Every year, a few weeks before the feast of Corpus Christi, tens of thousands of people climb on foot to the Sinakara valley, in the Cusco region, at about 4,700 metres above sea level, at the foot of the glaciers of the Ausangate massif. This is the pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit'i, one of the largest and most striking in the Andes. Its Quechua name means «star snow» or «shining snow», and the festival joins Catholic devotion and a very ancient relationship with mountains and stars in a single event.
The origin legend
The best-known story dates from the colonial period, at the end of the eighteenth century. A young Quechua shepherd named Mariano Mayta, who tended his father's flocks on the slopes of the mountain, met a mestizo boy called Manuel. The two became friends and, thanks to Manuel, the flock prospered.
When the father wanted to thank the stranger, he asked his son to get him a new set of clothes. The cloth of Manuel's garment turned out to be of a quality impossible to find, and the religious authorities became involved. When the priest and his companions tried to reach Manuel, they saw a blinding light. In place of the boy they found a shrub bearing a crucifix, and Mariano, overwhelmed, died on the spot. He was buried beneath a rock, on which an image of Christ later appeared.
That painted rock is today the heart of the sanctuary of the Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i, built in the Sinakara valley.
A sacred mountain before the cross
Scholars have observed that Christian devotion was grafted onto a place that already held strong sacred value. Ausangate is one of the most powerful apu, mountain spirits, of the Cusco region, and the glacier was considered a source of strength and life-giving water.
The time of the festival also coincides with the reappearance of the Pleiades in the dawn sky, an event that many Andean communities observe to forecast how the farming season will go. Qoyllur Rit'i is thus a clear example of how Andean religiosity embraced Christianity without abandoning its own sacred landscape.
The dancing nations
The pilgrims do not arrive at random. They are organised in groups called naciones, «nations», corresponding to their regions and communities of origin. Each nation brings musicians, banners and companies of dancers in costume.
The dances are very numerous, each with its own meaning and its own dress. Some represent peoples of the Amazon, others characters from the colonial world, others still mythical figures. For days the valley resounds with flutes, drums and dance steps, almost without pause.
The ukuku, guardians of the mountain
The most distinctive figures of the pilgrimage are the ukuku, dancers dressed in dark wool costumes resembling a bear's fur, their faces covered by a knitted mask. The ukuku is a being halfway between human and animal, linked to Andean myths about the bear.
The ukuku keep order in the crowd, joke with the pilgrims and speak in a high, altered voice. Their most important moment is the night climb to the glacier. Traditionally they carried blocks of ice down to the valley, considered bearers of strength and blessing, which were then shared out in the communities.
In recent years this custom has been abandoned: the communities decided to stop removing ice because of the visible retreat of the glaciers. The ukuku still climb, but return without the blocks. It is a remarkable example of how a living tradition adapts to protect what it reveres.
The final procession
The festival ends with processions accompanying the sacred images out of the valley. Some of the pilgrims make a long night walk across the mountains to greet the rising sun from a high point, kneeling as it appears. Here too Christian devotion and the ancient relationship with the sun merge into a single gesture.
In 2011 the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Señor de Qoyllur Rit'i was inscribed by UNESCO on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In short
- Qoyllur Rit'i is a great pilgrimage to the Sinakara valley, at the foot of Ausangate.
- The colonial legend of Mariano and Manuel lies behind the sanctuary of the painted rock.
- The festival is grafted onto the ancient cult of mountains, ice and the Pleiades.
- The ukuku, bear-dancers, climb to the glacier at night and no longer remove the ice.
- Since 2011 the pilgrimage has been UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
