| Tiki statues have become almost synonymous with | | | | statues is the massive stone moai statues found in |
| the tiki bar culture that grew to prominence in the | | | | Easter Island. These statues depicted large human |
| 1930's and continued through to the fifties. They are still | | | | faces that symbolized ancestral spirits. |
| today a very popular decorative element of bars, | | | | Stone tiki statues have been found all over the |
| homes and topical themed gardens and yards. But the | | | | Polynesian region and New Guinea, and some of |
| history of tikis dates back to thousands of years | | | | these were dated to have been carved as far back |
| before the bar came to be. | | | | as 1500 BC. For centuries, these were an accepted |
| Original Mythology | | | | part of the culture of the Polynesian islands, parts of |
| The term "tiki" refers to the wood and stone carvings | | | | New Guinea and Hawaii. As wooden statues became |
| found in the Polynesian cultures in the islands of the | | | | more popular, their style grew varied between the |
| Pacific Ocean. These statues usually portrayed human | | | | different groups of indigenous inhabitants spread |
| faces or humanoid forms. Their origin is rooted in | | | | across the many islands of the region. Because of the |
| Polynesian creation mythology. | | | | greater ease with which wood could be carved, |
| In Maori mythology, for example, Tiki was the first man, | | | | wooden tiki statues started to become much more |
| in the way Adam was in Christian mythos. Tiki was | | | | complex and intricate. The statues all had religious |
| created by Tane, the god of forests and birds. Tiki | | | | themes as well as themes of nature and fertility |
| found his mate, Marikoriko, the first woman, in a pond, | | | | In Modern Times |
| where she seduced him. They had a daughter named | | | | As the tiki bar craze began early in the 20th century |
| Hine-Kau-Ataata, whose birth caused the first clouds | | | | and continued to its height in the mid-50s, tiki statues |
| to appear in the sky. | | | | became inextricably associated with tiki bar culture. But |
| Tiki Statues | | | | tikis are still a major part of Hawaiian and Polynesian |
| Statues became not only representations of the first | | | | culture. There are also a lot of modern sculptors and |
| Man, but also broader spiritual symbols, objects that | | | | artists who draw inspiration from from the tradition of |
| were carved in the shape of gods and that served to | | | | ancient tiki statues. |
| house the gods' spirits. One of the first examples of | | | | |