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Previous: Peru (6)
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Capital: La Paz
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Much still remains to be learned about the extent of the contribution of the Tiahuanaco Civilisation to the Huari Empire (sometimes called Tiahuanaco Empire) that dominated most today's Peru and Bolivia before disintegrating into several Aymara speaking states around 1100 AD. In the 15th century the Aymara were conquered by the Inca Empire that moved large numbers of Quechua speaking people into their territory to prevent their rebellion. With the advent of the Spanish Empire, the Aymara and Quechua provided forced labour for the exploitation of the rich silver mines of Potosi and Oruro. By the middle of the 17th century Potosi was the largest city in the Americas and Upper Peru (Bolivia) had become a major source of wealth for the Viceroyalty of Peru in Lima until it was attached to the Viceroyalty of La Plata in Buenos Aires in 1776. When Upper Peru was liberated by Marshal Antonio José de Sucre in 1825, the local white elite convinced Simon Bolivar and Sucre to let Upper Peru become independent rather than be joined with Peru or Argentina and it became Bolivia. Bolivia initially had access to the Pacific Ocean but it became land locked when it and its ally Peru lost the War of the Pacific against Chile in 1883. In 1838 it also lost a large territory in the south-east after the Chaco Wars with Paraguay. Bolivia is now one of the poorest countries in South America and the one with the greatest disparity between the wealthy elite and the impoverished indigenous populations. It is also one of the least stable having had 189 military coups in the 173 years of independent existence. |
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Leaving Peru at Yunguyo I arrived in the small Bolivian town of Copacabana (3810 m), where I spent a night at the Imperator Hotel for only two dollars in spite of its imposing name.
Copacabana is on a peninsula jutting out of Peru into Lake Titicaca. The Bolivian end part of the peninsula is isolated from Bolivia which lies of the other side of the straits of Tiquina. For safety considerations, passengers cross from San Pedro to San Pablo on a boat while the bus goes on this makeshift ferry.
The road from San Pablo climbs up to 4000 metres on the altiplano before reaching La Paz whose site, in the Choqueyapu canyon, was chosen by the Spaniards in 1548 to take advantage of the more favourable microclimate at the lower altitude, protected from the fierce Andean winds.
At 3640 metres, La Paz is the highest capital in the world. It takes a while to get acclimatised to the altitude and it is prudent to take it easy when exploring this hilly city so as to avoid "soroche" (altitude sickness).
Like in Peru, power and wealth are closely held in the hands a small white minority in Bolivia. The city reflects this reality with the indigenous people living in the colder high areas like El Alto at 4000 meters and the white elite enjoying the milder climate of Sopocachi and Obrajes at only 3140 metres of altitude further down the valley.
More than 50 percent of the people in La Paz are indigenous, most of them being Aymara. The remainder are mostly Mestizo as the whites account for less than 20 %.
These three photos were taken in the indigenous quarter near the colourful Rodriguez market area where you can find anything including the dried animal parts required for the sorcery rituals that are still practiced in spite of the Catholic religion's overwhelming authority. About 95% of the population are nominally Roman Catholic but the ancient pre-Inca gods are still worshiped in the guise of their substituted Christian saints.
This church was Bolivia's first Cathedral before the capital was moved from Laja to the better site of La Paz in the Choquepayu canyon. Now, Laja is only a small village on the wind swept plateau half way between La Paz and the historically very important archaeological site of Tiahuanaco.
The great mound behind these few ruins is not a hill but a stepped pyramid called Aquaplane built sometime between 200 and 600 AD by a theocratic Tiahuanaco civilisation whose religion and culture were adopted by the Huari people (from Ayacucho 700 km north of here), and imposed by them in the great Huari Empire that ruled over most of Peru and Bolivia around 800 AD.
This photo, looking down from the Acapana pyramid, shows a sunken ritual court on the right (reminiscent of the much earlier Chavin sunken courts) and the raised holy enclosure called Calasasaya on the right.
Here, the sunken court is much larger and deeper than similar ceremonial courts first used by the Chavin culture more than 1500 years earlier.
There is an unmistakable similarity between these faces on the inner walls of the sunken court and the tenoned faces adorning the outside walls of the "Smiling God's" temple at Chavin de Huántar.
This photo of the entrance to the Calasasaya taken from the sunken court is evidence of the Tiahuanaco people's mastery in using stone architecture with dramatic effect. They were the first to do so before the Incas many centuries later.
Below on the left is a better view of the stone deity seen through the doorway. On the right is a similar statue badly discoloured by having remained partly exposed and partly buried for centuries before being restored to a standing position once again.
The figure with a feline face holding two staffs on the lintel of this massive arch represents the ruling god of the Tiahuanaco pantheon (the staff has been a symbol of authority from time immemorial in the Andes). The arch is called the Gateway of the Sun, the central figure represents the "Gateway God" and the others on both sides represent his numerous attendants.
There is a conceptual similarity between the Chavin "Smiling" and "Staff" gods and the Tiahuanaco "Gateway God" but a huge difference between the two civilisations for the Chavin cultural hegemony spread by peaceful means while the Tiahuanaco culture was forcibly imposed on the Andean peoples much like the Inca culture would be a few centuries later.
