|
THE
TSACHILAS |
||
Their magic, traditions, customs, and legendary rites make of Santo Domingo de los Colorados, land of the Tsáchilas, a unique and charming paradise. Three hours to the Southeast of Quito, capital of Ecuador, in an altitude of 550 meters and with a fluctuating temperature of 18 and 25-Celsius degrees, is the nation of the Tsachilas or Colorados. This nation is conformed by 3000 inhabitants of 10,500 fertile hectares. The Tsáchila group is one of the few ethnic pre-incasic communities that stay pure due to the isolation in which they have lived for many years. The nation is divided into eight communities: Chiguilpe, Post, Peripa, Cóngoma, Mapalí, Naranjos, Tawaza and the Búa. The community organization has a political and cultural importance, since it is a way of defense to external forces and it help them to maintain their identity. Their native language is tsafiki, spoken in old times by the Karas that was a community that preceded the Tsáchilas. The meaning of tsafiki makes reference to their location in middle of the world; this indicates their old geographic knowledge, if we consider that in effect they developed closed to the line that divides the world in two hemispheres. The colors of their clothes and some words of their language indicate their possible origin in Central America. |
||
|
|
||
|
THEIR UNIVERSE CONCEPT |
||
| For the culture of the Tsáchilas, the Universe is a vital space, inhabited by several Gods, beings, and spirits. They are able to connect themselves with the Universe by Cosmo vision. PIPOWA is the god of Tsáchilas. He is carved in golden clouds and he is a spirit who gathers to the men through their rituals. This god pronounces himself by the horizons at sunsets. He created the sun, to illuminate and to warm up the planet. MAPIYAN is their goddess. She is the creator of mountains, fields, rivers, and all the life in the oceans. She protects agriculture, fishing and hunting. She will determine the end of the world when she decides to feed herself with the terrestrial creatures. |
||
| WOMEN AND CULTURE | ||
| The beauty of the women of this culture is expressed through their pure glance, and their ability through their multiple activities within the community. Women are very good at managing the family and very creative and skilful in crafts confection. They are in charge of cooking and cloth making for the community. | ||
|
|
||
|
CLOTHES |
||
| The women’s clothes are called TUNAN, which is a multicolor skirt that brings them together with the rainbow. Whereas the MAMPE TSAMPA is the black and white clothes of men, representing the snake TSAPINI. In general, their colorful clothes represent people who can live easily in harmony with other cultures, traditions, and races. Women paint a black line in their forehead as a mourning sign and men dyed their hair with annatto (bright orange color) as a gratefulness sign. Everyone in the community wears several colorful necklaces and bracelets. |
||
|
|
||
|
MUSIC |
||
| The musical instruments used by Tsachilas for their rituals and celebrations are MOSTLY made of hard wood, bones, and skin of animals, fruits and leaves of different plants. The main musical instruments are: marimba, boxes of percussion, drums, chilinka, and towelo. |
||
|
|
||
|
CURATIVE TECHNIQUES |
||
| The Tsáchilas use natural poisons, baths, and plasters as medicine. This knowledge of mixtures and forms are transmitted from generation to generation and it is maintained until the present time, although some ancestral knowledge has been lost. The Tsáchilas are recognized in the world of natural medicine because of the skills, knowledge and power of Shamans, who are considered as religious men, authority, and ministers. The Shamans travel to diverse dimensions to be in contact with the Gods in representation of their communities. They take their patients to ecstasy through different natural ways. Ecstasy is the flight of the soul to heaven to reach freedom. |
||
|
|
||
|
ECOLOGICAL RESERVE AND TOURISM |
||
| Tsáchilas’ main objective is the conservation of the natural areas and the equilibrium between them and the environment, in order to take advantage of the solar energy, air, land, vegetation, and the fauna in a sustainable way. The ecological tourism has become an important source of income for Tsáchilas. This tourism is based on the visit, with native guides, of the area that covers the Baba river’s catchments, conformed by the rivers: Mapalí, Otongo, Peripa, Pupusa, Poste and Chiguilpe. (Fagromen, 1995) A lot of people travel towards the zone to receive medical treatments, increasing therefore the tourism. |
||
|
WORK WITH BIOLCOM |
||
It is our desire to contribute in certain way to the maintenance of the culture and knowledge of this community. For this reason we have been working with the community for some months. We are developing a project of identification and planting of medicine plants. We wish to share with the world the wealth of the nature and the culture Tsáchila in a respectful and sustainable way. We do not want to see how this amazing knowledge is lost. Contact
us for further information.
|
||
|
|
||
| CITED WORKS Fagromen, Estudio de Base de Mercado y Comercialización. Tomo I: Diagnóstico y Resumen Ejecutivo. Ecuador, 1995 Fundación Museo Etnográfico Tsáchila. Quito, 2003 |
||
