From Ice to Icon: El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i as symbol of native Andean Catholic worship.¹

Adrian Locke

Adrian Locke is a third year PhD student working on the significance of religious images in colonial Peru. He is a member of the teaching staff on the Latin American Studies undergraduate programme at the University of Essex.

In recent years much has been made of the Virgin of Guadalupe of Tepeyac in the Valley of Mexico. In particular discussion has centred on the appearance of the Virgin to the Indian Juan Diego who mediates between the saint and the colonial Catholic hierarchy, namely Juan de Zumárraga, Bishop of Mexico. The image assumed a distinct Mexican identity separate from that of her namesake in Extremadura, and one which has been seen as supporting Creole aspirations in Mexico, whilst maintaining the religiosity of a pre-Columbian sacred site. What is clear is that the Virgin of Guadalupe has no single function but rather represents distinct social groups, serving each community with distinction. Ultimately this example amply demonstrates the multi-faceted nature of Christian images in colonial Spanish America.

In Peru there is a Catholic shrine which plays a similar role to that of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In the Sinakara Valley, some 60 kilometres east of Cusco, is located the sanctuary of El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i, the pre-eminent Indian pilgrimage of the region attracting over 20,000 pilgrims to its annual feast day (Sallnow, 1987: 207). The name translates from the Quechua as 'Lord of the Snow Star'. The image of Christ crucified is painted on a rock, which is now encased behind glass, and contained within the modern sanctuary building. The upsurge in the popularity of this shrine dates from the restoration of the image in 1935, an event seen as miraculous in itself since it took less than one day to complete, following a financial donation from a local cloth merchant (Gow, 1976: 217). In 1944 the image was blessed by the archbishop of Cusco, making it one of the first pilgrimage centres to be consecrated by the prelate following the elevation of Cusco to the status of archdiocese in 1943 (Sallnow, 1987: 214). Another significant factor was road improvements made in 1938 (ibid.). In the 1975 pilgrimage, for example, the community of Sonqo (Paucartambo province) made part of the journey by truck as opposed to undertaking the arduous seven-day trek as was previously the case (Allen, 1988: 195). Today the pilgrimage draws increasing numbers of people, including tourists, from all over Peru demonstrating its growing support which in turn reflects the ability of Qoyllur Rit'i to appeal to disparate social groups. It is not, however, this universal attraction which concerns this article, but rather the manner in which a Catholic image draws its energy and power from the landscape around it, and the communities that live within in it.

The shrine is located at the end of a U-shaped valley under a cluster of glaciers at around 5,000 metres above sea level. Streams of melt water collect to form a small river which joins the River Mapacho at Mawallani, where the buses and trucks disgorge their human cargoes. From here pilgrims begin the three hour up-hill trek through a dry, treeless environment under the shadow of Mount Ausunkati, a regional apu [sacred landscape feature] and scene of Inca capac hucha rituals involving human sacrifice (McEwan et al, 1992: 362). Although the eight kilometre walk is an arduous one in itself pilgrims place stones, hucha [load of sin], in their packs at Mawallani which are left at Sinakara (Allen, 1988: 195). Occasionally plumes of smoke mark the temporary eating houses erected en route where cuy [guinea-pig] and other delicacies are served. A number of crosses mark the ascent and here the various community representatives stop to play ritual notes [alawari], and seek blessing before continuing.

Qoyllur Rit'i has its origins in a myth, which was officially recorded by a Ccatca priest from unclear sources, earlier this century. Here follows a combined version drawn from those recorded by David Gow in his doctoral thesis 'The Gods and Social Change in the High Andes' (1976) and Michael J. Sallnow in Pilgrims of the Andes (1987).
Mariano Mayta, son of a shepherd who lived near the settlement of Mawallani, used to pasture the flock of sheep and llama along with his older brother, on Mount Sinakara. One day the brother mistreated Mariano forcing him to flee upwards towards the snow-line where he met a mestizo boy, reputed to be fair and handsome. They became friends. The boy with no name comforted Mariano and shared his bread with him, which meant Mariano had no reason to return home. Thus the two boys stayed together passing the days in play.

One day they were spotted by a friend of the father who returned to report what he had seen. The father, hearing that the two children were playing, suspected that his flock was being neglected became anxious, and went up to Sinakara to investigate. To his surprise he saw that the flock had increased in number. He was, however, keen to discover who this mysterious boy was and where he came from. On meeting Mariano he asked his son to find out who this boy was, promising him new clothes to reward him for the condition of the livestock. Thus when they next met Mariano asked the boy his name. He replied that his name was Manuel and that he came from Tayankani, a nearby community. Mariano noticed that his friend always wore the same clothes which they never seemed to wear out, inquiring as to why this was. As a result the next time they met Manuel appeared with his clothes in rags. Mariano resolved to help his friend, taking a fragment of his clothes with him when he went to Cusco to get his new clothes.

The tailors in Cusco were unable to match the quality of the cloth of Manuel's clothes, which were made of the finest canonical cloth, and reported this fact to the bishop. The bishop suspecting sacrilege instructed the curate of Ocongate, the largest local town, to investigate this strange occurrence. The curate accompanied Mariano on his return to Sinakara with a church steward on June 12, 1783, questioning him on the way. Mariano saw Manuel and went off to meet him, but the two church officials were unable to move as they were blinded by a great light that appeared to emanate from Manuel's body. They suspected that Manuel had used a mirror to reflect the rays of the sun and returned to Ocongate determined to solve this apparent mystery.

A larger group was organised, including the local Spanish tribute collector, other neighbours, and the local cacique. As they approached Sinakara they were once more dazzled by a great light but were determined to catch Manuel, closing in on him from two directions. The priest pounced and thought he had caught the boy, but when the light subsided he was left holding a tayanka [Baccharis odorata] bush. The priest, thinking that Manuel had climbed the tree in order to escape, looked up only to see the body of Christ dying in agony, suspended in its branches. On witnessing this event the party fell to its knees. Mariano believing his friend to be suffering called out for mercy. Yet when they recovered their senses the group saw only the tayanka tree in the shape of a cross, and the body of Mariano who had died, they say, of a broken heart.
According to Gow (1976: 216) there were two groups that set out on the same day; one from Ccatca (province of Paucartambo), and the other Ocongate (province of Quispicanchis). The delegation from Ccatca arrived first and when the priest grabbed Manuel he discovered that he was holding a crucifix made from a tayanka tree. Mariano was buried there beneath the rock where Manuel had appeared for the last time, in a manner Sallnow (1987: 210) links to the burial of those who fall in tinkuy [ritual battles].

Carlos III, King of Spain, is said to have heard of this miraculous appearance of Christ and requested the crucifix. A replica was made to replace the original, and became known as El Señor de Tayankani, after Manuel's place of origin. This crucifix is to be found on the side altar of the church in Ocongate. However, local Indians continued to light candles in front of the rock under which Mariano was buried. A crucifix was then painted onto the rock by the religious authorities to avoid the possibilities of superstitious error. This shrine became known as El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i (Sallnow, 1987: 209). Consequently there are two images with their origins in the same miraculous event, and which both participate in the annual celebrations that climax on the Sunday and Monday before Corpus Christi. These images are to all intents and purposes the same although they have distinct names and identities.

Gow (1976: 214) notes there are two legends of Qoyllur Rit'i which follow the same basic facts; the first is an 'official' written version favoured by mestizos, and the second, an oral version preferred by runakuna [upland people]. This contention is shared by Sallnow (1987: 210-11) who cites a variety of local, oral testimonies to support this very point. This immediately demonstrates the appeal that Qoyllur Rit'i has to distinct ethnic groups, each of whom attempts to appropriate the image through claiming ownership of the definitive origin of the image. This division is widened by each group maintaining a preference for one of the two images. The runakuna prefer the religious qualities of the rock, El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i, and the mestizos those of the wooden crucifix, El Señor de Tayankani (Gow, 1976: 226).² In an interesting development the association responsible for the promotion, organisation, and well-being of the pilgrimage – the Asociación del Señor de Tayankani, formed in 1948 - changed its name in 1960 to La Hermandad del Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i (Sallnow, 1991: 285-86). Thus the brotherhood formally changed its name from that of the mestizo-favoured image, to that of the Indian-favoured image possibly reflecting a change in the socio-political climate of the period.

Gow's division of the search parties into separate groups originating from the two provinces of Paucartambo and Quispicanchis which then converge at Sinakara further demonstrates the dualistic nature of the pilgrimage. Likewise the two versions of the history reflect the basic division between the dance troupes and musicians which represent their own communities (and moieties) at the sanctuary. In simplistic terms these groups are ethnically divided between mestizo, personified by the qollas, and less significantly the machulas, and the lowland Indian of the selva (dwellers of the tropical rainforest) characterised by the wayri ch'uncho and ch'uncho extranjero. The sense of competition is inherent in the proceedings as each troupe consciously tries to out-dance or out-play the other in terms of duration, loudness, and quality of costume. Consequently the valley resounds to the continuous sound of music.

Significantly the original miraculous event has another especially significant dimension since it coincides with the end of the uprising of Tupac Amaru II, a tumultuous event which began in 1780 and had ended by early 1782. Although the events associated with Qoyllur Rit'i took place the following year both Paucartambo and Ocongate were rebel strongholds. According to Gow (1976: 245) the miracle served to reinforce the peasant's faith in themselves and their own gods which explains the creation of a lithic shrine, whilst Sallnow (1987: 213-24) believes the priest sought a spiritual lubricant for a troubled flock, although he does acknowledge that the subsequent course of events would have satisfied the religious demands of the Indian population.

The establishment of a stone object as a focus of worship is reminiscent of pre-Hispanic forms of worship as noted in native Andean and Spanish chronicles of the early conquest period such as Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, and José de Arriaga, and contemporary anthropological research. It seems clear that the religious authorities would have been anxious to suppress such open acts of veneration towards pagan sites. This is highlighted by their decision to paint a crucifix on the boulder where Indians gathered to light candles. Here the object of worship, a boulder, is decorated with a Christian icon in order to place a semblance of Catholic orthodoxy to the actions which were taking place at this location and which the religious authorities appear to have been unable to control. This unauthorised veneration also serves to explain the need for a conventional Christian image, hence El Señor de Tayankani. This crucifix, iconographically identical to El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i, could then be transported away from the pagan shrine and placed within the appropriate consecrated space in the heart of the community, that is the church at Ocongate. In other words the centre of worship was removed from the landscape and placed inside the church, a controlled and contained environment. This suggests that there were two separate motives behind the miracle. The first highlights the need to prevent pagan worship, accounting the transference of worship from a boulder (landscape) to a crucifix (church), and incorporates Christianisation of the boulder. The second allowed for the Indian population to justify the continuing worship of a pre-Hispanic shrine through the working of a common miracle legend.

The miraculous events in question occurred on the eve of the most significant religious ceremony in Cusco, Corpus Christi which fell on June 19 of 1783. The celebration of Corpus Christi is the principal religious procession of Cusco and involves the civic authorities in a grand parade of all the saints of the diocese (Sallnow, 1987: 56). The establishment of the Qoyllur Rit'i pilgrimage, an event now firmly anchored in the regional religious calendar, appears to consciously compete with that of Cusco. In one the runakuna demonstrate the continuity and depth of strength of pre-Hispanic religion albeit dressed in Christian clothes, whilst in the other the regional capital celebrates its principal Christian images. Thus the local dichotomy of runakuna versus mestizo also has a regional significance.

Without entering into the details of the pilgrimage³ the act of planting a cross on top of the glacier is a central part of the celebrations. Until recently ukukus [individuals dressed as bears] divided into the moieties of Paucartambo and Quispicanchis, would participate in a tinkuy for the honour of bringing down this crucifix. This ritual has now been replaced with a practice in which each group, now expanded to accommodate a group from Canchis, collects its own cross. This specific event reveals the different agendas of both groups of religious worshippers. In an act reminiscent of those carried out by the extirpator of idolatry José de Arriaga in the seventeenth-century a cross is placed on the glacier, a sacred site, in a ceremony which deprives the site of its pagan significance imbuing it with Christian power. However, these crosses are then removed, and carried back down to the sanctuary, thus symbolically removing the symbol of Christian authority from the glacier, returning the site to its natural non-Christian state. The crosses, filled with the power of the apu, enter the sanctuary where all the visiting taytachas [iconographic copies of Qoyllur Rit'i] have been assembled near the image of El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i (Allen, 1988: 199). This cluster of images are placed circuitously around the original for a specific purpose. They have been brought from their respective communities by representatives in order to charge their spiritual batteries from the energy which emanates from the boulder on which is painted El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i, in a process which Sallnow (1974: 127) likens to a car battery being recharged. In this way Qoyllur Rit'i is filled with the sacred power of the glacier via the crosses, which is then dissipated to all the community taytachas, represents the medium between both worlds; the sacred and the profane. This gathering also serves as a family reunion, allowing all the images to communicate with one another, and prepare for the return journey during which the images acts as guide and protector leading its community delegation through the landscape (Allen, 1988: 202).

To this end the pilgrimage can be seen as a process of revitalisation and renewal (Allen, 1988: 199). The spiritual power behind all of these taytachas comes directly from the landscape, further cementing the unequivocal role pre-Hispanic religion plays in this pilgrimage. The taytachas return to their respective churches heavy with the power of the landscape, which dissipates gradually over time. Thus a solution has been found in which the power of the landscape, the permanent immovable environment which shapes the world of the runakuna, can be made portable and brought into the heart of the Christian realm of each community - it's church or chapel.
The pilgrimage of El Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i is a complex, and multi-layered event that, as has been noted, serves the needs of two distinct communities both locally and regionally. This paper has drawn attention to one aspect of this of this remarkable celebration, namely the transference of power from a sacred landscape feature to a Christian icon, and from there to a host of other community-based crucifixes. During the festivities the wooden mestizo image, El Señor de Tayankani, is adorned with the feather head-dress of the wayri ch'uncho dancers in an act of Indian appropriation (Sallnow, 1991: 291). This is the only point in the year that both images come together. Here, it would appear that they both fleetingly share their common identity, locked in the same origin myth but separated by a wide gulf of religious belief and worship. It is this juncture which demonstrates the complexities which accompanied the imposition of the new religious belief of Catholicism on native Andeans, and the manner in which they adapted this new faith to incorporate their traditional veneration of the landscape at a time of extreme political pressure.

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Endnotes

1 This paper is an edited version of that originally presented at the inauguration of ARARA, in the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex, January 28, 1999. I would like to thank The Humanities Research Board of the British Academy for funding my doctoral research, including a research trip to Peru in 1998, and also the Research Endowment Fund of the University of Essex for financial assistance.

2 It should be noted, as Sallnow (1987: 210) observed, that the valley of Sinakara is situated high above the tree line, confounding the idea of a tayanka tree being found there, although naturally this might represent a miraculous aspect of the story itself.

3 Detailed accounts of the pilgrimage can be found in a number of publications: Ramirez (1969); Sallnow (1974, 1987); Gow (1974, 1976); Randall (1982); Allen (1988); and Poole (1988).

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