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The human body is a reflection of the Earth. Its blood is the water. Its bones are the stones and its head, the summits of the mountains.– Kallawaya priest doctor

The Kallawaya live in the northern mountains of Bolivia, in the misty valleys and and slopes of the Apolobamba mountain range. Their culture has existed for more than a thousand years. Before the rise of the Incas, they developed their own vision of the cosmos and used their knowledge to treat Incan royalty. They managed to survive the onslaught of the Spanish and are considered throughout Bolivia and South America, to this day, as the sacred healers of the Andes.

These medicine men practice an intricate system of healing based on herbal, mineral, animal and ritual beliefs. Their pharmacopeia consists of over 600 plants. They are itinerant doctors–traveling to where they are needed, sometimes over hundreds of miles, in their own territories and abroad.

A documentary film crew (as portrayed in “Andean Healers, Secrets of the Kallawaya” directed by Thomas Wartmann) followed one such journey, as a Kallaway doctor traveled with his apprentice from deep inside the Kallawaya heartland to the highlands of Peru. Their destination was Machu Picchu. Their objective: to deliver one single medicinal plant to a friend.

As they travel, the Kallawaya collect botanical and spritual remedies, making their way through extreme latitudes, expanding their understanding of the universe. Over the centuries, their knowledge has exceeded the confines of what is known as medicine and reached a deeper, more powerful level.

For more info, go to the website for the documentary “Andean Healers, Secrets of the Kallawaya” at http://www.filmquadrat.de/Films/Heritage/Callawayadt.html (in German), directed by Thomas Wartmann and produced by Film Quadrat.

or follow this link to see one part of the documentary “The Secrets of the Kallawaya”:

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