Religion in Cusco

Cusco is unique in so far as the conquering Conquistadors introduced Catholicism but it was modified to incorporate elements of the traditional beliefs. We saw many facets of religion and this is but a few.
We attended a small group meeting with a Shaman or Andean Priest. This was very interesting and we are waiting for the results!

                                                      The Shaman in traditional attire

The Shaman prepared an offering on our behalf incorporating elements for The Mountain and Mother Earth. Mother Earth is on the right. We made wishes on Coca leaves and these were also added. Later it will be burnt.

                                                        Rob passes over his coca leaves

                                                         Gail farewells the Andean Priest

Later we drove to the cemetery to look at how people in Cusco bury their dead.

A variety of methods are used but at this cemetery they used above ground niches to hold the coffin.

Details of the niche. We took along polish to clean a niche, flowers and a tiny bottle of beer.

                               The Llama is a sacred animal of the Inca. This one was not!

Our next stop was the Inca Temple of the Sun, the holiest of the Inca temples. Not much of it remains as like almost all temples Churches were built over them.

 The courtyard of the Temple of the Sun. We think it is a Condor.

 The temples were also used for astronomy and this is the Incan Milky Way. They had their own animals and the Southern Cross can be seen in the neck of the llama and above his head

                                                  Robert sighting along a series of windows.

Gail in the court yard of the church that replaced the temple
We also visited inside the Cathedral but no photo rule applied. The images included elements of Incan beliefs and traditional Catholic images varied to attract locals. For example Mary is shown in a shape that resembles Mountain and the colours of gold and silver were representative of the sun and moon. Christ on the cross was black and in paintings the faces were local.

Our final visit was to an old site above Cusco at an elevation of about 12,400 feet..over 4000 metres.