POLIʻAHU IS THE HAWAIIAN goddess of compassion and snow. Her name means temple bosom or cloaked blossom. She is the oldest of three sisters. They all wore cloaks, were intelligent, adventurous, athletic, and attractive. But fair-skinned Poliʻahu was one of Hawaiʻi’s most beautiful women, and her cloak drapes Mauna Kea with snow.
She enjoyed cliff diving and joined her sisters in heʻe holua, or sled surfing, a deadly activity of racing over snow or rocks on sleds twelve feet long and six inches wide, capable of reaching fifty miles per hour.
The sisters protect the Big Island’s snow-capped dormant volcano, Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is Poliʻahu’s temple, but she shares it with other akua, or gods, and is the resting place of aliʻi and kahunas.
Mauna Kea’s Lake Waiau is the world’s highest lake
