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Location: Federated States of Micronesia       Length: 19 min

Deep in the Menke Valley on the Micronesian island of Kosrae, between Hawaii and Guam, lies the site of Menke. Oral history relates that a temple existed there where people worshiped the goddess Sinlaku. Sinlaku could provide an abundant breadfruit harvest, ensuring ample food, or could bring typhoons to strip the trees of their fruit and lead to famine. Was Menke this site? Is it 1300 years old and one of the oldest temples in the Pacific, as expected? Dr. Felicia Beardsley and her excavation team have worked for a dozen years to find out.

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Produced in 2013 by Adam Thompson

Copyright 2013 by Adam Thompson

Kosrae (Wikipedia)

Micronesian Diary (Dr. Felicia Beardsley)

The People and Their Cultures (Chapter 2 of "Sustainable Human Development in the FSM" by Francis X. Hezel, SJ, Edwin Q.P. Petteys, and Deborah L. Chang)

Traditional Culture (FSM Visitors Board)

Traveling in Search of a King: Making Startling Discoveries in Micronesia (La Verne Magazine)