The totem of the Tambo, a symbol of culture Ashaninka

October 14, 2009

Yuri Leveratto

Tambo During my first trip to Peru I climbed up the Amazon to Iquitos. From the Amazonian city, capital of the department of Loreto, I continued going up the Ucayali navigation, the main arm of the Amazon, in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon. After meeting a number of Native communities, such as the Shipibo of Contamana, I did stop a few days Puccalpa, connected cities in Lima with a paved road.
So, after I rested a few days, I decided to continue the journey and I embarked on a bike-barge with which I came, after another day of sailing, to the Atalaya Tambo.
This town, located about 5800 km from the estuary, is situated at the confluence of the Rio Urubamba (the river that flows near Machu Picchu), the Rio Tambo, as it is called the Amazon River in this area of the Peruvian jungle.
For Atalaya came into contact with groups of indigenous Ashaninka, and I tried to get close to their traditions and their culture based on respect for nature and animals.
With some of them have traveled to the native community of Buenos Aires, and I could attend a special ceremony: a boy is offered a thick coffee-colored liquid, obtained by mixing the bark of ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi or yaje), with leaves chacruna (Psychotria viridis).
In the minutes that followed, the young native seemed to have altered consciousness, which were interpreted by shamans as signs of destiny.
According to popular belief, the initiate, who also is subject to spasms and vomiting, is purified and ready to accept the secrets of their ancestral culture. The name ayahuasca (Quechua in aya, spirit and Huasca, rope), means a rope that allows the soul to leave the body, without which it dies.
During the next day, I explored the area surrounding forest and, after about three hours of walking in the dense tropical forest, I arrived in a magical place, where there is a totem pole carved in the rock, which I named Totem of Tambo .
The boulder, about five feet long, has a petroglyph in its front section, which depicts the face of an ape or anthropomorphic being. Probably this masterful carving was worshiped by the indigenous peoples, ancestors of the Ashaninka. In the back of the rock you can see more petroglyphs, this time zoomorphic (fish).
In an area not far from the Totem of Tambo, there are other rocks where ancient inhabitants have had strange signs and symbols in ancient times. In particular, we noticed some carvings depicting the sun and this proves that the cult of our star, regarded as a divine being, must risalirsi Amazonian peoples.
The fact Ashaninka, who speak a dialect of the Arawak stock, as well as the Wayuu of Colombia or the Madre de Dios Matsiguengas, are the descendants of peoples who are self-denominavano Lukkunu which arise from the north of the Amazon, probably the current department Brazilian Roraima.
The Arawak colonized vast territories, probably for the forest products trade with others for them unpublished, of the Sierra. One of their migration was the one that brought him some groups of Arawak to reach the high Andes (still tribes of indigenous Arawak speakers living in floating islands in Lake Titicaca are the Uros).

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Currently Ashaninka are the most numerous indigenous people of Peru (50,000 people). And 'demonstrated that this people attuasse forms of trade with the Andean peoples since ancient times, in fact, have been found bronze axes (similar to those used in pre-Incan times in the Sierra), and various musical instruments, flutes and called antara quena .
The first Western s'inoltrarono in forests adjacent to rivers Ucayali, Tambo, Ene and Urubamba, were the Franciscans, who, in 1635, settled a few outposts, thereby controlling the territory and evangelize the natives. The expansion of the Franciscans was partially interrupted by the revolt of 1742 led dall'indigeno Juan Santos Atahualpa, who managed to bring together groups of Ashaninka, Yanesha and Shipibo, managing to fend off foreign invaders.
From the second half of the nineteenth century took up the slow advance of "civilization", led by Peruvian settlers who had the goal of gaining possession of the lands above the Amazon to take advantage of rubber, rubber coveted worldwide.
Nowadays Ashaninka gathered in twelve autonomous federations which refer to headquarters, located in Satipo in the department of Junin. Unfortunately, their very survival is seriously threatened. The Ashaninka are added to the peoples of the world poised between a past of oppression and blood and an uncertain future, which could be full of ominous clouds.
Traveling in the Peruvian Amazon, one realizes that the future of the Ashaninka, as all the Amazonian peoples, unfortunately, is decided in the offices of powerful companies that control the energy and mineral resources, often located in the northern hemisphere. It is hoped that in future the lands of the Ashaninka are met and that policies are implemented to ensure education and respect for native traditions.