The Living Inca Heritage

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The Living Inca Heritage by Peter Cloudsley

The Living Inca Heritage by Peter Cloudsley: Published in Geographical Magazine. 

INCA and pre-Inca cultures are generally assigned to the realms of history,incarnate only in Machu Picchu and other famous sites. Yet the Peruvian Indians have doggedly preserved some of the ritual beliefs of their ancestors through fiestas, in spite of attempts to suppress them by colonial and religious authorities.

Peter Cloudsley is carrying out research for the Museum of Mankind on Andean musical traditions in southern Peru and the expedition on which this article is based was funded in part by the Emslie Horniman Anthroplogical Scholarship Fund and the Rivendell Trust.

Peter Cloudsley is a musicologist and writer who, since 1980, has created an archive of traditional music and interviews in Peru and collected for the British Museum. He published A Survey of Music in Peru in 1993, and two CDs: Fiesta Music from Peru (2000) and Shamans of Peru (2002). He established the Amazon Retreat Centre in Mishana in 2004.Co-Author of The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo (2011) published by Inner Traditions.

The History of Coca – The Divine Plant of the Incas

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This magnificent book by W. Golden Mortimer, published in 1901 and long out of print, has been digitized by Microsoft for the  University of California and now available in the Open Internet Archive. The book contains nearly 200 hundred illustrations.

Mama Coca presenting the 'Divine Plant' to the Old World

Shamans of Peru CD – Review in Sacred Hoop Magazine

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Sacred Hoop Magazine - Review of the Shamans of Peru CD

 

Sacred Hoop Magazine – Review of the Shamans of Peru: Sacred Chants, Icaros, and Ceremonial Music CD. Reviewed in Issue 36, Spring 2002

 

Machu Picchu – World Heritage Site

Machu Picchu, a set on Flickr.

Machu Picchu -World Heritage Site

Machu Picchu stands 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, in an extraordinarily beautiful setting. It was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height; its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna. World Heritage sites studies have been the topic of many online classes through the years.

UNESCO.ORG

Coca Myths – a research paper by the Transnational Institute

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A  very well researched and informative study from the Transnational Institute about the Coca (erythroxylum) plant.

Coca leaf divination with Doris Rivera Lenz (Cuzco)

Mama Coca presenting the 'Divine Plant' to the Old World

Coca Leaves

The Huitoto people use coca as part of the social and ceremonial traditions. Here is Mariano the shaman with a coca bush.

Ofrenda Ceremony in the Andes, Curandera Doris Rivera Lenz with coca leaves.

Lifting the ban on coca chewing – Bolivia’s proposal

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As documented by the Transnational Institute:

The 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – recently endorsed by the United States in December 2010 – states that “indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.”

The decision to ban coca chewing fifty years ago was based on a 1950 report elaborated by the UN Commission of Inquiry on the
Coca Leaf with a mandate from ECOSOC, after a brief visit to Peru and Bolivia. The head of the Commission, Howard B. Fonda, gave an interview in Lima in September 1949, before beginning his work:

“We believe that the daily, inveterate use of coca leaves by chewing … not only is thoroughly noxious and therefore detrimental,
but also is the cause of racial degeneration in many centers of population, and of the decadence that visibly shows in numerous Indians – and even in some mestizos – in certain zones of Peru and Bolivia. Our studies will confirm the certainty of our assertions and we hope we can present a rational plan of action … to attain the absolute and sure abolition of this pernicious habit.”

To misquote Frank Zappa ..Imperialism is not dead it just smells funny.

Mama Coca presenting the 'Divine Plant' to the Old World

The Huitoto people use coca as part of the social and ceremonial traditions. Here is Mariano the shaman with a coca bush.

Ofrenda Ceremony in the Andes, Curandera Doris Rivera Lenz with coca leaves.

Shamans of Peru – Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, and Music CD

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Shamans of Peru, Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, & Music

The haunting, plaintive music of Peruvian shamans was recorded at ceremonies in the Peruvian Andes and the Amazon rainforest.

The chants and icaros have an organic relationship to the medicine plants, and are primarily intended as devotional music for a ceremony. It is equally possible to listen to the hypnotically beautiful sounds in their own right and simply enjoy them for their otherworldly beauty.

The CD contains chants and dramatic effects of six different ceremonies with shamans. . Two ceremonies with San Pedro maestros working in the atmospheric ruins of Puruchucu; two ayahuasca shamans, a man and a woman, in separate sessions working in a jungle temple on the River Momon, outside Iquitos; a Shipibo shaman working in Yarinacocha, outside Pucullpa; and lastly, a despacho in the ruins of Pisaq, Cusco. In addition there are three tracks of atmospheric music played on pre‐Colombian instruments.

PURCHASE THE SHAMANS OF PERU CD

Download from the Web US $9.99

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shamansofperu

To order the physical CD:

£12 inclusive of postage for UK

US$ 21 inclusive of Postage USA

15 Euro inclusive of Postage Europe

Order from Howard G. Charing

Order via email: shamanism@yahoo.com

Payment via UK Cheque or Paypal (accepts all Credit Cards).

Ayahuasca Shaman, and Mystic – Alonso del Rio

Ayahuasca shaman and Mystic - Alonso del Rio

Alonso del Rio is a powerful maestro who interweaves Shipibo and other icaros with sacred music of his own to lead you on your journey; he is both a talented musician and an inspiring communicator of the Amazonian shamanic world. He first came into contact with ayahuasca in 1979 after spending three years working with huachuma (San Pedro). This was when he met Don Benito Arevalo (the father of Guillermo Arevalo), a grand Shipibo shaman with whom he developed a long relationship, and who gave him his first teachings in ayahuasca and other medicinal plants.

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The Cactus of Vision – San Pedro

Interview with San Pedro (Huachuma) Shaman - Juan Navarro

The use of San Pedro cactus and healing altars in the shamanic tradition of Northern Peru.

Shamans from different cultures and traditions have been using psychoactive plants since the dawn of human emergence. These plants have been used traditionally for guidance divination, healing, maintaining a balance with the spirit or consciousness of the living world.

HOWARD G. CHARING & PETER CLOUDSLEY, talk with Maestro JUAN NAVARRO.

Article first published, in Sacred Hoop Magazine, Summer 2004.

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Shamans of Peru – CD

Shamans of Peru CD, Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, and Music

THE SHAMANS OF PERU CD

Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, and Music

Shamans of Peru – Recorded on Eagle’s Wing Journeys to Peru

Contains chants and dramatic effects of six different ceremonies with shamans who have worked with Eagle’s Wing Groups. Two ceremonies with San Pedro maestros working in the atmospheric ruins of Puruchucu; two ayahuasca shamans, a man and a woman, in separate sessions working in a jungle temple on the River Momon, outside Iquitos; a Shipibo shaman working in Yarinacocha, outside Pucullpa; and lastly, a despacho in the ruins of Pisaq, Cusco. In addition there are three tracks of atmospheric music played on pre-Colombian instruments.

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