Peru’s Disappearing Holy Glacier

Dec. 8, 2009, MSNBC / NBC Nightly News (photo story link)

text by BARBARA DRAKE, photos by JORGE VERA

Ukuku guards Qolqepunku Glacier, June 2008

Pre-Columbian rituals to the mountain gods

Pilgrams have made the dangerous journey to the high Andes of southern Peru for hundreds of years to pay tribute to the apus, or mountain spirits. Since before the Incas, Andean people have worshipped the Qolqepunku Glacier, 50 miles east of Cusco, as a site of sacred ice.

Sacred healing ice

The sacred ice is said to have medicinal and spiritual powers. “The local people use the ice to make healing drinks and to call forth rain for their crops,” explained Peru’s renowned Andean scholar Jorge Flores Ochoa.

Blessings for animals

Dances at Qoyllur Rit’i are tied to ancient agricultural and pastoral rituals that date to the Incas and other pre-Columbian cultures. Above, a masked celebrant dressed as a sheep climbs to the glacier to play in the snow and ice.

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Tagged: climate change, glaciers, Peruvian traditions