a previous age of
existence.[10][b][11][c][12] In her 1951 translation of the Kumulipo, ethnographer Martha Warren Beckwith
provided a different translation of the verse, although she does discuss the possibility that "octopus" is the
correct translation and describes the god Kanaloa.[12][d]

Comparative literature
Comparisons may be made between marital partners (husband and wife often have synonymous names),
between genealogical and flora-fauna names, and in other Polynesian genealogies.[13]

Cultural impact
The supermassive black hole M87*, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, was informally given the
Hawaiian name "Pōwehi", a poetic description of generative darkness or the spirit world taken from the
Kumulipo.[14]

In 2009, the poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio performed her poem, Kumulipo, at a poetry event at the
White House.[15]

Notes
a. Bastian's, Rock's and Beckwith's translations end on line 11, omitting "Hānau ka pō"
b. "As type follows type, the accumulating slime of their decay raises the land above the waters,
in which, as spectator of all, swims the octopus, the lone survivor from an earlier world. (Dixon,
p 15)
c. "In fünfter Stanze findet sich jene im höchsten Grade cuiriose Auffassung des Octopus, worauf
bereits aufmerksam gemacht wurde, als in seiner zoologischen Stellung gleichsam die Reste
eines vorweltlichen Typus anerkennend, und so wird auf den Gilbert-Inseln Aditi oder Tiki durch
seine Schwester (als Octopus) in Aufrichtung des Himmels unterstützt, indem sie ihm mit ihren
Tentakeln höher emporhebt. ... Am Ende der zweiten Schöpfungsperiode scheinen die ersten
Zeichen der Dämmerung heraufzuziehen, in der dritten wird unter dem Gewühl der
hervordränofenden Reptilien und Meerungeheuer der bisher isolirte Tintenfisch im Gewuhl mit
fortgerissen, in der vierten spielt ein undeutlich trüber Lichtsehimmer, unter welchem die
Nutzpflanzen in Existenz treten, in der fünften, unter Abscheidung von Tag und Nacht, kommen
(mit besonderem Pomp) die Schweine hervor, in der sechsten die Mäuse, und nach den
Vorbereitungen in der siebenten tritt in der achten der Mensch auf und damit das Licht."
(Bastian, p 107-108)
d. Regarding the third verse: "I have arrived at no satisfactory translation. Bastian, who had only
the manuscript before him, which reads He pou he'e i ka wawa, refers the word he'e to the
octopus and soliloquizes: "During this period of creation of the lowest forms of animal life . . .
the octopus is present as observer of the process described. . . "; but, since my purpose is to
interpret Kalakaua's text, unless clearly bungled, I follow Ho'olapa's doubtful rendering:

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"Darkness slips into light," ... In the Kumulipo manuscript the first line of the refrain
accompanying the births of the first four sections reads, not Ka po uhe'e i ka wawa with its
suggestion of the "slipping away" (uhe'e) of night, but Ka pou he'e i ka wawa, thus picturing the
god in the form of an octopus (he'e) supporting (pou) in darkness the first heaven and earth
exactly as in the Tahitian chant." (Beckwith, pp 53, 169)

References
1. Mary Kawena Pukui; Samuel Hoyt Elbert (2003). "lookup of Kumulipo" (http://wehewehe.org/gs
dl2.85/cgi-bin/hdict?a=q&j=pk&l=en&q=Kumulipo). in Hawaiian Dictionary. Ulukau, the
Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii Press. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
2. John Fischer. "The Kumulipo- Song of Creation" (http://gohawaii.about.com/cs/culture/a/kumuli
po.htm). About.com web site. The new York Times Company. Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20170323213855/http://gohawaii.about.com/cs/culture/a/kumulipo.htm) from the original
on 2017-03-23. Retrieved Aug 13, 2020.
3. Martha Warren Beckwith (1951). The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20100629130245/http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/stampe/Oral-Lit/Hawaiian/Kumul
ipo/kumulipo-book.html). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-8248-0771-5. Archived from the
original (http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/stampe/Oral-Lit/Hawaiian/Kumulipo/kumulipo-book.h
tml) on 2010-06-29. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
4. "The Hawaiian Chant of Creation" (http://www.kauainenehcp.com/uploads/8/1/8/0/81802884/ku
mulipo-text.pdf) (PDF). The Kumulipo - The Hawaiian Song of Creation. 2001. Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20171031095108/http://www.kauainenehcp.com/uploads/8/1/8/0/8180
2884/kumulipo-text.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-31. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
5. Bergman, Megan Mayhew (2020-08-26). " 'We're at a crossroads': who do the fish of Hawaii
belong to?" (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/26/hawaii-fish-waters-native-
commercial-fishers). the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
6. Queen Liliʻuokalani (1978) [1897]. The Kumulipo (http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/lku/index.ht
m). Pueo Press. ISBN 978-0-917850-02-8.
7. Lilikala Kameʻeleihiwa (2008). Kumulipo. University of Hawaii. p. 174.
8. Bastian, Adolf (1881). Die heilige Sage der Polynesier: Kosmogonie und Theogonie (https://arc
hive.org/details/bub_gb_s4EBAAAAQAAJ). Oxford University. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus. pp. 70
(https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_s4EBAAAAQAAJ/page/n90).
9. Hawaiʻi: Center of the Pacific, Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa. Kumulipo.
10. Dixon, Roland Burrage (1916). Oceanic (https://books.google.com/books?id=gLIIAQAAIAAJ&p
g=PP2). The Mythology of All Races. Vol. 9. Marshall Jones Company. pp. 2–.
11. Bastian, Adolf (1881). Die heilige Sage der Polynesier: Kosmogonie und Theogonie (https://arc
hive.org/details/bub_gb_s4EBAAAAQAAJ). Oxford University. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.
pp. 107 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_s4EBAAAAQAAJ/page/n127)-108.
12. Beckwith, Martha Warren (1981). The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=7Ir_cgqw_9QC). University of Hawaii Press. pp. 52–53, 168–169.
ISBN 9780824807719.
13. See Kumulipo spouse-names (http://00.gs/Kumulipo_spouses.htm), terms for flora and fauna
in the Kumulipo (http://00.gs/Kumulipo.htm), and Maori and Rarotongan parallels with the
Kumulipo (http://00.gs/Maniapoto;Uriwera;Moriori;Hivaoa;Kumulipo.htm)
14. "Powehi: black hole gets a name meaning 'the adorned fathomless dark creation' " (https://ww
w.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/12/powehi-black-hole-gets-a-name-meaning-the-adorned
-fathomless-dark-creation). The Guardian. Associated Press. 2019-04-12. ISSN 0261-3077 (htt
ps://www.worldcat.org/issn/0261-3077). Retrieved 2019-04-13.

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15. Brown, DeNeen L. (13 May 2009). "Obamas Host Speakers, Musicians for White House Poetry
JamObamas Host Speakers, Musicians for White House Poetry Jam" (https://www.washington
post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051203955.html). Washington Post.
Retrieved 12 January 2022.

External links
The Kumulipo (http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ku/index.htm) Another copy of "The Kumulipo"
with commentary and translations by Martha Warren Beckwith.
The Kumulipo: a Hawaiian creation chant (http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=beckwit2
&l=en) Another online copy of the Beckwith book, Paperback edition 1981. University of Hawaii
Press
Into the Source (https://web.archive.org/web/20100531191947/http://www.mauimagazine.net/M
aui-Magazine/November-December-2008/Into-the-Source/) Article about Kumulipo translations
by Shannon Wianecki. Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine Volume 12 Number 6 (November 2008).

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kumulipo&oldid=1209110902"

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