Gadao

For the village in Ivory Coast, see Gadago.
Bronze statue of Chief Gadao, Inarajan, Guam.

Gadao is a legendary chief of the village of Inarajan in southern Guam. In the Chamorro language of ancient Guam, he would have had the title maga'lahi as a high-ranking male. In addition to being featured in legend, he is the namesake of Inarajan's Chief Gadao's Cave containing ancient cave paintings. Some stories claim Gadao himself drew the figures.[1] It is also said he was a kind giant that fought to protect his island home at all costs.

Legends

Two legends featuring Chief Gadao include the Legend of the Three Feats of Strength and the Legend of the Battle Between Chiefs. The legends and their specifics vary.

In the Legend of the Three Feats of Strength, Gadao thought himself worthy of becoming the head chieftain of Guahan. To test his worth, all the chiefs of the island ordered him to overcome 3 impossible feats. For Gadao's first task, he had to swim around the island 25 times without stopping. His second task was breaking a coconut tree into ten pieces with his bare hands, and lastly, Gadao had to level Guahan's highest peak: Mount Lamlam.

Gadao succeeded and ordered his sons to construct a fence around the island using boulders before daybreak in order to defend the island from outside threats. However, Gadao's sons mistook a twinkling star for the rising sun and rushed home, leaving a boulder in the reef but the fence unfinished. The foreigners then came and conquered the island.[2] These foreigners where Spanish invaders, whom Gadao challenged to combat wielding a sword made from the spine of a stingray. But due to the invaders advanced weaponry, Gadao was unable to ward them off and Guahan was conquered.

The Legend of the Battle Between Chiefs tells of an encounter between Gadao and Chief Mataquana. Mataquana was considered one of the strongest chiefs in Guam. When he heard of Gadao's strength, he went to Inarajan and asked someone where he could find Gadao: Mataquana wanted to prove that he was the strongest chief of Guam. Unbeknownst to Mataquana, he was speaking to Gadao. Gadao said that he would introduce Mataquana to Gadao after he rested and ate. When Gadao broke open coconuts with his small finger and wrung them with his hands, Mataquana was impressed at his strength and feared that Gadao's would be greater. Mataquana asked Gadao for the way back home. Each man rowed back to their villages in canoes.[3]

Other chiefs of Guam

See also

References

  1. ^ "Chief Gadao (GUAM) - the Three Feats of Strength". Archived from the original on 2011-07-05. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
  2. ^ Bevacqua, Michael; Bowman, Isa (May 2016). "Histories of Wonder, Futures of Wonder". Marvels & Tales. 30 (1): 70–89. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.30.1.0070. S2CID 164186813 – via EBSCOhost.
  3. ^ Cruz, Yuki (2013). "Networks Enhance Inarajan Village's Sense of Place" (PDF). Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
Flag of GuamBiography icon

This biographical article about Guam is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

Content Disclaimer

Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.

  1. The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
  2. There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
  3. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
  4. Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
  5. Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.