The lama (Diospyros sandwicensis and D. hillebrandii; family Ebenaceae), aka ēlama, is an indigenous ebony hardwood that was important to ka poe hula as well as traditional healers. Lama grew six to fifty feet high and often had galls or abnormal growths on its stem. The bark is black and smooth on small trunks, but rough on large, old trees. The leaves, pale green and glossy, are arranged in one plane alternately in opposite rows. The small greenish-white- or pink-petal flowers grow close to the twig. Lama produces edible bright red or yellow fruit borne in a cup like an acorn. D. sandwicensis is found in all types of forests of the islands from elevations, 15-4,000 ft; D. hillebrandii is found primarily on moderately wet forests only on Kaua‘i and O‘ahu from 492-1,500 ft. None are found on Ni‘ihau and Kaho‘olawe (Kapi‘olani Community College).
The word, lama, means “torch, light, lamp...enlightenment” (Pukui and Ebert). Such kaona was significant to the kupuna. The plant was considered sacred. The wood, which was very hard, close-grained and a rich reddish-brown color when old, was used in building houses for gods and other religious temples (Kamehameha Schools). They were also used for the tide gates of fishponds.
A piece of lama was wrapped in kapa dyed yellow with olena (tumeric) and placed on the hula altar as an embodiment of the hula god/dess, Laka, the sister/wife of Lono, the god of agriculture. Laka presided over the flora of the forest. And the presence of Laka that was manifested in the brightly draped lama signified the enlightenment that one could achieve through hula. Kumu Roselle Keli`ihonipua Bailey describes how the Hawaiians considered the forests sacred as well as “physically and spiritually dangerous” places where people could get lost, hurt or killed. Learning hula, she says, tames the “undesciplined body, spirit and mind, the forest personality.” Lama stood on the altar as a reflection of the hula practice that seeks enlightenment through poised discipline, respect and open consciousness (Ka ‘Imi Na‘auao O Hawai‘i Nei).
The wood was also used in the ancient Hawaiian healing arts. Lama was used to build the enclosure demarcating the place for healing. The structure, which was called the pa lama, was built in one day during daylight (lama) hours (ibid.). The bark, which was edible, was often mixed with kukui (Aleurites moluccana) and ulu (Artocarpis altilis) and applied to sores.
Bailey, Roselle. “Hula – A Way of Life” and “The Hula.” http://www.kaimi.org/hula.htm
Davenport, Cathy. “Hula Plants.” www.botany.hawaii.edu/ethnobotany/.../pdf/HulaPlants-111907.pdf
Kamehameha Schools. http://kms.kapalama.ksbe.edu/projects/2003/plants.
Kapi‘olani Community College. http://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/object/lamaplant.html
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