Earth Mandala
Global peace through
the Sacred Arts
Updated Febuary
20, 1999
Vijali Hamilton's
second Earth Mandala circling the globe is beginning
in Ecuador, the first of nine countries close to the equator.
The other
countries are Brazil, Nigeria, Somalia, India, Australia, South
Pacific
Ocean off of Nauru, Kiribati and California, USA. The Earth Mandala
is
an artistic forum for global understanding and is dedicated to
the
children of the world. Vijali Hamilton believes that global peace
can
only arise as the outcome of personal
healing through a growing awareness of community and world family.
By
working through the sacred arts with local artists, performers
and
community, Vijali Hamilton addresses the people's deepest spiritual,
personal and social concerns. As soon as she arrives in a country,
she
asks each person she meets,
three questions:
1.
What is our essence?
2.
What is it that ails us--personally,
communally and globally?
3.
What is it that can heal us and
our globe?
People's response
from these questions form the art and ritual
performance. Each earth sculpture that Vijali Hamilton creates
with the
involvement of the community, serves as the performance space
and is
left as a gift and permanent installation to be used by the community,
continuing to connect them to the concept of Unity of the Earth
Mandala.
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My news letter follows:
Yes, I have fallen in-love
with Ecuador. Edie Hartshorne, my friend who uses her music for peace activism
and performs with me often in the States, joined me shortly after
I decided on living in an indigenous village outside of Otavalo
in the Andes. Here in the village Peguche, every morning we get
up at 5 AM to walk in the shadow of the 15,048 feet high Taita
Imbabura, to the sacred stone for the indigenous villages of
this area, Hilton Rumi. As the morning light touches the two
volcanos who's presence is always felt, we check to see if she,
Mama Cotacachi, at 16,200 feet, has been dusted with snow from
the night. We join in the local folklore and merriment of acknowledging
that the volcanoes made love in the night and are now resting
in contentment.
As we walk through
the village passing cornfields, Otavalenans dressed in their
traditional clothes, men in white ankle length loose pants and
hat, with their hair braided in one long braid, the women in
dark folded skirts with crisp white ruffled blouses, strings
and strings of gold bead around their necks, their long black
hair tide with a colorful band in a pony tail, and their scarves
folded in many creative ways around their heads taking their
cows out to pasture, pigs poking their noses through fences greeting
us with their humorous grunts, everyone smiling, "Buenos
dias" as we pass. We feel, yes, this is the way we want
to live.
The process of getting
permission to carve this sacred stone, which was suggested by
one of our new Otavalenan friends, has been fascinating. We have
talked with elders, the leaders of the community, land owners,
families, young people, curanderos and are amazed to see how
the community decides with consensus. The whole village has become
involved adding there own visions and desire to bring the village
and especially their children back to the roots of their own
pre-christen culture, which, this particular stone and the images
I have chosen to carve, represent to them. Edie has been a tremendous
asset in translating, because my Spanish is very limited, and
bringing her continual enthusiasm and sunny spirit. We have been
living in the home of an indigenous woman, Matico Lema, her daughter
and elder Mamasita. We are a happy household.
Matico has started
a women's group, Huarmi Maqui, and I am using some of the Flow
Fund Circle funds to help the women get started in their handicraft
business, weaving, embroidery, jewelry. Edie and I will be bringing
these items to the States when we return. We are also playing
music with the local musicians and are developing an interesting
combination of Andean, American music. We now wear the Otavalenan
clothes that the women wear which was one factor in the people
here opening their hearts to us. They have already won our heart
with their beautiful faces and generosity in sharing their lives.
Nine people are helping
me to excavate the enormous igneous rock which is now about 30
feet high and 50 feet long, making a level area around it for
dancing at the upcoming ceremony. Because the stone is very hard
and slow work, four of these people are helping me carve as I
teach them how to sculpt. Edie and I are now known in the village
as the sweethearts of Chosalunga (the viral spirit of the Stone).
We have made a commitment
to have it completed for the ceremony "Inti Raimi,"
an ancient sun ceremony on June 22 and 23. You would be welcomed
by the village if you came for the ceremony of ritual bathing
at the sacred spring that comes out of the rock and the crystal
clear river flowing close by on the 22 and the all night dancing
and ceremony on the 23. If you are interested in coming please
email me: vijaliham@aol.com. When you arrive in Quito you may
want to stay a night at Casa Sol Hostel, (at 6 de Decembre and
Calama) run by Matico’s brother, then take a 2 hour bus
ride to Otavalo. Matico's home is the first house on the second
Peguche exit off of the Pan American Highway as you go north
leaving Otavalo. We can arrange for you to stay with an Otavalenan
family.
When I first arrived
in Ecuador, I traveled to the rainforest with two friends from
the EarthWays Foundation, Andrew Beath and Cherise Miller. EarthWays
is a nonprofit organization that is an umbrella for projects
like my own Earth Mandala for global peace. They are interested
in social activism, and at this moment, in finding a way to help
preserve the Ecuadorian rainforest. If there has been any problem
since I have been here, it is that I have fallen in-love with
two places; the rainforest and the Andes.
Our destination was
Panacocha on the Rio Napo. We visited two Quichua communities
in La Selva, the forest. There we were taken by our new Quichua
friends through the forest, and in their dugout canoes, onto
the narrow rivers incising the jungle to their incredibly beautiful
lagoons. There we swam with a sweet water dauphin. To walk among
the chattering monkeys and songs of birds I have never heard
before and the incredible creations of nature in the form of
insects under the canopy of ancient trees woven together by giant
flowering vines . . . what can I say . . . I want to go back.
I am hoping to find
a way to return to the rainforest of Ecuador before I go on to
Brazil, the next site of the Earth Mandala, and support an indigenous
women's group that has been started. And yes, be nourished by
my other love, the Rainforest. Their are many problems here with
the destruction of forest and the lives of the indigenous. The
oil companies have made roads into the forest, leaving pollution,
and destruction of not only the forest which is so necessary
for the survival of our planet but are fast changing the way
of life for the indigenous peoples. I feel we so need the example
of these people who are still living in harmony with their environment
and in community, as much as we need the trees and medicinal
plants, etc., etc., of the forest. If I am able to return, I
have in mind a project with one of the Quichua communities that
I have already befriended. I would like to connect my efforts
with EarthWays who is in the process of leasing part of the Rainforest
for ecotourism as a way to protect the rainforest from oil development
and to support and protect the rainforest communities and culture.
Well, my friends,
I could go on, and on, about this very special time and privilege
to be here in the Peguche community, but will save it for the
next letter or when I next see you. I am returning to the States
on July 7 th, to the annual conference of the Institute of Noetic
Sciences in Florida, to speak and show slides of this first site
of the second Earth Mandala, Ecuador.
I send you all much
love, Vijali
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Dear Family
June 29, 1999
I will be returning to the States in a week and wanted to share
the completion of the sculpture and my time here in Peguche,
Ecuador. I thought the best way to do this is to email you the
brochure which is being make into a permanent plaque in front
of the sculpture with Quichua, Spanish and English translations.
Here it comes and much love to you all, Vijali
Welcome to Achilly Pachacamac,
a unique stone sculpture which expresses the spirit of the indigenous
Andean peoples. Achilly Pachacamac is the pre-Incan name for
the supreme God, the life force which encompasses all other.
The gigantic volcanic boulder
containing the sculpture landed in Peguche, Ecuador over 12,000
years ago after the last eruption of Volcano Imbabura, which
towers 16,000 ft. Above the Otavalo Valley. Legends tell us that
many spirits dwell within this stone, and within the mountains
and streams that surround Achilly Pachacamac. Powerful spirits,
Chusalungos, also inhabit the local volcanoes Imbabura and Mojanda.
Otavalenos describe a great battle in which the Chusalungos of
Imbabura and Mojanda fought to win the love of a third volcano,
Cotacatchi. Each Chusalungo hurled a gigantic stone across the
valley. Infamous as a womanizer, the Chusalungo of Imbabura had
been weakened by his amorous exploits. Thus the stone he hurled
barely reached the valley floor, in the village of Peguche.
From within this immense stone
emerges a single face -- that of Pachacamac, representing the
integration of male and female essential qualities. The sculpture
reflects ancient roots of indigenous Andean culture. The portrayal
of Pachacamac also expresses hope for the Millennium: that men
and women live in harmony and equality. A rising sun shines forth
from the stone, heralding a vision of peace for the 21st century.
A crescent moon and the rising sun together further echo the
harmony of male and female energies in the universe. An immense
ear of corn, ancient Andean symbol, rises up from rich soil at
the base of the sculpture, symbolizing nourishment for Mother
Earth’s children. On the South face of the sculpture a spiral
encircles a Quichua
Poem written by Music Healer
Jose Quimbo
Tucui Shunguhuan Yuyacpica
Cai Rumi Yayapash Rimangami
Cai Yucu Mamapash Jambingami
If you look at the stone with eyes of your heart
You will understand that stones speak
And water heals, giving you life.
Beneath the stone flows a sacred
spring which offers cleansing waters in a crescent moon shaped
well.
The sculpture of Pachacamac, with its clearly indigenous features,
looks east towards its source -- the Volcano Imbabura. Pachacama
is blowing a gigantic conch shell, the "churo" which
in earlier times brought together the whole community. The entire
work sends forth a resounding call to indigenous peoples everywhere
echoing humanity's urgent need to live in harmony with all creatures
and the earth. Such a return to indigenous values opens a pathway
for global peace.
The project’s sponsoring
group is Earth Mandala, a US based nonprofit organization, founded
and directed by Vijali Hamilton. During the last 15 years Vijali,
also the sculptor of Aichilly Pachacamac, has worked with indigenous
communities expressing a vision of world family and peace. Through
Vijali’s vision, Earth Mandala creates an actual circle,
or mandala linking 12 countries around the world with artistic
works and community projects. Vijali received the Earth Mandala
vision in a dream, 20 years ago. Peguche, Ecuador is the first
site of the current Earth Mandala, dedicated to the children
of the world, future custodians of the earth. Musician Edie Hartshorne,
founder of Global Women’s Vision assists sculptor Vijali
in translations and community outreach.
The community of Peguche wholeheartedly
responded to the vision of Earth Mandala. Each day during the
six weeks of work on the stone, members of the community worked
along with Vijali and Edie offering their dreams as guidance.
The community also has enhanced the sacred site with several
sparkling natural pools and an outdoor stone amphitheater. The
entire environment surrounding the sculpture reflects Peguche’s
commitment to creating an Andean Cultural Center, a result of
the collaborative efforts between Vijali, Edie and the community.
The inauguration of the sculpture and park took place at the
annual Festival of the Sun and harvest celebration, Inti Raimi,
on June 22, 1999.
The sculpture and its natural
environment with shaded green pasture land, dramatic views of
snow-dusted volcanoes, flowing streams and pools offers a unique
example of the organic relationship between art and nature. Future
pathways along the stream with its natural hot springs and healing
mineral waters will lead the visitor to Peguche’s Andean
Cultural Center and Museum, and then to the sacred Peguche Waterfalls.
With Special Thanks
Peguche’s four dedicated
community cultural leaders, Jose Farinango, Jose Antonio Lema,
Jose Quinbo and Andres Tabango envisioned and supervised the
creation of the Aichilly Pachacamac Environmental and Cultural
Park. Special thanks also to all the members of Peguche who worked
on the sculpture. The community Atawalpa in Peguche which donated
their communal building to become the site of the Cultural Center.
Matilde Lema Quimbo generously offered her home enabling Vijali
and Edie to experience the hospitality and daily life of an Otavavaleno
family. This project has also receive financial support from
the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the Flow Fund Circle and Earthways
Foundation. |
..Kunming, S.W. China..
