Inca Religion

The inca religion had one main god and several different sub gods, goddess and divinities; The rule to apply the religion is when men can not explain or control natural phenomenons, so men found explanation in the supernatural actions of the gods, it is right to affirm, that most of the inca gods and divinities were related to weather phenomenons like lighting, storms, rainbows, seasons, eclipses and animals like jaguars, hummingbird, condors, poison snakes and else.

The inca religion had two concepts of religion and divinities: The first concept is the fundamental religion that was divided in three levels; First the Hanan Pacha or universe, this level contains divinities like the sun, the moon, the stars, the lightning, the rain, the wind; The second level is the Kai Pacha or earth, this level contains divinities like the mountains, the rivers, the stones, the water, the animals, the plants.

The third level is the Uju Pacha or underground world, that contains the death ancestors, goblins, mukis, demons and Sacras, that is a type of demon; The second concept on the inca religion is the three types of divinities; First: The Pachayachachic, creator of heaven and earth, universal supreme God, the beginning and end. Second: The Inti, god creator of men and nature. The third: The Apu, spirits that live in the hills, in the elements around us, in the death mummies of the inca kings and in the inca pyramids.

The inca religion headquarters was in cuzco with approximate 6000 priest distributed all over the kingdom; The Huillac Uma or supreme priest, equivalent of the pope of our days, was a respected wise man, some times he was the brother of the inca king or a close relative, he keep perpetual celibacy, diet of roots and herbs, only drink water and he was the responsible to spread the incas religion all over the kingdom.

The inca religion had bishops call Vilcas, that travel around the kingdom to supervise the temples and the religion practice; The first type of priest was specialize in divinities like the Inticamaccuna, priest that exclusive worship the sun, The Quillamamacuna priestesses for the moon, the Illapacamac for the lightning, the huacamayoc for the inca pyramids; The second type of priests practice magic and presaged the future like the Soyac using corn, the Hechecoc that use the coca leaves, just to mention a few.

The eternal, all mighty and invisible god of the inca religion was Wiracocha, it is believe that his real name is Apu Kon Titi Wiraqocha; He could move from the Hanan Pacha or universe world to the Kai Pacha or earth world and he could enter the underground world or Uju Pacha at his will; The inca mythology say that, Wiracocha came to earth to visit the incas, with the shape of an old man with white beard.

All the religions celebrations were done in the Huacas or inca pyramids, they had hundreds all over the kingdom, the incas knew the solar calendar of 365 days, so they build 365 huacas around Cuzco, one huaca for each day of the inca calendar; The huacas were the main religious centers and the symbol of the inca religion, so when the spaniards try to impose the catholic religion to the inca people, the huacas were the first target.

The spaniards did not want the incas to carry on worshiping their gods any more, so in 1532 fray Cristobal de Albornoz got the order from Spain to search and destroy all huacas of the incas empire; In the first year more than 600 huacas were destroy, all temples were burn, all records and knowledge was destroy and even the death mummies of old inca kings call Mallquis, were burn and destroy in public; Ones a huaca was destroy, a catholic church was build on top of the ruins; It is sad to know that this kingdom was so rich in culture and in just few years after the spaniards arrive, was so empty.

The inca religion is not different from other religions, think about it, in the name of the god Wiracocha, dozens of Peruvian tribes and beautiful pre incas cultures were exterminated and swallowed by the incas empire, so there is not difference in within the catholic religion and the incas religion, both of them did terrible things during their time, we shall not blame any of them, we should learn from it and do not let it happened again.

See Inca Religion Tours

Do you have
any Questions?
Ask Me!

Anonymous Chat