 The "Ponce stela" at Tiwanaku |
The zenith of Aymara civilisation was reached over a thousand years ago, as epitomised by the ruins of the great pre-Inca city of Tiwanaku. Tiwanaku is a unique record of Aymara culture, the product of a people who had a unique understanding of the relationship between the spiritual and the natural world.
The Tiwanaku empire reached its peak about 1,300 years ago, long before the Incas had even been heard of. Today, however, the main temple of Tiwanaku lies in ruins, its stones carted off to construct the great cathedrals, and its gold treasures consigned to museums and to the coffers of the Emperor of Spain. What is left of the Temple today gives a mere hint of its former glory.
The original name of Tiwanaku was Taypi Kala, “the stone at the centre (of the world)”. One of the main set of figures in the Kalasasaya (the “inner sanctum” of Tiwanaku ) was a group of Yaya-Mama statues, each with the features of a woman on one side and a man on the other side. These are said by local shamans (native soothsayers/healers) to illustrate the relationship between Lady Earth and Lord Sky, which are linked by double-headed serpents known as “rainbow rivers”, an echo of the “rainbow serpent” of Australian Aboriginal mythology.
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