This heiau is a living spiritual temple and not just an historic artifact of the Hawaiian culture. Oral histories indicate the original temple on the site may be 1500 years old: the genealogy chant of the heiau's kahuna tells of Kuamo'o Mo'okini arriving here in 480, not from Samoa or Tahiti, but from the Persian Gulf of Middle East. Evidence suggests the current temple was built on the site of this smaller older one by Paao, who brought the Hawaiian Religion to the islands sometime between 1100 and 1300 A.D.