Incan Energies and Spirituality - A Life Changing Experience
By Katherine Petrasek ’18
The 2018 LCS Incan Energies and Spirituality trip to Peru (March 8 – 18, 2018) was a life changing experience for the thirteen students and two teachers who went on this trip. It allowed us to be submerged in the history of this great nation and to develop a greater sense of spiritual well-being.
We spent the first night in Lima, the capital city of Peru colonized by Francisco Pizarro. Over the next few days, we moved deeper into the territory of the Incas. We could not help but think about the incredible ability to adapt to difficult circumstances that the Incas were exposed to. They were able to conquer the rugged terrain of the Andes through a system of road networks using chasqui or runners to pass on information. They built rope bridges that spanned the giant gorges between mountains. Every year these rope bridges were inspected and anyone that tampered with them faced death.
As we marvelled at our surroundings we stopped to stay for the night in the town of Pisac, which is located very close to Incan ruins. These ruins included dozens of terraces, a temple, water fountains, altars, baths, a hitching post of the Sun and a ceremonial platform. The terraces are still in use today, and helped the Inca cultivate hundreds of varieties of potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, squash, grains and dozens of other vegetables and starches including avocados.
After leaving Pisac, we then moved on to Eco Finca, a Yoga retreat centre where we would spend two days getting in touch with nature, performing yoga and developing a greater sense of spiritual wellness. We could hear the sounds of the Urumbamba River rushing below us and could see the beautiful mountains surrounding us. At the yoga retreat centre, we experienced sound therapy, which consisted of an individual using traditional instruments in order to help us achieve a meditative state. We participated in introductory yoga classes as well performed community service for the small yoga retreat centre. We also had an opportunity to eat an all vegan cuisine which was both tasty and healthy for us.
After our weekend spent at the yoga retreat centre, we journeyed to a small Indigenous community, Huilloc Alto, near the Sacred Valley. In Huilloc Alto, we would be staying with host families for a few days. We had to keep an open mind and try to understand a different culture from a different point of view. We kept this open mindset as we entered into the village. The people of this Quechuan village were very kind and performed a small welcome ceremony for us. They were dressed in brightly coloured clothing, the men wearing ponchos with hats and pants, the women wearing skirts and shawls. The Quechua people are very humble, something they got from their ancestors, the Incas. They are honest and hardworking. They follow an ancient code that originated more than 500 years ago and was allegedly created by the Inca emperor Pachacuti. This code is as follows:
Ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella.
Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t be lazy
This moral code was fastidiously upheld by the father of one of the host family’s houses. He was the village president and owned a shop in his house. He also cooked us all of our meals, made our beds for us, provided us with warm alpaca blankets. On the second day of our visit, we helped to hand-till the fields of the Quechuan people, viewed a Pachamama Pago Earth Mother Ceremony, and were able to buy things that the women of the village had created in a makeshift market. The Pachamama ceremony was most interesting as it invoked parts of the Inca religion including the power of the nature around us (most notably the Orco, or mountains) and the power of the coca leaf. The coca leaf was used by the Incas in medicine (natural pain killer), spirituality and oddly enough in human sacrifice (in previous years). Following our stay in the guest house in the Sacred Valley, we then headed to a town called Ollantaytambo via train and had lunch in the market. The ruins of Ollantaytambo were clearly visible above the market.
Ollantaytambo has an interesting history of Inca settlement. According to legend, it was built by a warrior named Ollantay who was unable to marry the girl he loved because of his rank. The girl he loved was the daughter of Pachacuti, and she was not allowed to marry a lowly general who worked his way up the political ladder. He held out at a fortress he built until Tupac Yupanqui (Pachacuti’s son) sent a messenger to Ollantaytambo to kill him. After hearing his love for the princess, the messenger felt sorry for him and brought him to Tupac Yupanqui. Tupac Yupanqui realized that the woman the man was in love with was his sister, and went to find her. Eventually Ollantay was reunited with his love and discovered that he had a daughter by her and returned to court life. Ollantaytambo was also the last Inca stronghold in the Sacred Valley against the Spanish during Manco Capac’s rebellion.
After lunch, we again boarded the train to head to Machu Picchu city. Machu Picchu city is very commercial for Peru. It still has the small-town feel, but hundreds of tourists arrive every day to explore the ruins. The next morning we were up at 4:30 a.m. in order to catch the bus to Machu Picchu and beat the other tourists there. It was early morning when we got to the top of the mountain that Machu was located on.
Machu Picchu was built by the Inca emperor Pachacuti between 1450 - 1460 AD. These dates are agreed upon by scholars as the start date of the building. All of the emperors after Pachacuti continued to build on the estate, until the emperor Huayna Capac. After the conquest, it remained abandoned for centuries and was known only to local farmers. Hiram Bingham, was the man who made Machu Picchu famous and brought it to the world stage. Like other early archaeologists, he rebuilt destroyed parts of Machu Picchu and took any artifacts he found back to the United States where he lived and lectured at Yale University. Hiram Bingham came across Machu Picchu accidentally when attempting to follow the path of Simon Bolivar’s army through the Andes. He brought Machu Picchu to the world, but was not the first individual to discover it. Other archaeologists and explorers claimed to discover it before him. Yet Bingham was given all the credit when National Geographic published news of the discovery in their April 1913 issue. Bingham brought most of the artifacts he found at Machu Picchu back to Yale, igniting a custody battle between the university and the Peruvian government.
Machu Picchu was a very spiritual place for the Incas and was built as a resort for the Inca Emperor Pachacuti. When one goes to Machu Picchu, there is an interesting spiritual energy that seems to emanate from the place. When we arrived to the sungate of Machu Picchu, which is up the trail from the actual city, We sat there and took everything in around us, just marveling at the Inca’s ability to create this great city with the geographical difficulties that existed around them. Some of us felt a very strong connection with the past, those who came before us. One could imagine the city as it once was, bustling with the servants of Pachacuti, who still treated his mummy as if he was still alive. We could also imagine the city of Machu Picchu, under Pachacuti’s rule.
Machu Picchu has several notable places which we visited. We began our tour with its agricultural sector. The agricultural sector consisted of storehouses as well as terraces. The storehouses were used for storing everything from food to weapons. In the Andes, some patches of land are more fertile than others. The villages located on these patches of land would be responsible with filling some store houses up with food. The food in the store houses would be given to villages located in areas with infertile soil, so nobody in the Inca empire ever went hungry.
We also visited the Temple of the Sun, the Hitching Post of the Sun (Inti Watana), Pachacuti’s tomb, the astronomical building, where the Inca once viewed eclipses and the Sun Gate. The Temple of the Sun is a circular structure and one of the most important temples for the Inca. Pachacuti made Inti, the Incan sun god one of the most important gods in the Inca belief system. In homage of the god Inti and to reassert his position as the son of this more important god, Pachacuti was buried under the Sun Temple. He was mummified, as the Incas treated their dead as if they were still in the land of the living, maintaining their estates and allowing them to keep their lands. The Inti Watana is the Hitching Post of the Sun and was associated with the astronomical calendar and clock of the Incas. The astronomical complex of Machu Picchu contains two pools cut out of rock, which would reflect celestial events for safe viewing purposes, and no roof. This building was used to view celestial events as they ruled the world of the Incas and the worlds of many other ancient cultures. The individuals who would have worked in the astronomical complex would have either been religious leaders or Amawtakuna, the teachers or wise men who taught the nobility.
At the end of the trip, we spent a day in Cusco and then left to return home. The trip was a great experience for all of us because it allowed us to see through cultural bias and to recognize that individuals who live in different places live differently than we might think. For me, this trip allowed me to get close to the history I had only read about in books. I was able to interact directly with individuals who were the descendants of the Incas and experience Machu Picchu, one of the most spiritual and historical places in the world.
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We respectfully acknowledge that Lakefield College School is located on the Treaty 20 Michi Saagiig territory and in the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations, which include: Curve Lake, Hiawatha, Alderville, Scugog Island, Rama, Beausoleil, and Georgina Island First Nations. Lakefield College School respectfully acknowledges that the Williams Treaties First Nations are the stewards and caretakers of these lands and waters in perpetuity and that they continue to maintain this responsibility to ensure their health and integrity for generations to come.
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