The Tambo totem, symbol of Ashaninka culture
On my first trip to Peru I traveled up the Amazon River to Iquitos. From the Amazon city, capital of the Loreto department, I continued sailing up the Ucayali, the main arm of the Amazon River, in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. After meeting various native communities, for example the Shipibo of Contamana, I stopped for a few days in Puccalpa, a city connected to Lima by an asphalt road.
So, after resting for a few days, I decided to continue the journey and I boarded a motor-barge with which I arrived, after other days of navigation, at Atalaya del Tambo.
This country, located approximately 5800 kilometers from the estuary, is located right at the confluence of the Rio Urubamba (the river that flows near Machu Picchu), with the Rio Tambo, as the Amazon River is called in this area of Peruvian jungle.
In Atalaya I came into contact with groups of Ashaninka indigenous people, and I tried to get closer to their centuries-old traditions and their culture based on respect for nature and animals.
With some of them I traveled to the native community of Buenos Aires, and I was able to witness a particular ceremony: a boy is offered a thick coffee-colored liquid, obtained by mixing ayahuasca bark (yajé or banisteriopsis caapi), with leaves of chacruna (psychotria viridis).
In the following minutes the young native seemed to have alterations in consciousness, which were interpreted by the shamans as signs of destiny.
According to popular beliefs, the initiate, who also has strong spasms and is subject to vomiting, is purified and prepared to receive the secrets of their ancestral culture. The name ayahuasca (in Quechua aya, spirit and huasca, rope), means a rope that allows the soul to exit the body without it dying.
During the following day, I explored the surrounding jungle area and, after about three hours of walking inside the dense tropical forest, I arrived in a magical place, where there is a totem carved into the rock, which I called Tambo Totem.
The boulder, about five meters long, has a petroglyph on its front, which depicts the face of an ape-like or anthropomorphic being. This masterful carving was probably worshiped by the indigenous peoples, ancestors of the Ashaninka. In the rear part of the boulder you can see other petroglyphs, this time zoomorphic (fish).
In an area not far from the Tambo Totem, there are other boulders where ancient inhabitants have engraved strange signs and symbols in remote times. In particular, we note some engravings depicting the sun and this testifies that the cult of our star, considered as a divine being, must date back to the Amazonian peoples.
In fact, the Ashaninka, who speak an language of the Arawak strain, as well as the Wayuù of Colombia or the Matsiguengas of Madre de Dios, are the descendants of peoples who called themselves Lukkunu and who derive from the north of the Amazon, probably the current department Brazilian from Roraima.
The Arawaks colonized enormous territories, probably to exchange products from the jungle with others, new to them, from the mountains. One of their migrations was the one that led some Arawak groups to reach the Andean plateau (still today tribes of Arawak-speaking indigenous people live on floating islands in Lake Titicaca, they are the Uros).
Currently the Ashaninka are the largest indigenous people in Peru (around 50,000 people).
It is proven that this people carried out forms of exchange with the Andean peoples since ancient times, in fact bronze axes have been found (similar to those used in pre-Inca times in the sierra), and various musical instruments, flutes called antara and quena.
The first Westerners who entered the forests adjacent to the Ucayali, Tambo, Urubamba and Ene rivers were the Franciscan religious, who, starting from 1635, established some outposts with the aim of controlling the territory and evangelizing the natives. The expansion of the Franciscans was partially interrupted by the revolt of 1742 led by the indigenous Juan Santos Atahualpa, who managed to reunite groups of Ashaninka, Yanesha and Shipibo, managing to drive out the foreign invaders.
Starting from the second half of the 19th century, the slow "civilizing" advance resumed, led by Peruvian colonists who had the aim of taking over the Amazonian lands above all to exploit rubber, the rubber coveted worldwide.
Nowadays the Ashaninka are united in twelve autonomous federations which report to the central headquarters, located in Satipo, in the Junin department. Unfortunately, their very survival is greatly threatened. The Ashaninka join the peoples of the world poised between a past of oppression and blood and an uncertain future, which could prove to be full of threatening clouds.
Traveling in the Peruvian Amazon, one realizes that the future of the Ashaninka, like all Amazonian peoples, is unfortunately decided in the offices of powerful companies that control energy and mineral resources, often located in the north of the world. It is hoped that in the future the lands of the Ashaninka will be respected and that policies will be implemented that guarantee education and respect for indigenous traditions.
YURI LEVERATTO
