Monday, March 23, 2009

House of Hawaiian Royalty


Location: 'Iolani Palace, Honolulu

Time of Year: August 2008

Other Info: This is the house of former Hawaiian royalty. Built in 1879, replaced the first palace which was known as,Hale Ali`i meaning house of the chief. The name 'Iolani is split up into 'Io which is a Hawaiian Hawk, lani which is a word for exalted, royal and heavenly. This Palace was fitted with all the modern advances of the time, electric lighting, seven years after Edison invented the light bulb. Other advances of the time was indoor plumbing and a telephone communication system. This palace was very up to date with the inventions of the time, which is interesting seeing how far from mainland U.S. they are.
It was an interesting tour in which Sarah and I learned where the Hawiian's take pride in being Hawaiian first and American second. This sentiment of local pride came from the American annexation and over throw of the Hawaiian monarchy. I noticed this pride during 2008 world series. During the player introductions of their home countries, outfielder for the Phillies, Shane Victorino said Hawaii, followed by a long pause, then USA. I probably would not have noticed that little quirk had I not learned a bit of history of Hawaii.
Alot of the info about the place can be found at : 'Iolani Palace website : http://www.iolanipalace.org/index.html

Image from Google Maps
Blue Circle is the general location of the 'Iolani Palace
Image from Google Maps
Red star is the place near the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and Chinatown
The Palace Grounds:

There is a large green space area in front of the Palace with a very large Banyan tree of which you can see the branches in this shot.




The Front Gate:



The Hawaiian Coat of Arms: States: "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono" translated to English says: "The life of the land is perpetuated by righteousness" http://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/national-coatofarms.shtml


Decorative Piece on the Gate


There are no shots of the interior well because no camera's are allowed inside a while some people were using there point and shoot camera's which are easier to conceal than an SLR.



2 comments:

Madam Tang said...

Interesting phots and blogging!

Matt said...

I feel like there should be a "like" button under each one. I like the gold one best.... whatever that is.....