Pohnpei

Kolonia Town looking down from Sokehs Ridge

Detailed map of Pohnpei

Map of Pohnpei Island

District center of Pohnpei Circa 1960

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Pohnpei International Airport Runway and Pohnpei Seaport Viewed from Sokehs Ridge

Senyavin Islands (Pohnpei plus two neighboring atolls)

World Class Surf of Pohnpei's Palikir Pass a.k.a. P-Pass

Pohnpei "upon (pohn) a stone altar (pei)" (formerly known as Ponape) is the name of one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and among the Senyavin Islands (part of the larger Caroline Islands group). Palikir, the FSM's capital, is located on Pohnpei. Pohnpei International Airport (IATA code PNI) is located near Kolonia, on a small island named Deketik off the northern coast of the main island.

Pohnpei island is the largest, highest, most populous, and most developed single island in the FSM. The islanders of Pohnpei have a reputation as being the most welcoming of outsiders among residents of the island group, and the island contains a wealth of biodiversity.

Pohnpei is one of the wettest places on earth with annual recorded rainfall exceeding 300 inches (7,600 mm) each year in certain mountainous locations. The only known area in the world with more rainfall is Mt. Waiʻaleʻale on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Ethnographer Martha Ward's most recent work on the Pohnpeians and their culture is the 1989 text Nest in the Wind. A second edition discusses modern Pohnpeian culture and the changes that occurred on Pohnpei in the 30 years between Ward's visits.

Geography

The Federated States of Micronesia is an independent, sovereign nation made up of Pohnpei and three other states; Chuuk, Kosrae, and Yap. Together, the FSM comprises approximately 607 small islands in the Western Pacific spread over almost 1,700 miles (2,700 km) from east to west just above the equator some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) southwest of Hawaii and about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) north of eastern Australia, above Papua New Guinea.

While the FSM's total land area is quite small and amounts to approximately 270 square miles (700 km²), it occupies more than one million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. It ranges from Kosrae farthest to the east, then to Pohnpei, Chuuk, and finally to Yap farthest to the west. Each of the four States is centered around one or more main high islands, and all but Kosrae include numerous outlying atolls.

At over 2,500 feet (760 m), Pohnpei's tallest peaks are lush and verdant towering above a gentle talus slope at lower elevations around its 80-mile (130 km) circumference.

The FSM was formerly a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), but formed its own constitutional government on May 10, 1979. Other neighboring island entities, and also members of the TTPI, formulated their own constitutional governments and became the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Republic of Palau (ROP). The FSM is an independent, sovereign nation with a seat in the United Nations.

The population of Pohnpei is approximately 34,000. Pohnpei is more ethnically diverse than any other island in the FSM. This is largely due to it being home to the capital of the national government, which employs hundreds of people from the other FSM States having distinct ethnic and cultural origins. The indigenous makeup also includes people from the outer islands within the State, which comprise multiple regional ethnicities. Outer islands to Pohnpei include Pingelap, Mokil, Ant, Pakin, Ngatik, Nukuoro, and Kapingamarangi.

The majority of the population consider themselves ethnic Pohnpeian but from more than a century of foreign occupation Pohnpei is truly the FSM's melting pot, a veritable hodge-podge mix of Austral-Asian Pacific Islanders and Japanese, German, Spanish, Chamorro, Filipino, American, Australian and other Western European people.

Biodiversity

Pohnpei is home to several bird species including four endemic species, the Pohnpei Lorikeet, the Pohnpei Fantail, the Pohnpei Flycatcher and the Long-billed White-eye. A fifth endemic, the Pohnpei Starling, is thought to have recently gone extinct.

History

The offshore city of Nan Madol was built here, which was the capital of the Saudeleur dynasty until about AD 1500.

Pohnpei was first sighted by Europeans in 1828 by the Russian navigator Fyodor Litke. From the mid 1800s to early 1900s, whalers, missionaries, the Spanish and Germans came to/took over the island. The Sokehs Rebellion started on October 18, 1910. The island was a Japanese territory in World War II, Japan having acquired Pohnpei along with the rest of the Carolines, the Marshalls, and the Marianas (less American-owned Guam) as war reparations from Germany. However, the island was one of those bypassed by the US Navy during the island-hopping amphibious campaigns of 1943-1945. The military facilities were shelled on several occasions, including by the battleships USS Massachusetts (BB-59) and Iowa (BB-61), as well as being attacked by the aircraft of Cowpens (CVL-25). In 1945, when the Japanese lost the war, all Japanese citizens were forced off the island. Many of their Pohnpeian families remained.

The Federated States of Micronesia achieved independence in 1986.

With its spectacular and relatively unspoiled coral reefs, Pohnpei has long had a following among deep-sea fishermen and SCUBA enthusiasts. But it was not until recently that Pohnpei was thrust into the international surfing limelight.

Pohnpei is home to Palikir Pass, a reef pass wave often erroneously referred to by the surf media as "P-Pass". Located in Sokehs Municipality and situated in the northwest quadrant of the island's protective barrier reef, up until early 2005 it was long known as an underground destination among surfing purists who had surfed the wave since the 1970s. Pohnpei was first mentioned by name ("Ponape") in the April 1986 edition of "Surfer" magazine, and was later featured in the magazine's "Surf Report" publication in February 1998, although the "Surf Report" was full of assumptions and factual errors. It was written by Russell Hill, a New Zealander.

Palikir Pass was the site of the Innaugural Hobgood Challenge [IHC] surfing competition in 2007. The IHC was the first ever professional surfing competition in Pohnpei or the FSM. It was sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals [ASP] as a junior men's event but they declined to acknowledge the location.

The December 2009 issue of The Surfer's Journal featured author Michael Kew's detailed account of the rise of Palikir Pass into surfing stardom.

Nearby islands

• The atoll of Pingelap, located several hundred miles to the east of Pohnpei, but part of Pohnpei State, is notable for the prevalence of the extreme form of color blindness known as maskun. Maskun is relatively rare but often shows up in communities with small gene-pools. Pingelap was featured in the book, The Island of the Colorblind, by neurologist Oliver Sacks.
• The ancient artificial islands of Nan Madol are near to Pohnpei.
• Oroluk Atoll

Government and politics

Municipalities:

• Kapingamarangi (far southwest atoll)
• Kitti (main island, southwest — includes Ant/Ahnd Atoll)
• Kolonia (main island, north)
• Madolenihmw (main island, east)
• Mokil (near east atoll)
• Nett (main island, north/center, formerly including state capital Kolonia on the north coast)
• Ngatik (near southwest atoll)
• Nukuoro (southwest atoll)
• Oroluk (west atoll, includes Minto Reef)
• Pingelap (far east atoll)
• Sokehs (main island, northwest — includes Pakin Atoll)
• U (main island, northeast)
• Sapwalap (main island, west, just north of Nan Madol)

Sport

Through faulty press releases picked up by global media outlets in 2009, Pohnpei was incorrectly said to have a national football team described as "the worst team in the world." Accompanying photos of the alleged team were misleading and included depictions of several middle-aged men of foreign origin. Pohnpei is, however, not a nation - it is but one of four states in the FSM. The FSM is part of the international Olympic movement and sent teams to the last two summer games in Beijing, China and Sydney, Australia with athletes participating in track and field, swimming and weightlifting, but not football. The FSM last organized a national football side for the South Pacific Games football tournament in 2003, where it lost all its matches. Prior to that tournament, however, the FSM National team went undefeated winning the Micronesian Cup 1999. The most notable Pohnpeian athlete is marathoner Elias Rodriguez who ran for the FSM at the Sydney Olympics. Mr. Rodiguez finished last in the marathon but was cheered on by tens of thousands of spectators and watched by millions of television viewers as he entered the Olympic stadium for a final lap immediately prior to the closing ceremony which was delayed to allow his finish.

Pohnpei in fiction

Pohnpei plays a central role in the fictional Cthulhu Mythos, in which it is only about ten days journey by fast ship from the fictional island of R'lyeh, where Cthulhu resides. Several stories by H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and others use this island as a setting or contain references to it.

Pohnpei's role in the Mythos was inspired by the ruins of Nan Madol (see above), which had already been used as the setting for a lost race story by Abraham Merritt, The Moon Pool, in which the islands are called Nan-Matal. Some people believe Nan Madol to be connected to the lost continent of Lemuria.

Pohnpei and the ruins of Nan Madol also play a central role in author James Rollins' book, Deep Fathom.

These are also featured in Clive Cussler's 2009 novel Medusa.

Other media

Pohnpei, or "Ponape" as it is spelled, is stated as the home island of "Mike" on the popular blog Dunce Upon A Time, authored by BC Woods.

See also

• Nan Madol

Further reading

• The Island of the Colour-blind, Oliver Sacks, Publisher: Pan Macmillan (June 6, 1997), paperback, ISBN 0-330-35234-2.
• "Upon a Stone Altar:A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890", David Hanlon, Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (May, 1988), paperpack, ISBN 978-0-8248-1124-2
• "Pohnpei, an Island Argosy", Gene Ashby, Publisher: Rainy Day Pr West; Revised edition (June 1987), paperback, ISBN 978-0931742149
• "Nest in the Wind: Adventures in anthropology on a tropical island", Martha C Ward, Publisher: Waveland Press Inc. (1989), paperback, ISBN 0-88133-405-7

External links

• Palikir Marine Adventures
• The Surf Travel Company
• The undisclosed Surfer magazine cover of Dan Malloy riding Palikir Pass, Pohnpei, the Federated States of Micronesia, February 2000
• myMicronesia/Pohnpei section
• Pohnpei-Between Time & Tide
• A Tour of Pohnpei
• FSM Visitors Board/Pohnpei Section
• Jane's Pohnpei Page
• Postcards from Pohnpei: marine life
• Micronesia Conservation Trust
• Pohnpei travel guide at Travellerspoint