Muisca religion describes the
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
of the
Muisca who inhabited the central highlands of the
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...
n
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
before the
Spanish conquest of the Muisca
The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose confederation of diff ...
. The Muisca formed a
confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical iss ...
of holy
rulers and had a variety of
deities
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...
, temples and rituals incorporated in their culture. Supreme being of the Muisca was
Chiminigagua who created light and the Earth. He was not directly honoured, yet that was done through
Chía, goddess of the Moon, and her husband
Sué, god of the Sun. The representation of the two main celestial bodies as husband and wife showed the complementary character of man and
woman and the sacred status of marriage.
[Muisca religion]
- Pueblos Originarios - accessed 04-05-2016
The Muisca worshipped their gods at sacred sites, both natural, such as
Lake Guatavita, the
Siecha Lakes
The Siecha Lakes are three glacial lakes located in the Chingaza Natural National Park in Cundinamarca, Colombia. The Andean lakes are considered sacred in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest of the Mu ...
and
Lake Tota and constructed; the
Sun and
Moon Temples
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
in respectively
Suamox (the "Rome" or "Mecca" of the Muisca) and
Chía, City of the Moon. During these rituals the priests, ''obgues'', performed sacrifices, sometimes
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
in character. The last public religious ceremony of the Muisca was performed in
Ubaque on December 27, 1563.
Knowledge about the Muisca religion was brought to Europe by conquistador
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and soldier
Juan de Castellanos in the 16th century and by bishop
Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita and
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...
Pedro Simón in the 17th century. Modern
Muisca scholars who wrote about the religion of the inhabitants of the
Altiplano Cundiboyacense are
Javier Ocampo López and Eduard Londoño.
Religious practices
The Muisca were deeply religious people and their
rulers had a double role both as political and as religious leaders. The people fasted and also consumed
coca,
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
and
yopo
''Anadenanthera peregrina'', also known as yopo, jopo, cohoba, parica or calcium tree, is a perennial tree of the genus ''Anadenanthera'' native to the Caribbean and South America. It grows up to tall, and has a horny bark. Its flowers grow ...
with their rituals. Yopo was extracted from ''Anadenanthera'' trees, growing in the
Llanos Orientales, to the east of the Muisca territories. The psychoactive seeds of the tree were
traded with the
Achagua,
Guayupe and
Tegua and grinded and inhaled using a hollow bird bone or a spoon. The plates from which the yopo was inhaled were made of gold and ''
tumbaga'' and well elaborated and decorated. Many of them have been found and are on display in the
Museo del Oro. Coca was used in rituals of predictions and to heal diseases. The coca was combined with
cal Cal or CAL may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty
* "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov
* ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...
to increase the efficiency of the substance. The cal was saved in ''
poporos'', often made of gold or ''tumbaga''.
Deities
A variety of deities have been described by the
chroniclers.
Chiminigagua - Supreme Being
Chiminigagua was the creator god of the Muisca who made the light and the Earth. At the beginning of time it was all dark and Chiminigagua sent two large black birds into the skies. From their beaks the light was created and the cosmos illuminated.
[Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.218]
Chía - goddess of the Moon
Chía was the goddess of the Moon and one of the two gods through which Chiminigagua was honoured. She represented fertility of the Earth and of the people. Chía was married to Súe.
[Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.220]
Sué - god of the Sun
Súe was the god of the Sun, important for the
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
of the Muisca. He and his wife Chía followed each other across the skies, forming the perfect couple in conjunction at New Moon and during
solar and
lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Ear ...
s.
[
]
Bachué
The goddess Bachué (in Chibcha language: "the one with the naked breast"), is a mother goddess that according to the Muisca religion is the mother of humanity. She emerged of the waters in the Iguaque Lake with a baby in her arms, who grew to ...
- mother goddess
The ancestor of all the Muisca was Bachué, mother of mankind who emerged from Lake Iguague with a three-year-old boy in her arms. When the boy grew up, Bachué married her son and traveled around the Muisca territories. Everytime she was pregnant, she bore four to six children. The Muisca believed all the people could be traced back to Bachué. When her children got old, Bachué returned to Lake Iguague with her son and after a final speech they turned into two giant snakes who submerged in the water, making the site sacred for the Muisca.[
]
Bochica - messenger god of civilization
Bochica was the messenger of Chiminigagua and holy teacher of the Muisca. He was an old bearded man sent from heaven to educate the people in weaving, mantle making, ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...
s production and social, moral and political values. He settled in Suamox, where the people organized yearly religious festivities. In the religion of the Muisca, Bochica created the Tequendama Falls, a waterfall west of southern capital Bacatá.[Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.221]
Huitaca - rebelling goddess of sexual liberation
Huitaca was the goddess of happiness, pleasure and sexual liberation who rebelled against Bochica. She used to be a beautiful woman teaching the people a long life full of arts and dances. When Bochica found out about her rebellion against his power, he turned Huitaca into a white owl, or alternatively, the moon.[
]
Chibchacum - god of rain and thunder
God Chibchacum represented rain and thunder and protected the traders and the working people in general. He was the patron of Bacatá where the Muisca offered him gold. His revenge upon the people who disobeyed was flooding the Bogotá savanna. Bochica stepped in and ordered Chibchacum to carry the Earth on his shoulders, like Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geogra ...
in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
. Chibchacum was also the god of the numerous earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
s in the central Andes.[Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.222]
Cuchavira - god of the rainbow
The rainbow was represented by Cuchavira who was born when Bochica created the Tequendama Falls. He was honoured
with gold and other sacrifices.
Chaquén
Chaquén was the god of sports and fertility in the religion of the Muisca. The Muisca and their confederation were one of the four advanced civilizations of the Americas and as they were warriors, sports was very important to train the fighter ...
- god of sports and fertility
Chaquén was the god of fertility of the Earth and sports. He trained the Muisca to prepare them for wars and the guecha warrior Guecha warriors (Spanish: ''güechas'' or ''gueches'') were warriors of the Muisca Confederation in the Tenza Valley, Ubaque valley and Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the pre-Colombian era. The Guecha warrior was chosen for his merit in attitude and ...
s and farmers honoured him to win battles and acquire good harvests. Sexual rituals where the people dressed up in coloured feathered costumes were guarded by Chaquén. He was also the creator of the Colombian national sport: tejo.[
]
Nencatacoa - god of arts and dance
Nencatacoa was the Muisca god and protector of artists, painters, builders and drunkenness. The people in the Muisca territories worshipped him in large festivities where they got drunk of ''chicha''. Nencatacoa was represented by a fox or bear, dressed in gold. He helped the Muisca build their ''bohíos'', carrying the heavy wooden poles for the construction.[
]
Sites
To honour the gods, the Muisca organised pilgrimages to their temples and other sacred sites. The pilgrimages were accompanied by music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
and dances
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...
as well as (human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
) sacrifices. The pilgrimages were led by a group of priests; ''ogques'' in their language Muysccubun, the Spanish called them ''jeques'' or ''xeques''.[Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.226] The priests were trained from childhood to become the religious leaders of the Muisca. An important site for the pilgrimages of the Muisca were the Cojines del Zaque, located in the city of Hunza.
Temples
The most important temples for the Muisca were the Temple of the Sun
A sun temple (or solar temple) is a building used for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, dedicated to the sun or a solar deity. Such temples were built by a number different cultures and are distributed around the ...
in sacred city of the Sun Suamox (Muysccubun: "Dwelling of the Sun") and the Temple of the Moon in Chía, the town named after the Moon goddess. Here the people gathered to worship Sué and Chía.[ Other main temples were built in Guatavita, Bacatá and Guachetá.][Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.1, p.16] In the temples, images of their gods, made of gold and silver, are said to have been created. The sight of these richly decorated yet fragile temples only strengthened the legend of ''El Dorado
El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king ...
'' that drew the Spanish conquerors inland from Santa Marta.
Both the Temple of the Moon in Chía and the Sun Temple in Sogamoso were destroyed. A reconstruction of the latter has been built in the Archaeology Museum in the City of the Sun.
Sacred sites
In the Muisca territories there were a number of natural locations considered sacred, including lakes, rivers, forests and large rocks. People gathered here to perform rituals and sacrifices mostly with gold and emeralds. Important lakes were Lake Guatavita, Lake Iguaque
Lake Iguaque is a lake located in the Boyacá Department of Colombia. The lake and the surrounding area was declared a Flora and Fauna Sanctuary in 1977.
Geography and climate
Lake Iguaque is located northeast of Villa de Leyva and is part of ...
, Lake Fúquene, Lake Tota, the Siecha Lakes
The Siecha Lakes are three glacial lakes located in the Chingaza Natural National Park in Cundinamarca, Colombia. The Andean lakes are considered sacred in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest of the Mu ...
, Lake Teusacá and Lake Ubaque.[
]
Sacrifices
The Muisca offered various precious materials to their gods; '' tunjos'', were small anthropomorh or zoomorph
The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...
offer figures made of gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
or tumbaga (an alloy of gold, silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
and copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
). Many of the ''tunjos'' have been recovered from various sites and are displayed in the Museo del Oro. Other offer pieces were emeralds, snails, cloths and food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is in ...
. Also parrots and other colourful birds were used in the sacred rituals as they were considered having a soul.[Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.227]
Human sacrifices
Human sacrifices were not uncommon, although those were not practiced anymore when the Spanish conquistadores arrived. Only from verbal tradition we know the Muisca performed them. Jiménez de Quesada wrote that "only captured other tribes, such as the Panche and others, were used for human sacrifices in the rare occasions where humans were offered", while Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita described that "the best sacrifices to the gods were those of human blood".[
All the chroniclers agree that in ancient times families offered one boy to the priests who raised them as a holy person and at fifteen years (other sources say twelve)][ these ''moxas'' were sacrificed. This was a great honour for the family and the victims. The sacrifices were performed by taking the heart out of the body or penetrate them with spears.][ At the Cojines del Zaque the ''moxas'' were sacrificed to Sué, just after sunrise.
]
See also
*Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
, Maya religion
* Muzo, Inca religion
*Muisca astronomy
This article describes the astronomy of the Muisca. The Muisca, one of the four advanced civilisations in the Americas before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, had a thorough understanding of astronomy, as evidenced by their architecture and cale ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
*
Nicely animated video about the Muisca and their religious origin
{{Muisca navbox, Mythology and religion, state=expanded
Polytheism