Burnt offerings whispering to mountains Inside Bolivians' rituals for Mother Earth

     La Cumbre(Bolivia), Aug 6 (AP) Neyza Hurtado was 3 years old when she was struck by lightning. Forty years later, sitting next to a bonfire on a 4,175-metre mountain, her scarred forehead makes her proud.
    “I am the lightning,” she said. “When it hit me, I became wise and a seer. That's what we masters are.”
    Hundreds of people in Bolivia hire Andean spiritual guides like Hurtado to perform rituals every August, the month of “Pachamama,” or Mother Earth, according to the worldview of the Aymara, an Indigenous people of the region.
    Pachamama's devotees believe that she awakens hungry and thirsty after the dry season. To honour her and express gratitude for her blessings, they make offerings at home, in their crop fields and on the peaks of Bolivian mountains.
    “We come here every August to follow in the footsteps of our elders,” said Santos Monasterios, who hired Hurtado for a Pachamama ritual on a site called La Cumbre, about 13 kilometres from the capital city of La Paz. “We ask for good health and work.”
    
     Honouring Mother Earth
    
     Offerings made to Pachamama are known as “mesitas” (or “little tables”). Depending on each family's wishes, masters like Hurtado prepare one mesita per family or per person.
    Mesitas are made of wooden logs. On top of them, each master places sweets, grains, coca leaves and small objects representing wealth, protection and good health. Occasionally, llama or piglet fetuses are also offered.
    Once the mesita is ready, the spiritual guide sets it on fire and devotees douse their offerings with wine or beer, to quench Pachamama's thirst.
    “When you make this ritual, you feel relieved,” Monasterios said. “I believe in this, so I will keep sharing a drink with Pachamama.”
    It can take up to three hours for a mesita to burn. Once the offerings have turned to ash, the devotees gather and solemnly bury the remains to become one with Mother Earth.
    
     Why Bolivians make offerings to Pachamama
    
     Carla Chumacero, who travelled to La Cumbre last week with her parents and a sister, requested four mesitas from her longtime spiritual guide.
    “Mother Earth demands this from us, so we provide,” the 28-year-old said.
    According to Chumacero, how they become aware of Pachamama's needs is hard to explain. “We just know it; it's a feeling,” she said. “Many people go through a lot — accidents, trouble within families — and that's when we realize that we need to present her with something, because she has given us so much and she can take it back.”
    
     A ritual rooted in time and climate
    
     The exact origin of the Pachamama rituals is difficult to determine, but according to Bolivian anthropologist Milton Eyzaguirre, they are an ancestral tradition dating back to 6,000 BC.
    As the first South American settlers came into the region, they faced soil and climate conditions that differed from those in the northernmost parts of the planet, where winter begins in December. In Bolivia, as in other Southern Hemisphere countries, winter runs from June to September.
    “Here, the cold weather is rather dry,” Eyzaguirre said. “Based on that, there is a particular behaviour in relation to Pachamama.”
    Mother Earth is believed to be asleep throughout August. Her devotees wish for her to regain her strength and bolster their sowing, which usually begins in October and November. A few months later, when the crops are harvested in February, further rituals are performed.
    “These dates are key because it's when the relationship between humans and Pachamama is reactivated,” Eyzaguirre said.
    “Elsewhere it might be believed that the land is a consumer good,” he added. “But here there's an equilibrium: You have to treat Pachamama because she will provide for you.”
    
    Bolivians' connection to their land
    
     August rituals honour not only Pachamama, but also the mountains or “apus,” considered protective spirits for the Aymara and Quechua people.
    “Under the Andean perspective, all elements of nature have a soul,” Eyzaguirre said. “We call that Ajayu,' which means they have a spiritual component.”
    For many Bolivians, wind, fire, and water are considered spirits, and the apus are perceived as ancestors. This is why many cemeteries are located in the highlands and why Pachamama rituals are performed at sites like La Cumbre. (AP) RD
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)