Argentina-North-West

Highlands (puna) of Jujuy north-west area. Every year the salineros (salt mine workers) meet for the Salias Grandes Festival. The Pachamama’s ceremony during which people sang songs and prayed in a low and high volume. The curandero would then bless the donation in order to finally burn it. After greeting one another, those present at the ceremony sat down on blankets and skins of leather and waited for the appropriate time in order to initiate the ceremony. When the charcoal lit up, the curandero spread sacred plants and incense on it. Pachamama (Mother Earth) is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. In Inca mythology, a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting. Salinas Grandes salt mines built into the flat, dry highlands of the Argentine northwest, where work 100-200 salineros (salt mine workers). Covering 212 square km are the third salt mines of the world, after Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) and Salar de Arizaro (Salta).

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Filename: em1410323.jpg
Copyright: @ enrico martino
Image Size: 4256x2832 / 6.6MB; andes believers celebration faith festival highlands indian indigenous indio jujuy latin america mother earth pachamama salinas salt mine tradition unesco world heritage
Contained in galleries: Latin America, Precolumbian saltmines, Argentina-The Wild North

Highlands (puna) of Jujuy north-west area. Every year the salineros (salt mine workers) meet for the Salias Grandes Festival. The Pachamama’s ceremony during which people sang songs and prayed in a low and high volume. The curandero would then bless the donation in order to finally burn it. After greeting one another, those present at the ceremony sat down on blankets and skins of leather and waited for the appropriate time in order to initiate the ceremony. When the charcoal lit up, the curandero spread sacred plants and incense on it. Pachamama (Mother Earth) is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. In Inca mythology, a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting. Salinas Grandes salt mines built into the flat, dry highlands of the Argentine northwest, where work 100-200 salineros (salt mine workers). Covering 212 square km are the third salt mines of the world, after Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) and Salar de Arizaro (Salta).