The “hoja sagrada” or sacred leaf has enormous significance to Aymara and Quechua people. Discover the legend of COCA, God Intis gift to Peru and Bolivia and its use in traditional Andean culture.
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Within a minute of our first steps onto the street, the night of our arrival, we’d been offered cocaine twice by boys no older than fifteen.
They stood on corners and nodded at us and strolled a few paces alongside: “Coca? Coca? Muy pura…” we didn’t ask but we are sure the coca was cheap.
You’d have to be crazy or desperate or foolish to buy cocaine from a kid in a neighborhood thick with military police wearing machine guns and slouched berets, patrolling the busy streets of La Paz. But many travelers are foolish or desperate or crazy, and given Bolivia’s immediate proximity to Peru, cocaine is notoriously abundant.
For the Aymara and Quechua people, Coca has been also considered as the weapon that god Inti, some say even the creator Viracocha, gave them to restore justice between the local people and the conquistadores – the White. Viracocha or Wiracocha is the Incan creator god, his son is the sun or Inti and the two daughters are the Moon mother, Mama Quilla and the earth mother, Pachamama.
It is considered a divine plant which satiates the hungry, strengthens the weak, and causes those who chew it to forget their misfortunes.
In this legend it turns the most faithful ally in the life of resistance of the Indian, if it is transformed to white, it will turn into toxic, into dependence, into misfortune.
LEGEND: COCA, God Intis gift to Peru and Bolivia
Inti and Mama Quilla create Coca:
According to a variation of this legend, the plant was a gift from the sun god Inti who instructed the moon mother Mama Quilla to plant the coca in the moist valleys of the Andes. Only to be used by the Incas, as they were the descendants of the gods, to give them endurance to live life on earth.
Maria from la Paz told us this story, on the boat ride to the Isla del Sol in the Titicaca Lake in 2014.
Cómo los Inca descubrieron los beneficios de la hoja de COCA
Cómo los Inca descubrieron los beneficios de la hoja de COCA
Cuenta la leyenda que durante el reinado del lncaAtahuallpa, el sumo sacerdote (yatri) y el depositario del tesoro del templo del Sol, en la isla de Titicaca, era un viejo sabio y adivino llamado Khana Chuyma. Por aquel tiempo llegaron a estas tierras los conquistadores españoles, ávidos de oro, quienes sometieron indios, profanaron dioses y saquearon templos. Resuelto a impedir que el oro sagrado del Sol caiga en manos del invasor, Khana Chuyma lo escondió en un lugar secreto a orillas del Lago, y diariamente subía a una altura para escudriñar si se aproximaban las huestes de Pizarro. Un día las vio venir a lo lejos. Sin perder un instante, arrojó todo el tesoro a lo más profundo de las aguas. Enterados de lo ocurrido, los españoles prendieron al viejo sacerdote para arrancarle a viva fuerza el secreto de las riquezas perdidas. Khana Chuyma soportó estoicamente los más crueles tormentos, sin que una sola palabra saliera de sus labios. Cansados sus verdugos de torturarlo inútilmente, lo dejaron moribundo en un campo, En medio de su dolorosa agonía, esa noche Khana Chuyma tuvo una visión: Inti, el dios Sol se le apareció resplandeciente tras una montaña y le habló así:”Hijo mío, tu heroico sacrificio para salvar los objetos sagrados merece recompensa. Pídeme lo que quieras, que te será otorgado”. “Oh dios amado, qué otra cosa puedo pedirte en esta hora de duelo y derrota sino la redención de mi raza y la expulsión de los invasores” “Lo que tú me pides, respondió el Sol, es ya imposible. De nada vale mi poder contra estos intrusos. Su dios me ha vencido y yo también debo huir a esconderme en el misterio del tiempo, pero antes de partir quiero concederte algo que está dentro de mis facultades”. “Ya que es imposible devolver la libertad a mi pueblo, al irnos te pido, padre mío, algo que lo ayude a soportar la esclavitud y las penurias que le esperan; algo que no sea oro, riqueza, para que la codicia del invasor no se lo debata. Te pido un consuelo secreto que dé a los míos la fuerza para sobrellevar los trabajos, los vejámenes y las humillaciones que sus opresores les impondrán” “Concedido”, dijo Inti, “Mira a tu alrededor ¿ves esas plantas de hojas verdes y ovaladas que hice brotar? Di a los tuyos que las cultiven con todo cuidado y que sin lastimar sus tallos arranquen las hojas, y después de secarlas, las mastiquen…
…El Jugo de esas plantas será un bálsamo para sus sufrimientos. Al mascar las hojas juntos, compartirán todos ustedes momentos de confraternidad y alegría solidaria. En los duros trabajos que deberán acometer, esas hojas les quitarán la fatiga y les darán nuevos bríos. En los largos viajes por las punas inclementes, la coca aliviará del hambre y del frío y les hará más llevadero el camino. En las minas, que sus nuevos amos les obligarán a laborar, no podrán soportar la fetidez, la oscuridad y el terror de los profundos socavones sino con la ayuda de la coca. Cuando deseen indagar en el futuro incierto, un puñado de esas hojas lanzado al azar les revelará los misterios del destino. Pero estas hojas que para ustedes significan la salud, la fuerza y la vida, están malditas para los opresores. Cuando ellos se atrevan a utilizarlas, la coca los destruirá, pues lo que para los indios es alimento divino, para los blancos será vicio degradante que inevitablemente les producirá el envilecimiento y la locura.
Esta planta sagrada es el legado que les dejo. Cuiden que no se extinga y hagan buen uso de ella”.
How the Inca discovered the benefits of the COCA leaf
How the Inca discovered the benefits of the COCA leaf
The legend tells, that during the reign of the Atahuallpalnca, the high priest (yatri) and depositary of the treasure of the Temple of the Sun, on the island of Titicaca, was an old sage and fortune-teller named Khana Chuyma. At that time the Spanish conquistadores, arrived in these lands, eager for gold, subdued Indians, profaned gods, and plundered temples. The Indians, helpless and unprotected, invoked their gods in vain, and in vain also complained with bitter tears; No one in heaven or on earth had pity on them. Khana Chuyma, determined to prevent the sacred gold of the Sun from falling into the hands of the invaders, daily climbed a height to scrutinize if the hosts of Pizarro approached.
Without losing an instant, he threw the whole treasure into the depths of the waters. Aware of what had happened, the Spaniards arrested the old priest to wrest the secret of the lost riches. Khana Chuyma stoically endured the most cruel torments, without a single word coming out of his lips. In the midst of his painful agony, that night Khana Chuyma had a vision: Inti, the sun god, appeared, glowing behind a mountain and he spoke to him:
“My son, your heroic sacrifice to save the sacred objects deserves reward. Ask for what you want, which will be granted to you.”
“Oh dear god, what else can I ask of you in this hour of mourning and defeat but the redemption of my race and the expulsion of the invaders”.
“What you ask of me,” answered the Sun, “is now impossible, my power is worthless against these intruders. His god has defeated me and I must flee to hide myself in the mystery of time, but before I leave I want to grant you something Is within my faculties.”
“Since it is impossible to give freedom to my people, I ask you, Father, something to help you endure the slavery and the hardships that await you, something that is not gold, wealth, so that the greed of the invader does not I ask for a secret consolation that will give mine the strength to cope with the labors, humiliations and humiliations that their oppressors will impose on them.”
“Granted”, said Inti, “Look around you, do you see those plants with green and oval leaves that I caused to sprout?
I told your people to cultivate them with all care and without hurting their stems, tear off the leaves, and after drying them, these leaves will take away the fatigue and give them new strength.
Guard the leaves with much love and when
you feel the sting of pain in your heart,
hunger in your body
and darkness in your mind…
take them to your mouth and softly, draw up
its spirit which is part of mine…
You will find love for your pain
food for your body and light for your mind
Further more, watch the leaves dance with the wind
and you will find answers to your queries.But if your torturer, who come from the North
the white conqueror, the gold seeker, should touch it
he will find in it only…
poison for his body
and madness for his mind
for his heart is so callous as his steel and iron garment
And when the COCA, which is how you will call it,
attempts to soften his feelings
it will only shatter him
as the icy crystals born in the clouds
crack the rocks, demolish mountains …
To you, it will be a spiritual food, for them it will be idiocy and madness.
Cultivate this plant with all care and without hurting their stems, tear off the leaves, and after drying them, these leaves will take away the fatigue and give you new strength. It is the precious heritage that I leave to you. Be careful to keep it, And spread it among you with veneration and love. This sacred plant is the legacy I leave you.”
The Coca leaf in South American tradition
It is through the lens of the conquistadores that we learn about religion in the Inca Empire. While the indigenous author Pedro Cieza de León wrote about the effects coca had on the Inca, multiple Spanish men wrote about the importance of coca in their spirituality. For example Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Father Bernabé Cobo, and Juan de Ulloa Mogollón noted how the Incas would leave coca leaves at important locations throughout the empire. Coca was considered the highest form of plant offering that the Incas made.
As a sacred ritual, Inca would put coca leaves in the mouths of mummies and give them Coca leaves in bags.
Mummies of Inca emperors were regarded for their wisdom and often consulted for important matters long after the body had deteriorated.
Coca was also used in divination as ritual, priests would burn a mixture of coca and llama fat and predict the future based on the appearance of the flame.
Coca leaves play a crucial part in offerings to the apus (mountains), Inti (the sun), or Pachamama (the earth). As one example of the many traditional beliefs about coca, it is believed by the miners of Cerro de Pasco to soften the veins of ore, if masticated (chewed) and thrown upon them.
Cocas use in shamanic rituals is well documented wherever local native populations have cultivated the plant. For example, the Tayronas of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta would chew the plant before engaging in extended meditation and prayer. When a boy is ready to be married, his mother initiates him in the use of the coca. This act of initiation is carefully supervised by the Mamo, a traditional priest-teacher-leader of the Tayronas.
The leaf is the most sacred and would find its usage for trade and currency.
People leave small piles of coca leaves at roadside shrines and use them as blessings during ceremonies. Fortune-tellers throw coca leaves to divine the future.
Coca is not cocaine. Coca is medicine, food, drink, coca is fundamentally cultural.
Chewing coca leaves is most common in indigenous communities across the central Andean region, particularly in places like the highlands of Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, where the cultivation and consumption of coca is a part of the national culture, similar to chicha. It also serves as a powerful symbol of indigenous cultural and religious identity, among a diversity of indigenous nations throughout South America.
Archaeological evidence has shown, that Coca chewing is 8,000 years old- it is a deeply rooted economic, social and religious tradition in the Andes.
There are medicinal benefits from chewing coca leaves. Southamericans chew the leaves to eradicate hunger, improve muscle stamina, to counter motion sickness and oxygen depravation. In its natural form, the leaf is also used in teas, in cooking and for religious ceremonies.
Ex Bolivian President, Evo Morales, once a coca grower, campaigns for decriminalising chewing coca leaves.
The indigenous people of Bolivia believe the coca plant is sacred. They declared its leaves a ‘cultural patrimony’ in the Bolivian constitution in 2009.
South America’s indigenous people understood the effects of the coca plant. It enhances their daily lives living at high altitudes. While travelling through Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina we drank coca tea against altitude sickness and used the coca leaves during hikes in the Andes in order to gain stamina and quech thirst.
NOTA BENE:
The cultivation, sale, and possession of unprocessed Coca leaf is generally legal in Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina – where traditional use is established, although cultivation is restricted.
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Works Cited & Multimedia Sources
- https://www.tni.org/en/primer/coca-leaf-myths-and-reality
- Georg Anne. Rebranding Bolivia’s demonized, sacred coca plant.
- Historia en accion:La hoja de coca para el Peru.
- Marinete. Mitos sobre la coca. (waybackmachine)
- Museo de la coca. La Paz, Bolivia.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca
- Usos de la Coca en Medicina Tradicional