The Antlers of a Trilemma: Rediscovering Andean Sacred Sites - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 57

5.5 Recent Ruins Rediscovery

The time has come for the people from outside to understand, without wrongful transla-
tions, what is our view of the territory and why the violations to our Law of Origin are so
serious. (Amado Villafaña 2009 , p. 1)
Throughout the Andean realm, archaeologists increasingly are fi nding sites
deemed to be mountain ceremonial centers. Hidden underneath a cloth of montane
forests or covered by layers of pumice or volcanic ash, these sites were considered
simply ruins from the perspective of the Western scientists who could not fathom
the existence of major monumental architecture in areas so deep into the montane
tropical cloud forest ecosystem. Perhaps because of the Western nature-culture
dichotomy, the shift from an ecocentric preservation paradigm towards a new bio-
cultural conservation practice, requires a (re)reading of the landscape of ruins.
For many indigenous groups in the Andes, from the northern tropics to the south-
ern (sub)antarctic, reifying abandoned 'rock piles' as manifestations of ceremonial
places, serves to (re)invigorate the identity of indigenes by (re)creating the notion of
the “sacredness” of these sites. In the northern Andes, in the cloud forest belt of the
Tairona National Park in northern Colombia, the ruins of the lost city have been (re)
stored under the tutelage of the Kággaba - Kogui elders, who along with three other
indigenous nations (Wiwa - Arzario , Wˆntuka - Arwaco and Kaku' chucwa
- Kankuamo ), referred to from colonial times as 'Tayrona'. These groups have inher-
ited the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta territory, now offi cially recognized as a
national park and indigenous reserve or 'resguardo'. The discovery of the 'Ciudad
Perdida' ruins have (re)vived the identity of the Kogui to the point that they have
become the guardians of the 'sacred city' where the older brothers and the spirit of
the mountain endures (OGT 2009 ).
Ecuadorian sacred sites are also experiencing (re)newed protagonism, such as
the ruins on the summit of 'Catequilla' hill in the middle of the world, protected by
the forts of Rumikuchu and of Nibli, along the Wayllabamba river gorge. Despite
ancient rituals to the shade-less presence of the equator, marked by ancestral solar-
tracker wells that had allowed ritualized practices honoring the sun, many of today's
practitioners of New-Age philosophy climb, as on a pilgrimage, to the forgotten
hilltop, now considered as sacred site, in order to offer prayers for equilibrium,
harmony, and peace. The same process is observed in the province of Cañar, where
the ruins of Cojitambo, near Azogues, have drawn crowds of New Age believers in
the mystic power of gold, quartz crystals, and grains of mercury, and who fi rmly
believe in magnetic forces congruent with the tall stone wall of the north face of the
outcrop and consider Kuritambu a sacred site of the Kañary nation. Also, in the north-
ern province of Imbabura , ritualized respect for the sacred tree ( pinllu ) of the Utawalu
runakuna or 'lechero' ( Euphorbia laurifolia) , is practiced above the fort ( pukara ) of
Reyloma (Fig. 5.2 ). The white sap exuded from the tree is believed to have healing
properties, thus making this place one of the most hallowed indigenous sites of
Ecuador (Sarmiento et al. 2008 ). These rites or pagapu, are associated with the