Peru

Available for over a year

The Meanings of Mountains series which this week, following the sun, has reflected the relationships of peoples from Japan, China, Slovenia and Scotland with their mountains now concludes in Peru. Javier Lizarzaburu, a journalist living in Lima, considers how the shrine at Pariacaca, the mountain home of an important Inca oracle, was suppressed by Jesuits 400 years ago, with the destruction of thousands of images and the exile of its priests. He considers how the mountain, which has two peaks, embodied the duality of the Andean world view, and its centrality to the Inca creation story. He shows how this story did not disappear but absorbed the new religion, and how, although suppressed, the cult of Pariacaca survives. Javier recalls a friend whose grandmother told him that, rather than the old man sitting in the room, the mountain outside was really his grandfather. Peruvians revere mountains, yet have close, familial relationships with them, and Pariacaca is a mountain with many meanings. Producer: Julian May.