An American in Lima Goes to Qoyllur Rit’i

We’re in a frenzy here in our house packing to go on an expedition to a glacier near Mount Ausangate, in the southern Andes. Qolquepunku Glacier is the site of the ancient pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i, whose name in Quechua translates “Shining Snow Star.” More than 100,000 pilgrims come from all over Peru and Bolivia to pay tribute to “El Senor de Qoyllur Rit’i,” to climb the sacred glacier and to dance for days and nights at 17,000 feet above sea level. Yikes!

The pilgrimage is ostensibly Catholic but has its roots in precolombian rituals that were practiced long before the Incas created their vast empire. The three dancers pictured above (photo courtesy El Fotografo) represent archetypical figures from colonial days and after. Note that the dancer in the middle is a guy dressed like a woman and holding a baby doll and a whip; he plays a sort of trickster figure, who jokes with the crowd and also whips pilgrims who misbehave (i.e., drink during the pilgrimage). 

Tragically, the Qolqepunku Glacier is rapidly disappearing due to global warming, and it appears that when the ice disappears, so will the Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage. So awful. A tradition that survived the Spanish Conquest is being eradicated by carbon emissions.

What do the pilgrims think of all this?

El Fotografo and I will be at the glacier from May 16 to May 20 to find out. Camping out with our wonderful guide Pablo from Andean Origins, taking photos, conducting interviews. All this continues work we began two years ago when we visited the June 2006 QR and spent a raw, exhilarating three nights camping out with thousands of other pilgrims.

I’ll post more when we return.

In the meantime, check out El Fotografo’s photos from our 2006 trip to Qoyllur Rit’i, on his photo.net site. Also check out what Gigi of Inca Kids has to say about the benefits of attending festivals in Peru, such as this year’s Qoyllur Rit’i. 

The tradition of photographing rituals at Qoyllur Rit’i goes back to the 1930s, when Peruvian photographer Martin Chambi traveled to the pilgrimage and took a series of black and white images. The Chambi photo above indicates how much things have changed at the glacier. Seventy years ago, the mountaintop was blanketed with snow and ice. Today, the ice cap has receded, leaving a mountain of dirt and rubble. Just how many more years the vanishing glacier has left is anyone’s guess.