Open-air temples built of stone and coral were known as marae in the Cook Islands, Tahiti, the Tuamotu Islands and Aotearoa, me’ae in the Marquesas Islands, heiau in Hawaii, and ahu moai on Rapa Nui. Tongan mala’e and Samoan malae also refer to ceremonial plazas.

Despite linguistic and architectural variations across the region, all of these sites pertain to the pan-Polynesian marae concept: a sacred (tapu) place of interactions between the ao, the world of the living, and the pō, the world of deities and ancestors.

Nowadays, thousands of marae ruins are scattered in the island valleys and attest to their prominence in ancient chiefdoms.

Before European contact, people held many rituals at the marae. Catholic and Protestant missionaries later banned these so-called ‘pagan’ practices, and many communities abandoned or destroyed their marae.

Oral traditions still describe how different groups—families, skilled workers and high-ranking chiefs—used ceremonies for spiritual and social purposes.

Some rituals focused on fertility and abundance. People prayed for good harvests or successful fishing trips. The rise of the Pleiades constellation, known as matari‘i i ni‘a, signalled the start of the abundance season. People celebrated this event at the chief’s marae. In the Tuamotu Islands, communities treated the season’s first turtles as ancestral gifts. They sacrificed, cooked and shared these turtles during ceremonies.

Other rituals prepared warriors (to‘a) for battle or celebrated peace after conflict. Skilled workers (tau‘a), such as canoe builders, performed trade-based rituals. Before building a new canoe, they brought their adzes to the marae and ritually ‘put them to sleep’, giving the tools mana—spiritual power.

Marae also served as ancestral shrines. European drawings show funerary platforms (fara tupapa‘u) where people laid the bodies of important chiefs for weeks or months. During mourning, priests wore barkcloth (tapa) costumes decorated with pearl shell. Later, they collected the bones and hid them in niches or mountain caves.

Families continued to visit their marae to offer food and recite genealogies in honour of their ancestors. They remembered these deified ancestors in stone carvings, such as the tiki of the Marquesas Islands and the moai statues of Rapa Nui.

Powerful chiefs (ari‘i nui) built the largest and most elaborate marae, using their scale and complexity to assert authority and influence.

On Raiatea, the Tamatoa dynasty ruled from the Taputapuātea marae complex. Chiefs and navigators from across Polynesia gathered at the main marae, which they dedicated to the war god ’Oro. One section, Hauviri, hosted inauguration ceremonies for new chiefs.

During these events, the chief sat with his back to a large white stone while priests presented him with the maro ‘ura—a sacred red-and-yellow feathered belt. They also revealed the god ’Oro’s sacred figure, usually kept hidden. These figures (to‘o) were wooden forms wrapped in plaited rope (sennit) and decorated with feathers.

UNESCO recently recognised the cultural importance of Taputapuātea on the World Heritage List.