Sacred Ice Melting Away: Lessons from the Impact of Climate Change on Andean Cultural Heritage

CERUTI, MARÍA CONSTANZA

Journal of Sustainability Education

The Institute for Sustainable Social Change

Año: 2013 vol. 4 p. 1 - 9

2151-7452

For many centuries, the role of mountains as custodians of the sacred ice and givers of life-sustaining water has been ritually acknowledged throughout the Andes. The religious belief in the sacredness of the Andean snowcapped peaks has led to some of the most remarkable climbing achievements in the history of humankind. In Quechua, the language of the Incas, the name of the volcano that houses the highest mountaintop shrine in the world is Llullaillaco, which means ?that lies about water, or hides away the water?. Interestingly, Llullaillaco is the only mountain in the area that has a permanent ice field on its high slopes, but it gives origin to no streams or rivers that might quench the thirst of the Atacama Desert at its feet. The frozen bodies of the three Inca children discovered after one month of archaeological fieldwork under the extreme conditions of the Llullaillaco peak, turned out to be the best preserved ice mummies in the world. Fifteen years have gone by and the presence of these ?ice mummies? among the living has clearly contributed to raise awareness about the urgency of preserving the cultural heritage of the Andes. Looting and plundering are among the major threats to the archaeological sites in South America, and the Inca mountaintop shrines are no exception. Nonetheless, global warming is a somewhat more silent destroyer of the heritage of the Andes, and residents in Salta have concluded that the discovery of the Inca mummies from Llullaillaco happened just in time, before the frozen bodies of the three children might start to be affected by the progressively higher temperatures in the summertime. Not only are the archaeological evidences endangered by the impact of climate change: the cultural practices of the descendants of the Incas are also threatened. Andean people still go on pilgrimage to the glaciers to pay homage to the mountain spirits and collect ice that is to have healing and fertilizing qualities. However, global warming is producing a significant impact on the religious life of the Andes and the ancestral rituals are changing due to the retreating glaciers. This is particularly notorious at the festivity of the Lord of the Star of Snow, one of the most important mountain pilgrimages in the Andean world, which gathers about 70,000 people at the glacier basin of Sinacara every year during the month of June. Traditionally, the so called ?bear-men? would extract large chunks of ice - as big as they could carry on their backs -, and return to their home communities, where the ice would be distributed among the villagers, as a powerful material symbol of the blessings from the Apu mountain spirits. Nowadays, extracting the sacred ice is no longer permitted and pilgrims are only allowed to collect melted ice in small water bottles that they can take home as substitute relics. As sad as it must be to see Andean peoples forced to change their ritual worship of their mountains, it is also remarkable to discover how understanding and accommodating they have proven to be. By avoiding the extraction of larger pieces of ice and the use of large candles in order to preserve the snow cover on the mountain, they are setting an example of selflessness and mindfulness that should be acknowledged and followed beyond the Andes.