Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The early Kallawaya were known for their wanderings and traveled all over the continent in search of medicin-
al herbs. The most capable of today's practitioners will have memorized the properties and uses of 600 to 1000
different healing herbs, but their practices also involve magic and charms. They believe that sickness and disease
are the result of a displaced or imbalanced
ajallu
(life force). The incantations and amulets are intended to encour-
age it back into a state of equilibrium within the body.
A hallmark of the Kallawaya is the
alforja
(medicine pouch), which is carried by the men. While women don't
become healers, they still play an important part in the gathering of herbs.
In Lagunillas, there's a small exhibition about the Kallawaya in the Museo Interpretativo Center. The
Kallawaya's legacy has also been recorded by several anthropologists and medical professionals; German uni-
versity psychiatrist Ina Rössing has produced an immense four-volume work called
El Mundo de los Kallahuaya
about her ongoing research, and Frenchman Louis Girault has compiled an encyclopedia of herbal remedies em-
ployed by the Kallawaya, entitled
Kallahuaya, Curanderos Itinerantes de los Andes
.
