Political crisis for President Alan Garcia continues
Current mood: worried
Category: News and Politics

Peru: Government crisis deepens as struggles explode

Currently listening : Surfacing By Sarah McLachlan Release date: 1997-07-15

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New discoveries
Current mood: creative
Category: Travel and Places

Just a quick note...

I was actually at present in Sacsayhuaman, where they started digging up a previous walkway...from one week to the next, it became a discovery of tombs...strange, we walked along these sites at night, no security, nobody looking over it....

I should post a photo of it...will look it up

Currently listening : Afro-Peruvian Legend By Eva Ayllon Release date: 2005-03-14

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Chalk up a Win for the Indigenous of Peru
Category: News and Politics

Last week it was an article in Oread Daily about indigenous groups fighting in Peru to save their land from being taken over by oil and gas giants. A state of emergency had been declared after thousands of Amazonian tribes people armed with spears, bows and arrows took over main roads, a hydroelectric dam, and oil and gas installations in the provinces of Cusco, Loreto and Amazonas. Now comes reports that the battle appears to have been won.

After several hours of discussion and debate, Congress passed legislative decree 2440, repealing decrees 1015 and 1073, by a vote of 66 in favour, 29 against, and no abstentions.The former facilitated procedures for the fragmentation and sale of communal lands held by indigenous and farming communities in the mountainous (Sierra) and forest (Selva) regions of the country, enabling these crucial decisions to be made in an assembly by a simple majority, instead of the previously required two thirds of communal landowners, thus bringing these regions in line with the procedures of Peru's coastal region. Decree 1073 made further modifications to decree 1015.

President Alan Garcia maintained his opposition to the overturning of the decrees, an act he categorized as an "historic error."

Indigenous movement spokesperson Alberto Pizango celebrated the decision, declaring, "The people of Peru, indigenous or not, have demonstrated once more that it is possible to reclaim our rights to life, to dignity, and to a lasting sustainable development. This is a new dawn for the Indigenous Peoples of the country."

The following is taken from Dos Mundos (Kansas City).

Indigenous groups win major battle in congress

Written by Milagros Salazar

LIMA (IPS) - The Peruvian Congress voted to repeal two decrees that opened up communally owned native lands to private investment and that triggered a wave of protests this month by indigenous people in Amazon jungle provinces.

The vote was a rare instance of cooperation between opposition lawmakers and legislators from parties that up to now have been allied with the government, who voted to overturn the decrees on the argument that they undermined the rights of native communities.

Sixty-six lawmakers voted to revoke the decrees and 29 members of the governing APRA party voted against the decision.

The decrees were adopted by the executive branch in an unconstitutional manner and without respecting indigenous groups' right to be consulted prior to any project on their land, as established by International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169, which has been ratified by Peru.

A majority in Congress agreed that the government went beyond the special powers it was granted by parliament as part of the free trade agreement negotiated with the United States, when it vetoed the legislature's original vote against the two laws. Under the decrees, a mechanism created in the 1990s, which allowed indigenous communities to sell or lease collectively-owned land to third parties if approved by two-thirds of the members of a community assembly, was modified to permit sales with the votes of just 50 percent plus one of the assembly members.

"The executive branch ran roughshod over Congress, native communities and international conventions," said Roger Najar, the new chairman of the parliamentary committee on Andean and Amazon peoples and the environment.

August 31, 2008

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Oil Exploration in Amazon Threatens "Unseen" Tribes
Current mood: thoughtful
Category: News and Politics

Driving along an oil company road in Peru’s northern Amazon, Patricio Pinola Chuje looked out the window. He nodded beyond a green wall of rain forest.

"I don’t know if they are in this area, but I know they are farther south in other places," said Pinola, an Achuar Indian. "They come out by the rivers.".."They" refers to unseen Amazon Indian tribes said to live in voluntary isolation in the western headwaters of the Amazon in Peru and Ecuador.

Global energy prices have fueled oil and gas booms across oil-laden Amazonian lands. But supporters of native groups say the boom is a bust for remote Amazon Indians, who suffer both physically and socially when exposed to the modern world.

"Isolated Indians are especially vulnerable to any contact, because they have no immunity to outsiders’ diseases," said David Hill, a spokesperson for Survival International, a London-based group that defends the rights of uncontacted tribes.

Other groups add that Indians’ rights to their traditional lands are increasingly being violated by development-hungry governments.

Now civic groups and native organizations are pushing governments and the courts to rein in oil development. In December, a coalition of groups announced it would petition the Organization of American States to protect the Cacataibo, said to be the last uncontacted tribe in the central Peruvian rain forest.

Meanwhile, complicating an otherwise typical development clash, Peruvian officials have publicly asked: Do unseen natives really exist?

"It is like the Loch Ness monster," Cecilia Quiroz, lead counsel of Peru’s oil and gas leasing agency, told The Washington Post in July.

"Everyone seems to have seen or heard about uncontacted peoples, but there is no evidence."

How Many "Unseen" Tribes Are There?

Guevara Sandi Chimboras, an Achuar Indian environmental monitor, wipes sweat from his cheeks in the sweltering heat of an Amazon afternoon, not far from the Ecuadorian border.

After traipsing through a grassy field, using donated satellite-positioning tools to help document oil spills, he doesn’t hesitate when asked about unseen tribes.

"Yes they exist," he said. "I know people who have seen them. They are seen when they go to river banks to find turtle eggs."..

The elusiveness of some rain forest tribes, coupled with the threat of infection posed by outsiders, makes getting an accurate census near impossible, activists say.

But Survival International estimates that some 15 uncontacted tribes live in the Peruvian Amazon alone.

Spotting them is rare. But in October, a plane searching for illegal loggers managed to photograph 21 natives standing near palm shelters on the banks of the Las Piedras River in Peru’s southeastern Amazon. (See photo at left.)

Days after the photos ran on international news wires, Peruvian President Alan Garcia suggested in a newspaper editorial that unseen tribes were largely a ruse used by groups opposing development.

"Against petroleum, they have created the figure of the ’unconnected’ wild native, which is to say, something not known but presumed," Garcia wrote in an editorial in the newspaper El Commercio.

Officials with Peru’s leasing agency and its Ministry of Energy and Mines declined to comment for this story.

"Is There Something Bothering You?"

Despite official doubts that uncontacted tribes exist, oil companies apparently take threats of encounters seriously.

Last summer, U.S. oil firm Barrett Resources and Spain’s Repsol-YPF submitted plans to Peruvian officials describing how their workers would respond during encounters with isolated tribes. (Barrett Resources was recently acquired by the international oil company Perenco).

The two documents, obtained by National Geographic News, advise workers to be on the lookout for footprints, spears, arrows, and other signs of humans.

The Barrett manual advises workers that uncontacted natives might become curious about noises, helicopters, and lights, causing them to leave items that signal a desire to make contact with workers.

Such items may include "vessels containing valuable seeds or plantain drinks, necklaces, baskets, snails, gourds, feathers or other objects used for exchange," the document says.

Both plans prohibit workers from having any contact with natives or giving them food or other objects.

The documents order workers to treat Indians peacefully, making efforts to protect them from illnesses. If unintended contact is made, the manuals instruct guides to initiate communication with natives in local tongues.

If peaceful dialogue cannot be established, according to the Repsol document, workers should attempt to make loud noises with whistles, shouts, and megaphones.

A section of the Barrett manual entitled "sequence of messages of introduction, health and peace," tells guides to say: "We are people like you; We are workers passing through; We aren’t going to stay, We have women and children far from here; We have houses and farms far from here."

The document also provides a list of questions field managers should ask Indians through their guides: "Where do you come from? How many moons and suns have you traveled? … Have you seen people like us? … Is there something bothering you?"

Self-Imposed Seclusion?

Padre Ricardo Álvarez Lobo, a Dominican priest who has worked with remote tribes for five decades, said that few if any Amazonian tribes have had no contact with outsiders.

More likely, he said, their ancestors had contact with rubber barons who killed or enslaved them in the early 20th century.

"The ancestors came into contact with evangelicals or rubber barons and had bad experiences," he said.

"So they have built up myths within the group that makes them fear outsiders."

In recent years, extremely isolated tribes in Brazil and Colombia have emerged from the jungle, as developers and armed insurgents came closer to their traditional territories.

In one case, the Nukak, a tribe in southern Colombia, was driven from its extreme isolation by the insurgent group FARC.

(Read related story: "Drug Wars Threaten to Wipe Out Amazon Nomads" [April 27, 2007].)

Last June, uncontacted natives made contact with Kayapo natives in central Brazil.

And in recent weeks, across the Peruvian border in Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, Taromenane tribesmen were blamed for spearing an illegal tree logger to death.

Can They Be Protected?

As development continues to encroach on tribal territories, activists are buckling down.

Native-rights groups like Peru’s Racimos de Ungurahui note that in recent years fatal illnesses have beset tribes like the Nahua, Nanti, and Kirineri after they came into contact with oil workers.

Racimos has threatened to sue oil companies for genocide if they enter areas where isolated groups are said to live.

Meanwhile, a native rights group based in Lima called AIDESEP is calling for the establishment and protection of government-protected parks for uncontacted natives.

Last August, AIDESEP petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene to protect two tribal reserves in northern Peru.

The commission is an organ of the Organization of American States that monitors and investigates human rights violations and can litigate cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The cases are still pending before the commission.

Currently listening : The Best of Cusco By Cusco Release date: 18 February, 1997

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Protest in Cuzco
Category: Travel and Places

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The Legendary Lost City, Paititi
Category: Travel and Places

January 10, 2008

Peru: Archaeological Fortress Discovered in the town of Kimbiri, Cusco

..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..> ..> ..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>..>

http://filer.livinginperu.com/news/img/new_fortress.jpg900675

Archaeological fortress of Manco Pata, discovered in the town of Kimbiri (Cusco)

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The Curse of Inka Gold
Current mood: disgusted

Report from October, 2005

Another sad story...

High in the Andean mountains of Peru is a gold mine, Yanacocha, run by Newmont Mining Corporation of Denver, Colorado, the largest gold mining company in the world. Once part of the Incan Empire, this land was conquered by the Spanish, who came in search of gold and silver. Descendants of the Incas remain suspicious to this day of outsiders seeking fortune here. FRONTLINE/World and New York Times reporter Lowell Bergman arrives to investigate a growing conflict between the local people and the Yanacocha Mine, which has already produced $7 billion worth of gold.

"In the language of the local Indians, Yanacocha means `black lake,' but the lake is long gone," says Bergman, "a casualty of this massive mining operation."

Today, the Yanacocha Mine spreads across more than 60 square miles at altitudes as high as 14,000 feet. Mine manager Brant Hinze tells Bergman that nearly $2 billion has been invested in the mine. Dressed in protective gear and wearing a respirator, Bergman is allowed to enter the heavily guarded "gold room," where ore is melted at a temperature of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and the liquid gold is poured into bars worth more than $180,000 each. The golden scene of flowing molten metal resembles some ancient rite.

"There's a tradition among gold miners," says Bergman. "They say if you can lift a brick with one hand, it's yours to keep." Bergman makes a valiant effort, but it proves impossible.

The Yanacocha Mine recently celebrated the pouring of its 19 millionth ounce of gold. It is said to be the world's most productive gold mine.

"But behind the company's success is a dark and troubled history with allegations of corruption and bribery," says Bergman. It is a story that begins in 1994 during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori -- and provides a case study of "how a multinational company does business in a developing country rife with corruption."

The original owners of the Yanacocha Mine were Newmont; Buenaventura, a Peruvian company; and Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM), a French government-owned company. But the partnership collapsed when the French tried to sell part of their shares to an Australian company that was a competitor of Newmont. Newmont and Buenaventura went to court to stop the French, and an epic battle ensued, pitting Newmont against the French company. Billions of dollars were at stake.

"The French government was behaving inappropriately in the litigation," says Larry Kurlander, a former Newmont senior executive. "In fact, I have seen with my own eyes a letter from [French president] Jacques Chirac to President Fujimori asking for his intervention in the case." Newmont sent Kurlander, a troubleshooter and former prosecutor, to Peru to "level the playing field" and help the company win their court case against the French. This is the first time Kurlander, an insider, has spoken publicly about what happened.

The legal fight went all the way to Peru's notoriously corrupt Supreme Court. Kurlander claims that the French were trying to bribe Peruvian politicians to influence the judges. But Antoine Blanca, France's ambassador to Peru at the time, denies that the French were paying bribes. On the contrary, Blanca tells Bergman, it was Newmont who was bribing people. Kurlander insists that is not true, but he does admit that he met privately with Vladimiro Montesinos, a very unsavory character who was President Fujimori's right-hand man, in an effort to enlist his help in thwarting the French. Kurlander argues that he had no choice, that he had to meet with Montesinos because "if the French were to be stopped, he was the only one in Peru who would dare to do it."

Montesinos is a notorious figure, "a crooked lawyer who made a short career of defending drug traffickers" before becoming "for all practical purposes" the man in charge of the Peruvian army and intelligence services, according to Mirko Lauer, a leading Peruvian journalist. It turns out that Montesinos was in the habit of secretly recording most of the meetings in his office. Many of these videotapes were later leaked to the press, causing the downfall of President Fujimori in 2000 and the arrest of Montesinos. "The videotapes show Montesinos cutting deals, bribing officials and handing out bricks of cash," says Bergman, as we see excerpts from these tapes, never before shown on television in the United States.

In one audio tape, Newmont's Kurlander meets with Montesinos, and the men part with a pledge of loyalty: "Now you have a friend for life."

Kurlander also lobbies the U.S. State Department to come to the aid of Newmont. Peter Romero, who was Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Latin America, tells Bergman that he actually called Montesinos on behalf of Newmont, though he was only trying to level the playing field. After the case was finally decided in Newmont's favor, Romero went to work for Newmont as a consultant.

Blanca says the French refused to meet with a criminal like Montesinos; moreover, they knew something else: "He was a CIA man."

Bergman's former CIA sources confirm that the CIA was paying Montesinos's secret police organization at least a million dollars a year and had done so for more than a decade. And in two of the secret videotapes, Montesinos is seen meeting with the CIA station chief in Lima, Peru's capital. On one tape, Montesinos vows to block what he says is evidence of French pressure on Peru's courts in the gold mine dispute.

In the most revealing of the tapes, Montesinos meets with the judge who will cast the deciding vote in the case, explaining that Peru needs Washington's support in a border dispute with Ecuador. A week later, the judge casts his vote in favor of Newmont, and Newmont wins controlling interest in the Yanacocha Mine.

Today, Montesinos is being held in a maximum-security prison in Peru, standing trial on dozens of counts of corruption. Kurlander tells Bergman he regrets meeting with Montesinos: "… the fact that you are in a country and you are forced to deal with a guy like this, it's a terrible thing."

In Peru, Ronald Gamarra -- the special prosecutor assigned to investigate judicial corruption under Montesinos -- tells Bergman, "My theory is that both sides [the French and the Americans] were trying to get a favorable decision by any means necessary, but only one side got to Montesinos and that is the side that won." But Gamarra says he was removed from the case before he could complete his investigation. Nevertheless, he declares, "I am sure bribes were paid."

Neither Newmont nor the French nor the Peruvian judge who met with Montesinos was ever convicted of participating in illegal activities in connection with the gold mine case. Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. government did investigate allegations that Newmont paid bribes. "But that investigation ended late last year after the Peruvian government failed to fully cooperate and the statute of limitations ran out," says Bergman.

Today, Newmont is firmly in control of the Yanacocha Mine, but the company has encountered resistance from the local population. Some of the distrust of the mine and its operators may go back to the story of Atahualpa, the Incan emperor who was captured and held for ransom by the Spanish. To win his freedom, Atahualpa promised his captors to fill a room with gold, but the Spanish betrayed him -- they took the gold and killed him anyway.

Foreigners have been taking Peru's mineral wealth ever since, says Lauer: "And this is the basic historical lesson of these times, no? Unhappy people surrounded, watching very happy transnational corporations moving earth and digging gold."

In part, the sheer scale of the mining operation -- and its reliance on cyanide to recover the microscopic bits of gold in the crushed rock -- worries many campesinos in the region. "They are destroying our water, our hills, our flora and fauna," Miguel Garcia, a dairy farmer, tells Bergman, though Newmont says they safely contain the cyanide solution in lined holding ponds.

Trust between the campesinos and the mine really broke down in June 2000, when a truck contracted to carry mercury from the mine accidentally spilled 330 pounds of its toxic cargo over a 25-mile stretch of road around the village of Choropampa. Not knowing what it was, but attracted by the mercury's glimmer, villagers picked it up and took it home. They later fell sick, and many ended up in hospitals with symptoms of mercury poisoning. More than a thousand people are suing Newmont in a U.S. federal court for damages.

*********"Nobody was dead,"********** says Roque Benavides, the CEO of Newmont's partner, Buenaventura. He also says that the company provided health insurance. "So it was not all that bad."

But the mercury spill provoked violent clashes between angry villagers and the police. It became a public relations nightmare for Newmont, and the company decided to dispatch Kurlander back to Yanacocha to see how the mine was operating. Kurlander's environmental audit found 20 high-priority problems at the mine. The findings were so serious that Kurlander warned in a memo to Newmont CEO Wayne Murdy that senior executives could be subject to "criminal prosecution and imprisonment."

For Kurlander, the environmental report was a turning point: "When we are out there preaching that we are guardians of the environment and you suddenly discover that we are not, it's like someone hits you in the stomach real hard."

Less than a year later, Kurlander retired from Newmont. Bergman requested an interview with Murdy to discuss the Yanacocha case, but Murdy declined. Since Kurlander's environmental audit, however, the company says they have spent more than $100 million on environmental improvements at the mine in Peru. They also provide more than 2,000 full-time staff jobs at the mine and pay substantial taxes.

The problem now for Newmont, according to Kurlander, is that the company has not regained the trust of many local people in Peru. Kurlander argues that Newmont needs something more than the government license it has to operate the Yanacocha Mine -- it needs a "social license" from the community. Benavides is skeptical of the "social license" concept, but the mine's manager tells Bergman he recognizes the need to work with and help the Indians in this impoverished region. Hinze says he hopes the mine "will be a neighbor here for a very long time'" and will continue to expand.

However, protesters have blocked the mine's plans to expand operations into a mountain called Cerro Quilish, which Newmont believes contains more than a billion dollars' worth of gold. For campesinos, Quilish is a sacred mountain and a source of precious water. "For Yanacocha, Quilish is a mountain of gold," says Catholic priest and local activist Father Marco Arana, "and for the people, it is a mountain of water. And Yanacocha didn't listen to the people."

Last fall, thousands of Peruvians filled the town square in Cajamarca, the city closest to the mine, protesting the expansion. Later they blockaded mining roads and forced the company to cancel its expansion plans.

"Communities are becoming more and more involved in their own destinies," says a chastened Kurlander. "When I say a social license, I mean it. Without the community support, you'll be out of business eventually. They will force you out of their community, and it doesn't matter how much government support you have."

What do you think of THIS?

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Cosmic Andean Spirituality
Current mood: enlightened
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Cosmic Spirituality Andean
/Espiritualidad Cosmica Andina

Por: Salvador Palomino Flores   - (Posted on Dec-18-2007)

All people, in their own languages, are terms or names to indicate their attitudes towards their sacred or divine beings.  Those in the Western culture, who speak languages derived from Latin, it is called Religion.

 The brother Bolivian Amawta (wise), Don Valentin Mejillones, says that we Indians can not call Religion our sacred practice, but Spirituality. Well, Westerners and non-Indians are trying to the same forms of sacred attitude: Religion comes the Latin Re-ligare which means serve as a nexus, unite. Westerners believe (by dogma and faith) in a heaven where God dwell in his court heavenly, and in this thinking, the human being is far and separately, are here on earth, his abode.

 Thus, Religion, through rites and ceremonies or an approaching humans with their divine beings with whom they will be able to collect only after death. Indian peoples are the Microcosm within the Macrocosmos ", and the cosmos is Macrocosmos , the universe and nature, sacred immanent in humans whose entrails, the people and all living beings are involved, integrated therefore participate at the same time of the same states divine and sacred.

 In this great family cosmic bind us together and interlock innate energies and forces, and this call of the Spirit beings and things.

 As a cultural practice of the institution of Reciprocity our peoples are rites and ceremonies as an expression of gratitude and appreciation to our beings strongly higher in the cosmos: Wiraqucha (energy cosmic total), Inti (Sun), Killa (Luna), Chakana (Southern Cross ), Chaska (Venus), Illapa (Lightning), Chirapa (Rainbow), Pacha Mama (Mother Earth), Qucha Mama (Mother Sea), or Wamani Achachila (Holy Hill), Amaru (Rio Sacred), Wanka Rumi (Stone Sacred), Mallki (Antepasado Sacred), Waka (Place or Holy Temple), Illa (Object representative of the Sacred), and so on. since the beings that represent: Condor, Puma, Eagle, Snake, etc.. who with his forces and energies are there life on welfare, peace and harmony in nature.

Our Willaq Umu, Amawta, Yatiri or Misayuq specializing in the rituals and ceremonies, ofrendan our own energies and the energies of things chosen (flowers, grains, fruits, seeds, fetuses of animals, minerals, etc.). Our sacred bodies , they receive as "food" and rejoice, and then congraciarnos, in reciprocity with cosmic energies to the good life of all living and harmony in the environment of our stock.

 In our thinking and social and spiritual practice can not receive anything back without something in return, formidable principle that makes our societies remain always in harmony without equalities arising accumulators or exploited. It is this kind of attitude all sacred, more properly, call Spirituality and Religion not.

  Sincretismo: For 515 years that europe invaded the Andes, we brought other cultures, another way of life, different religions, which we imposed no place to complaints. However, in all this time, our peoples created and exercised "Cultural Defense Mechanisms" to continue to exist and this affront to the game until we became Christians or Catholics, we become bi-cultural, spiritualist / religious, but never forget our own, because everything is done for them and in due course.  In this situation of exercising the same development strategies: As dominated culture, we pay or enajenamos ritual elements of the dominant culture to indianizarlos is incorporated into the forms of our own Spirituality.

 Thus, in many parts St. Helena, for example, is our Pacha Mama; James the Apostle is the Illapa; Vera Cruz our Chakana, or San Juan become "Hatun San Juan (San Juan Mayor) and" San Uchuk Juan "(St. John Minor) represents our Illa, which were and are Hatun Illa (Illa higher) and Uchuk Illa (Illa less).

 In this exchange of elements and functions trastocación apparent divine beings western Andean some intellectuals and social Sincretismo call and say that native spirituality and Christianity are no longer what they are and that they have merged to form a single the third result. E

 This position is false and a trap, if we accept only contribute to the more rapid disappearance of native spirituality, since there are no additional points or harmonious relationships, but a constant struggle between the dominant religion and spirituality dominated.
 In addition, it is impossible to a union between the two systems because they are diametrically opposed in their ways and in their goals.

         The Christianity is widespread in Latin America, says 92% of Catholics in Peru, but in this calculation has not been observed the situation spirituality / religion that it is the practice of people in countries with a strong indigenous presence.

 In recent decades there is a significant invasion of Protestant sects, especially in the Indian territories, possibly an incentive of the strategies used to steamroller West and subdue indigenous cultures for economic plunder, which is known for it first strikes against the forces of the cultural identity of peoples, through the imposition of religion, primarily Protestant.
 Among them, as opposed to smothering hegemonic western capitalist system and its aftermath depredantes, a group of Christian priests have chosen to be next to the poor and the homeless and, say, trying "to expand the meaning social and community that is inherent Christian authentic. "This new trend within Christianity is called Liberation Theology. Anyway, the Indian peoples are not only framed within the category of poor, we are different peoples and nations and seek recovery and reveindicación of our lands and territories have autonomy, own culture, its own language, its own spirituality within the territories of the Neo-United State.  And emphatically reject paternalism, in whatever form it is presented to us.

          In the world, which has entered the stage of a total globalization no longer be geographically isolated peoples and all cultures will be bringing other dissimilar, like it or not like.  The problem, in the preservation of the same in their authenticity, is not a rejection of what is different, but in our lives.  One of our philosophical principles states: "The equality in difference", and that guides us to tolerance of other people or different.

   You can live in the same territory between different, but we need tolerance and mutual respect, without impositions of nowhere, but surely, we need to first destroy our minds and our social attitudes racism, hegemonism, discrimination, unilateralism and accepted a pluralistic world.

Recibido de Comunidad Tawantinsuyu Received Community Tawantinsuyu

http://www.quechuanetwork.org/news_template.cfm?news_id=5342&lang=e

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Festival of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit’i or the Snowstar.
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Religion and Philosophy

From there, the view is staggering. Hundreds, possibly thousands of tents spread across the slopes of Sinakara and Qolquepunco, like a vast settlement studding the plain that stretches between the two sacred mountains.

This is a camp for pilgrims who have flocked here from all over the Peruvian Andes. From Canchis, Paucartambo, Quispicanchi. From the departments of Apurímac, Puno and Ayacucho. From the furthermost towns and villages of the southern highlands, these pilgrims have come here in single file to keep alive a form of worship that has survived over the course of centuries.

This is the pilgrimage in honor of Taitacha Qoyllur Rit'i, the Lord of the Snowstar.

A child touched the Heavens

Catholic tradition has it that a shepherd boy named Marianito Mayta was the first to glimpse the miraculous appearance of Jesus Christ on the slopes of Sinakara back in 1870. Christ allegedly appeared in the shape of a blond child dressed in silk robes who spent the chilly afternoons with the shepherd boy near the mountain, helping him in his task and sharing his food.

The villagers of Ocongate, led by their parish priest, were to turn the apparition into a legend. When the villagers went looking for the Christ child, they found only a tayanca tree shaped like a cross, similar to the image worshipped at the church in Tayankani. The image of the face of Christ then appeared on the bluffs where the incident is said to have occurred, and the features were later painted in.

This is the official history behind the worship of Qoyllur Rit'i. The other version, which the local farmers and shepherds know by heart in the Cuzco highlands, dates back well before the arrival of christianism and has survived until today in the form of an underground spring from which the pilgrims drink between May and June, after the harvest.

Highland communities are fervent in their devotion to their apu, the guardian spirits of the mountains. It is a passion that sends huge groups of pilgrims on foot over mind-boggling distances, marching in step to the Andean bands as far as Sinakara. There, the pilgrims reach out their hands and touch the skies, and send their prayers on high, beseeching favors from the apu spirits.

In the kingdom of chaos

The pilgrims, grouped together in communities, have been arriving in Sinakara since Friday. The ritual is always the same. At the end of the trail, before descending to the valley, the troupes of dancers don their multi-colored costumes, the "pablitos" or "ukukus" put on their wool masks and set off dancing in the direction of the church. There they will pay their respects to Taita Qoyllur Rit'i before heading off to the Sacred Rock, to worship the tiny image of the Virgin of Fátima.

Our tent has been pitched in the middle of the camp on the damp meadows where the rest of the year the livestock graze. From here, one can gaze upon the chaos that is playing out across the entire esplanade. The dancers sway past the shrine, while the pilgrims form endless queues to enter the church. The vendors cry their wares, and the pablitos spin around in circles on all sides, whip in hand to ensure no one treats the Lord of the Snows with disrespect.

The neighboring tents give off clouds of smoke, heralding dinnertime. A handful of tourists from who knows where pass by blasé, hats tipped back and cigarette dangling from their lips.

There are scowls amongst the pilgrims at this irreverence: "they shouldn't come to the shrine if they're not going to show respect," said one. For several years now, the communities involved have been debating the possibility of moving the shrine to another valley, making access much more difficult, to discourage cityfolk from coming.

When the communities arrive, they bear their crosses in a procession to the snowy heights of Sinakara, where they leave them until dawn on Tuesday, when the pablitos descend once more. The pablitos are mythical beings, half-human, half-bear for some, and half-alpaca for others. They hike down from the mountain heights bearing blocks of ice on their backs which, when melted, will be served as Holy water for the faithful along the way.

Before that, on Monday morning, Mass is held by the parish priest of Ocongate. The pablitos stride around, lashing those who fail to show their respect for the Lord and doff their hats. In the afternoon, the faithful hold the procession of the Lord of Tayankani, an image which has been brought from its community during a trek lasting several hours, to receive another homage.

The secret society

The nights are literally freezing here in Sinakara. Temperatures can plunge below -5°C, and our sleeping bags do little to keep our body heat from evaporating with every breath we take. The nights are cold and long, but apparently not so for the dancers and pablitos, who since sundown have been climbing up to Sinakara by community to carry out their secret rituals.

There is a great deal of speculation about this mysterious society of the Andean pablitos. It is said that the initiation rites carried out in the snowy wastes are extremely tough, and the chosen must have nerves of steel. They move around with a grim mien during the festival; they are in charge of maintaining order, and also the ones to bring the Holy water down from the glacier for the pilgrims.

On Tuesday morning, the pablitos hike down from Sinakara carrying huge blocks of ice on their backs. By then, the Q'eros have already arrived in Sinakara. The Q'eros are a hermetic community who live in the upper reaches of Paucartambo, maintaining no contact with Western civilization. Their rites include greeting Christ at the shrine, but focus on rendering homage to the apu spirits. For them, the celebration is only just getting underway.

By mid-morning, the Mass begins, extending a blessing to the faithful. The area around the shrine is packed with people; the "alasita" market is doing a booming trade. Alasitas are small objects, like toys, in the shape of cars, houses, money, or representing marriage anything else that could be requested of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i. The parish priest blesses these objects and the faithful trust the deity to comply.

Mass draws to an end. The tents have been packed away, and the children wait for their parents before heading home. The communities of Paucartambo and Quispicanchi will bear the image of the Lord of Tayankani in a procession back to the church where it is kept, a procession that will not arrive until the following night. In Yanacancha, the faithful will watch the sunrise and press on to Ocongate, where the "guerrilla", the ritual battle, will be waged between qollas and chunchos, traditionally-dressed dancers. This marks the end of the festival, on the Thursday of Corpus Christi.

The tourists, ourselves included, take down our tents and also start the return trip to Mahuayani. The genuine pilgrims watch us go with evident relief. The festival is becoming more and more like a fair, and every year, new waves of cityfolk flock here, building more and more constructions around the shrine.

This is why the true believers in Qoyllur Rit'i will leave, heading beyond the mountains of Paucartambo, to the truly inaccessible wilds, out of reach of strangers and their aggressive cameras. The shrine may be moved there, and that is when the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i would finally be theirs alone, the protector of the farmers and shepherds of the Cuzco highlands, living in harmony alongside the apu, the age-old gods of the mountains that still rule these lands.

Currently listening : Pan Pipe Dreams By Zamfir Release date: 23 May, 2000

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Face on Mars and Face on Earth, Peru
Current mood: amused

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Of course I found something interesting...about Peru...again?   After reading it, take the Inca Quiz!     Face on Mars and Face on Earth, Peru When NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter sent its first pictures back from Mars in 1976, one feature caught the eye - the famous "Face on Mars" in the Cydonia region. Other NASA orbiters have returned higher resolution images showing that it's just a naturally forming rock structure. And now ESA's Mars Express has revealed even higher resolution images, showing a new perspective view of the face. Face on Earth: Nestled in the clays of the Andes Mountains, near Colca Canyon, Arequipa, Peru, is the face of a man as viewed from space in Google Earth.   Face on Mars Cydonia region, 1976 Original 'Face on Mars' image taken by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter, in grey scale, on 25 July 1976. Image shows a remnant massif located in the Cydonia region. On 31 July 1976, a NASA press release said the formation "resembles a human head." However, NASA scientists had already correctly interpreted the image as an optical illusion caused by the illumination angle of the Sun, the formation's surface morphology and the resulting shadows, giving the impression of eyes, nose and mouth. Credits: NASA/JPL.   ESA probe confirms Face of Mars is a naturally formed hill September 25, 2006. Source WashingtonPost.com The best images ever taken of the much-discussed "face on Mars" have conclusively established that it is an unusual formation of mountains, valleys and landslides. Cameras on the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite, the first European space mission to Mars, cut through the atmospheric dust and haze in July to provide clear images of the "face" in the planet's Cydonia region. Project scientist Agustin Chicarro said the photos "not only provide a completely fresh and detailed view of an area famous to fans of space myths worldwide but also provide an impressive close-up of an area of great interest for planetary geologists." A perspective view showing the so-called 'Face on Mars' located in the Cydonia region. The image shows a remnant massif thought to have formed via landslides and an early form of debris apron formation. The massif is characterized by a western wall that has moved downslope as a coherent mass. The massif became famous as the 'Face on Mars' in a photo taken on 25 July 1976 by the American Viking 1 Orbiter. Image recorded during orbits 3253 and 1216 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express. Image is based on data gathered over the Cydonia region, with a ground resolution of approximately 13.7 meters per pixel. Cydonia lies at approximately 40.75° North and 350.54° East. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum), MOC (Malin Space Science Systems)   The Face on Earth, Peru Satellite image from Google Earth. Eye Altitude 11 miles.

The Face on Earth (See on Google Maps ) is some: 456 miles southeast of Lima 240 miles southeast of Nazca Lines 30 miles west of Arequipa 54 miles southwest of Colca Canyon 228 miles south of Machu Picchu and 195 miles south of Cuzco.

http://agutie.homestead.com/files/IncaQuiz_1.htm

Currently listening : Ancient Nazca: Inca Mysteries By Medwyn Goodall Release date: 07 July, 1998

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