June 18, 2010:
After resting, recovering from and adjusting to the altitude, today we set off on our Cuzco city-tour. Cuzco was the original capital of the Inca Empire until the Spanish conquest in 1533, and the oldest city in the Western hemisphere. The word “q’usquo” in Quechan, the native language of Peru, means “the heart.” It would only be appropriate to name the capital of their empire this.
Our first stop was the Basilica Cathedral in downtown in Cuzco. As we arrived we were approached by our tour-guide for the day, Eric. The cathedral was first an Inca temple that the Spanish claimed as their own, a common trend in the conquest of Peru by conquistadors, which consists of three different temples all dedicated to the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph. These temples were made out of a special type of wood to keep away termites and are coated in 22kt gold leaf.
The Great Cathedral consists of over 300 paintings done by locals hired by the Spaniards. Even though they were forced to practice, praise, and worship figures of Catholicism, the local artists incorporated their own Inca culture into the paintings to make it their own. For example: in a few of the paintings, the wings of angels are not white like it most traditional Catholic portrayals, instead they are red, yellow and blue like the macaws and hummingbirds indigenous to Peru. These birds held high significance and symbolism in Peruvian culture.
One particular representation of a Christian painting that I found very intriguing was The Last Supper. Painted during the eighteenth-century by Sapata (Miguel’s long-lost ancestor), it includes many Peruvian foods on the table. For example: on the table is cuy (a roasted guinea-pig), many Amazonian fruits (i.e. pomegranate, papaya), maize (corn), and chicha morada (purple corn drink) instead of the traditional red wine. But aside from these changes, one last addition struck me the most and that was the representation of Judas. At the opposite end of the table form Jesus is traditionally Judas turned around with an evil look, but instead of Judas is the face of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro who was responsible for the conquering and destruction of the Inca Empire, the founding of Lima and converting many Incas to Catholicism. Just like the Mona Lisa, Pizarro’s eyes follow you wherever you go in the church.
Next we came to Cristo Negro, the Black Christ. Like in most or all churches, this portrayal of Christ on the crucifix was in the altar of Saint James. Made out of indigenous wood to Peru, this statue was originally white, however, due to all of the smoke and soot expelled from the candles in the cathedral, it eventually caused the wood to become black. Aside for the name Cristo Negro, Jesus was called by another name, the Lord of Earthquakes. Since Peru is on fault lines they were prone to earthquakes. In the earthquake of 1950, the people of the church brought Jesus outside of the church, and according to them, the earthquake stopped. This has happened twice in history.
After we finished seeing the cathedral, we moved onto the main temple of Cuzco, Qorikancha (Temple of the Sun). Here I learned about the Incan cross that looks like a compass and represents the four different parts of the sun along with the powers of the condor, puma, and snake deities. There are many different temples at Qorikancha assigned to different gods (i.e. Temple of the Rainbow, Stars, Rain, Lightning, Thunder, etc.). Inca religion consists of over eight hundred different gods. All of these temples were aligned by a trapezoid window built at a 13° angle to sustain earthquakes; this architectural technique can be seen in every single remaining Inca ruin. Every year Incas sacrifice the blackest and youngest llama to the Sun god as ritual.
And finally to end the day, we proceeded onto Q’enqo and Saqsayhuaman. Q’enqo is an assortment of giant boulders, which appears to be completely random, however on the Winter Solstice (June 21st), the rocks cast the shadow of a puma’s head. To some archaeologists the shadow represents more that of an Inca mummy wrapped in fabrics.
Even though Q’enqo was really cool, and was disappointed that we were only two days away from witnessing the cast shadows, Saqsayhuaman was so much more breathtaking. It looked like a giant stone fortress in a wide-open field. Gorgeous. Here we walked up many flights of terraces built into the hillside, to get to the even plain where the main central stone was set into the wall. This particular stone was very large and made of white quartz that represented and expelled great amounts of positive energy. Just by being there you could feel it. This temple consisted of three different levels, each representing a particular world, worshipping a particular deity. The highest level represented the condor – god of the heavens that brings balance and connects you with the afterlife. The middle level represented the puma – the god of strength and related to the strength of the Incas. The final, bottom level represented the god of wisdom and knowledge, the snake, which connected Incas with the earth. When the Spanish came to Peru, they took stones from Saqsayhuaman to build the Basilica Catedral in downtown Cuzco. On June 24th, thousands of Peruvians all gather here drunk to celebrate Inti Romni, the festival of the sun god.
One thing I noticed quickly was the zigzag wall arrangement of Saqsayhuaman. I later learned that it was to represent the teeth of the puma. Eric also pointed out in the stone arrangement of the walls that there were pictures of animals created by stone size. He pointed out to us that there were two presentations of llamas sitting (which were sacrificed to Inti, the sun god) and a giant snake, which trailed across at least five of the zigzagged walls. I think that it is really awesome that the Incas worshipped their environment, the animals, and everything about the earth. If only people were more concerned about preserving it today.
What an amazing and long day jam-packed full of awesome sites and historical knowledge. I really wish that I were around before the Spanish conquest to see its complete glory.
-GT
