Digging into anything and everything that makes the CNMI tick beyond politics...

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Mysterious cairns of the Suicide Cliffs


FOR a casual passerby, they look like small, ordinary stones piled atop each other but for the discerning eye of an adventurer they could mean a lot of things, depending on the angle where you look at them from, or how the sun casts its shadow on the stones.

Photos by Raquel C. Bagnol


But these stones did not happen to accidentally pile on top of each other to create a spectacular view. Somebody exerted effort and creativity to pile the stones into attractive shapes to make driving, jogging or cycling up to the Suicide Cliff lookout a more pleasant experience.
For some, the cairns scattered along the road especially in the last two miles toward the Suicide Cliff stirs the imagination.
“Some thought that they are part of a local culture, some thought the stones have something to do with religious rites while others thought the stones bring good luck,” the person behind the artistry who opted to remain behind the limelight to maintain the aura of mystery to the cairns said.

He said he gets a lot of satisfaction knowing that the stone piles he started to create some months back have begun to stir intrigue among the visitors.
“Each individual has different interpretations of the stones, and that adds up to the mystery,” he said.
The cairns captured my interest when I first saw them sometime in June. From a distance, some of them look like dwarfs gregariously perched on top of the cairns. I couldn’t help but snap some photos while thinking it had some historical significance.
There are more cairns that you see along the way. Some of them are mysteriously hidden between trees a little distance from the road that you really have to look for them to find them.
If you haven’t seen the cairns yet, go for a drive or jog up Suicide Cliff looko
ut in Marpi and you will see them along the road. Just be careful not to break the piles, or better yet you can add to the cairns.
I wonder what they look like in the moonlight. That is something I will have to discover for myself, and soon!

This article was originally published HERE

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