Many of us here know what Bira Bira is, or at least what he is to us
collectors of classic games.
Bira Bira is the mystic guardian of the sacred Reef Store.From the Reef
Store comes our dreams of glorious classic game finds and Bira Bira
channels "positive cartridge energy" from the Reef Store to the
faithful collectors of classic video games thus blessing them with
good finds.
Ever since he was first found by Robert Batina he has inspired a number
of testimonial "Brag Posts" from his faithful devotees. And from those
very hip to the cult of Bira Bira there have come posts exploring and
expanding upon the mythos of Bira Bira. There exists an official Bira Bira
webpage, hosted by the person who discovered him. Bira Bira himself gets
passed from devotee to devotee having moved from Robert, to myself and
then on to Jay Tilton. Some of the faithful own plaster replicas of Bira Bira
that they place in special classic videogame shines. Some of the faithful
have found their own incarnations of Bira Bira while out thrifting as
it is believed that Bira Bira manifests himself in various forms. There
is even a game for the 2600 based on Bira Bira (a G-rated graphics mod
of an older X-rated game). And like all the best deities, Bira Bira even
has an evil arch enemy. He comes in the form of one "Mr. Friendly", the
anti-Bira. Mr. Friendly is actually the mascott of an ice-cream franchise
in Japan that appears to sell more Mr. Friendly merchandise than ice-cream.
Some collectors absolutely hate Bira Bira, some few going so far as to claim
he is actually Satanic. Some collectors really don't care much about him at
all. And to others he's just plain ol' fun, right up there with Big Foot,
Greys, and Chubacabra. So far, to the best of my knowledge nobody has
sacrificed a virgin to Bira Bira, though some collectors may be willing
to at least sacrifice their virginity in his name (or any name for that
matter).
But one thing has remained mysterious ever since Bira Bira became an
unofficial mascott for many on RGVC. Just what the heck is he, really?
Well, I decided today that I wouldn't be worthy of being an anthropology
major if I didn't at least try to shed some light on the subject. So when
I got tired of studying for a Japanese test I took a break and searched the
resources of McMaster University's Mill's library for some evidence of
this little figure's origins. And now that the library has upgraded it's
systems to Windows '95 I had the power to generate search results that
would crash the system in less than half the time it took to crash it before.
From his physical appearance it seemed quite obvious to me that Bira Bira
originated somewhere in the south Pacific. My first attempt to identify
him was to seach for any references to "Bira Bira" within Polynesian,
Indonesian, and Micronesian mythology and religion. These efforts were most
unfruitful. There are many south pacific gods and goddesses, but to the
best of my knowledge there is no deity called "Bira Bira" anywhere except
on RGVC. Looking at the back of the Bira Bira figure you'll notice that the
"I" is somewhat different from the other letters in the name. Perhaps it
isn't an "I" after all but an apostrophy. So I searched through the tomes
of mythology for any references to B'ra B'ra. Still nothing.
So my next step was to search through books on south pacific
artwork to see if I could find any figures that resembled our Bira Bira.
Fortunately Mac's library has a pretty good selection of books on
south pacific artwork. Here is where I made my most interesting finds.
Some people on RGVC had suggested that perhaps Bira Bira is from Easter
Island, noting a similarity between his appearance and the appearance of
the giant stone statues on the island. But after checking through books
on Easter Island art it would seem this would be highly unlikely.
Although both the stone giants and Bira Bira have blocky, conical shapped
heads, when it comes to the smaller sculptures of Easter Island one notices
a remarkable difference between them and Bira Bira. Small Easter Island
figures are long, slender, and very highly detailed, quite different
from the stocky and blocky Bira Bira.
Searching through more books I discovered that Bira Bira shares traits with
carvings from all over the south pacific. Bira Bira is made of a light
coloured wood that is first carved into the basic shape then stained dark.
After being stained his details are then carved out making them contrast
strongly with the dark stained wood (this contrast was more striking before
I attempted to clean Bira Bira with some Murphy's Wood oil which removed
much of the pith used to stain him). This is a feature common to many wood
carvings of the Solomon Islands. But when examining the form of the figure
itself you find even more striking similarities to figure carvings of
Central Polynesia. In particular Tahiti, Raiateu, Huahine, Bora Bora,
and most the Marquesas Islands. The long head, the crouched, knees bent,
shoulders hunched stance, and the way the arms bend at the elbows to come
around and girdle the stomache is all indicative of artwork from
Central Polynesia. The style in which the eyes and mouth are carved are
very similar to the style of carvings from the Marquesas Islands.
Someone on this newsgroup once postulated that perhaps the "I"s in Bira Bira
are not "I"s at all but are suggestive of the letter "O", and that the
the inscription doesn't bear the name of the deity, "Bira Bira", but
is the name of the place of origin "Bora Bora". This could very well be the
case. The actual Bira Bira carving is not a very sophisticated religious
icon, but is actually a somewhat crude piece of folk art, no doubt
reproduced on mass as souvenirs for tourists. It has features common
to carving artwork from much of the south pacific but is most suggestive
of the artwork of Central Polynesia. Quite possibly the craftsmen who
made this based the form of the carving on his native artwork and embellished
it with features from other Polynesian islands. The form is a very crude when
compaired to most polynesian artwork, but was likely simplified to
increase productivity. I'm strongly inclined to believe that what Bira Bira
is, is a generic good luck "tiki" made to sell to the tourists visiting
Bora Bora. Being somewhat of an amalgamation of polynesian art styles
it would not be unlikely that other figures similar to Bira Bira
exist with the names of other polynesian islands inscribed on their backs.
There is a less likely possibility that Bira Bira is a Central Polynesian
"Canoe God", a figure carved and carried onboard canoes by fishermen both
for protection and a bountiful catch. He could also be an ancestral figure
used by priests for blessings and healings. And there's an outside
(very outside) chance that he might be a representation of the polynesian
god Thane.
My research into the origin of Bira Bira has by no means been
exhaustive and I concur that it is highly likely that Bira Bira may
be something entirely different from what I've suggested. It is entirely
likely (unless one of us takes a vacation to Bora Bora) that the mystery
of the origin of Bira Bira will never be solved, and perhaps that is
for the best. For no matter what Bira Bira may be in actuallity, it is
most definetly assured that it is quite different from what he has come
to be for those of us with a love for classic video games.
Love him or hate him, Bira Bira belongs to us all.
CRACKERS
(Extra Credit projects from hell!!)
Tahiti is an island near Bora Bora and both islands share a cultural heritage. In light of this new finding I think it's pretty safe to assume that the origin of the Bira Bira statue is Bora Bora.
All fun aside many people have been wondering just what the heck the original Bira Bira idol really was before it became the central figure in a new online religion for classic videogame collectors. Being an anthropology major I figured I'd tackle the task of identifying just what exactly that little wooden idol really was. So one day, armed with a bit of free time I hit the university library and did a little bit of research. These are the results as I originally posted to the newsgroup rec.games.video.classic.
Well what do you know, not long after theorizing that Bira Bira is actually a carving from Bora Bora I find this little (or should I say big) item. It's a carving from Tahiti. The facial features (ie. eyes, nose, mouth) are identical to Bira Bira's. As you can see from this picture, this new Bira Bira carving is significantly larger than the original Bira Bira (pictured beside the new carving is a Plaster Bira).
