As the sun goes down in Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, the sound of native instruments starts up. It’s the evening of the 20th of June and with the first rays of sun tomorrow, the Ayamara people who live in this region will celebrate Machaq Mara, which means the return of the sun. Likewise, in other parts of the country and across the South American continent, Quechua people will celebrate Inti Raymi, which means the party of the sun. To westerners, it’s known as the winter solstice. Yet, there is a lot of cultural history that separates Machaq Mara and Inti Raymi from simple definitions of this celebration.
Tiahuanaco is a country town located outside the bustling city of La Paz in the Bolivian high plateau at 3885 metres/12,746 feet above sea level. It’s found in the south of the Lake Titicaca Basin, the highest big lake in the world that stretches between Peru and Bolivia in a region packed with spiritual significance. Tiahuanaco is home to an ancient archaeological site, the ruins of the political and spiritual centre of a mysterious culture. It is here that the archaeological structures not only show a precise knowledge of astronomy and astrology to those who can read them, but contain ancient wisdom that speaks of a shared world view among other ancient regional cultures.
To understand Tiahuanaco’s place in history and its influence today, I speak to anthropologist Dr. José Illescas. He explains that to do this, it’s important to understand the mixing of cultures in the South American region over time before it was divided into the separate countries we know today. At its peak, it was known as Tahuantinsuyo. This was the name of the Incan Empire, but can also be read as a grand confederation of indigenous nations, the collection of all the cultures that had come before.
“These cultures as a whole, be they from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, all were cultures that had a feeling of living in unity with the totality of nature to develop societies of unity and cultures of abundance - or vice-versa - as a model of civilization,” said Illescas. “A model that can return at this time of the global crisis of current civilization…. This is the impact of Tiahuanaco in its moment, that extends to the present because all cultures do not die, in any case they leave their influence, they leave their mark on the present. Not only in what they have done materially, but also in their genes.”
Dr. Illescas says the Tiahuanaco culture started about 1500 years before Christ, and lost its influence almost 1800 years AD. Its original name was Taypikala, which translates to “central, fundamental stone.”
“The importance of Tiahuanaco was due to the distance and domination that the Tiahuanaco centre and leadership reached over spaces in the Altiplano (Andean plateau mostly located in Bolivia, but also extending into Peru, Chile and Argentina),” said Illescas. “Not only in the Altiplano, but they also reached the western side, which is the current north of Chile and the south of Peru. In addition, they reached Cochabamba and the Chapare with their influence. So their influence - it would be like if I went to the Mecca of New York wanting to live the North American dream. So, they forced, preached or made the temptation that it was necessary to go to the centre of the city of Tiahuanaco to receive the winter solstice.”
Tiahuanaco, as it is known today, is an important “wak’a.” Illapa Kallisaya is a political scientist and professor at the Public University of El Alto, Bolivia. Kallisaya is from the Umasuyu Nation that recognizes Tiahuanaco as the Sacred Ancestral City. He explains that “wak’a” refers to any sacred entity. They are diverse and distinct, and can be a mountain or a rock, a river or a well, for example. Even your own home can be a ‘wak’a,’ or they can be things you can move and take with you.
“Firstly, Tiahuanaco is a wak’a because it is located in a sacred place. But at the same time, this place is a space which receives a lot of energy from the stars,” said Kallisaya. “So, as this space receives a lot of energy and there are buildings there, that is why it has been constituted as a central wak’a. Not only for the indigneous people of this place, but also for the indigenous people who today live in Peru as well as parts of Ecuador. In other words, Tiahuanaco is an important part, but there are other important wak’as as well.”
Kallisaya says that these were sites the Spanish tried to destroy by replacing them with their own religious icons as they sought to evangelize the Americas after arriving at the end of the 15th century.
“There were many ways to root out this idolatry, as they said. One way was to build churches on top of them. The San Francisco church in La Paz, the Laja church, the church in Copacabana,” said Kallisaya. “All these churches are built on top of waka’s. On top of the hills they put crosses. There were some priests who made virgins or saints from clay or stucco. So, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, they would leave these virgins and saints in very important wak’as. And when people attended this wak’a, then they would find a virgin. Then they said, "Look, a virgin has appeared here in this wak’a!" So they would change the name of that place for the name of a virgin or a saint. These were the strategies that the West used to eradicate the beliefs, the waka’s and the religions of the Indigenous nations.”
Both Dr. Illescas and Kallisaya explain that the Spanish also tried to hide indigenous religious dates and spiritual celebrations with their own. For example, the Spanish attempted to erase Machaq Mara and Inti Raymi with the Christian celebration of San Juan. Then, after the Spanish were kicked out, came the religious oppression of the Bolivian Republic. Due to this mixing of cultures, Dr. Illescas says this probably explains why today more locals and tourists flock to Tiahuanaco than the summer solstice and two equinoxes, which are also very important dates in pre-Colombian cultures that orientated themselves by the seasons. Yet, the evangelists’ attempts to erase these cultures failed. Kallisaya says this was because indigenous cultures knew how to maintain their own culture. Sometimes, this included doing so within the same western religions that oppressed them. Finally, in more recent times indigenous cultures like the Aymara and Quechuas have slowly been able to retake and make visible these cultural traditions without fear of persecution in Bolivia.
“That’s why it’s true that on June 21 the Inti Raymi, or the Machaq Mara, is remembered, as a cultural act, as an act of celebration, as a ritual act, but deep down it is a subversive act against Western culture,” said Kallisaya.
Back to the present, and the sun is dying in Tiwanaku, making way for a long, cold night. But this death is not final as in the western perception. It will be reborn again in the morning.
It is now 6am on the 21st of June. Wise men called “amautas” and community members enter the ruins along with authorities and the press. The fact that this date is a nationally recognized holiday is not something that has come easily and some try to clamber in after the entourage of the Bolivian President and Vice-President, but are denied access due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year, they have to receive the sun’s first rays outside with others who have made the pilgrimage.
Inside the ruins, offerings are placed on top of a large bonfire which is lit while speeches are made in Aymara and Spanish. Among them is Don Lucas Choque, the founder of the Council of Amuatas of Tiwanaku.
“He explains that there are several elements in the offerings, in sweets and their meanings. Likewise, they have the llama. Hey says the llama is the transporter of the message carried to their celestial father, their Father Sun,” said Choque.
As the sun is reborn, people raise their hands to receive its energy in every part of their body, which is particularly important as Bolivia wearily navigates its third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They continue to go to this place because the current Aymara still feels in their heart that they belong to some root, to their historical root. And whatever happens, they go back to their roots. And if they come back on the winter solstice, let it be right on time. It is simply a return to their roots. And you can't demonize that,” said Dr. José Illescas.
After the ceremony, the morning sun illuminates the ruins beautifully. The Bolivian altiplano is one of those places that changes its mood several times in a day based on the position of the sun and the weather. This morning, the light from the sun is crisp and softer than it will be later in the day when it beats down on this elevated part of the world. It feels good after the long, cold night. People are laughing from behind their facemasks and there is a lightness about the mood.
“Spirituality doesn’t discriminate against anyone. Rather, it hugs everyone. We are not idealists who make others believe our ideas, but rather, we say “pacha.” (“Pacha'' is a term in Ayamara and Quecha that means cosmos, universe, time, space and earth.) That is what we transmit,” said Choque.
Finally, Don Lucas has a message for some friends in the United States:
“I also want to greet all the brothers, the Hopis, Navajos and other brothers in the United States. Because in 2010 I shared a great meeting of Condor and Eagle with them in the Grand Canyon,” said Choque. “From here in Tiahuanaco, greetings to my brother Adam Halover, the Yellow Bird. Brother Yellow Bird has also been here in Tiahuanaco, which is why I want to greet him. He is also carrying spirituality and culture. All over the Planet Earth we have our culture, we have our indigenous wise men brothers.”