 The haunted manor house of "The Mad Baron", on Estonia's Hiiumaa Island (above); Raiatea Island's sacred Marae Taputapuate'a, in French Polynesia (right); Cannonball Garden in Diu Fort on Diu Island, India (below) |
 The sacred Marae Taputapuate'a, on the island of Raiatea in French Polynesia, is widely regarded as the birthplace of Polynesian culture. From here, warriors rowed their big war canoes as far as New Zealand. Today, Polynesians from across the Pacific gather every five yeras at the Marae to pay homage to their ancsetors.
Diu Island in Gujarat, India has a history going back even further. It is said that in the era of Satyuga (between two and three million years ago, a time when “the gods walked the earth”), a certain King Jalandhar ruled over the island. According to legend, he was a real bad dude, and accordingly was disposed of by the aforesaid gods.
In Estonia, the ancient culture of Hiiumaa Island was home to the “Mad Baron” von Ungern-Sternberg. He is said to have led troops in Mongolia, treating the Mongols with “unparalleled savagery”. Eventually, in 1921, Ungern-Sternberg was handed over to the Bolsheviks for execution. Even today teachers at Suuremõisa College (the baron's former manor) and electricians working on the manor house claim to have seen or heard his ghost.
What, if anything, do these three widely separated islands have in common? 
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