THE INCA GODS

After the Spain Conquest of Peru, a constant conflict between the andean religion and the christianity that Spaniards brought took place, this lasted for decades until both religions began to combine between themselves with many variations across the Peruvian country.

In this Natourandes’s blog, we’ll delve in the world of the andean religion that has survived the test of time, even when that wasn’t the plan for its detractors.

One of the many things that caught the attention of said Spaniards was the cult that Peru inhabitants preserve to this day. Said cult involved realizing sacrifices or giving offerings to many uncommon objects of adoration.

The Apus

What they didn’t understand is that, according to the Inca religion, an outstanding natural manifestation, such as the highest mountains of a region (the bigger the more important) are considered deities in the andean religion. This obviously led to a confusion that transformed into an attempt of purging these ideals from the andean society completely.

Each of these mountains shared a common name, “Apu” or “Apus” in plural. The Apus were also Inca gods to a lesser degree, the designated “protectors” from a designated society, no matter how big or small they were.

With the time, these beliefs began to morph as a part of the phenomenon that we call religious syncretism, this meaning that there was an intention of eliminating the religious practices from the andean society to replace them for christian traditions, which were accepted and highly praised by the Spaniard society during that time.

However, the Apus were lesser deities in the andean pantheon, actually, they are situated on top of one of the most important deities that the incas had, the earth.

Principal Gods

If one looks around, there are many natural formations that captivate one’s attention, as stated before, the bigger usually had higher rankings in respect of the rest.

Therefore, the sun (called Inti) and the moon (called Killa) are perfect candidates to fit into the Inca gods criteria, even the earth itself (called Pacha Mama).

However, above all of these important deities, there was one held responsible as the creator of the universe. This god even had a different version of itself depending the region were the cult was celebrated.

This power-limitless entity had the name of “Wiracocha” across the andean region, many others knew him as “Pachacamac” in the coast. He was considerated the creator of all the universe, therefore he was considerated being the “father” of the rest of deities.

Divine Collection

In order to clarify something that’s important about this clasification, we need to understand the the Inca religion was polytheist, but this was also for a practical reason.

When the Inca civilization conquered or subjugated another culture, they had the custom to take the idols of the main deities from a certain society or another. This led the Inca emperor to store a collection of statues, figurines or such in the most important temple of the Incan Cuzco, the Qoricancha.

This had two main purposes, one was to subjugate symbolically the gods that these civilizations had by kidnapping their most important religious relique, the other one was to ensure the loyalty of said civilizations by being able to destroy or dispose of the important idols as a revenge for acts like rebelry, conspiration, etc.

For more information in this matter, we’d recommend you to read the famed Guaman Poma de Ayala’s chronicle, “Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno” a more developed argument about the Incas and how they handled these types of situations is to be found in the famous book.

A lot of questions still arise around the ghost of the Incas past, unfortunately, there are no ways to trace back an authentic testimony on their behalf due to the lack of written evidence, however, that may change in the future too but who knows.

If you want to learn more about the Inca empire in the place where history was shaped, let us know, we’ll be more than glad to help you on your trip’s planification.