Hi Everyone,
I have just learned about an extremely fascinating culture in northern Colombia, a people called the Kogi.
They are believed to be the only surviving pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas, direct descendants of the ancient Tairona people.
They live in a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains that is actually a microcosm of the whole world. At the base is the tropics and the warm Caribbean Sea. At the top is permafrost and snowy peaks. There is everything in between at different elevations. Desert, rain forest, tundra, all of it.
The Kogi believe that their meditation and spiritual practices protect the world -- that they are guardians of life on earth. They consider themselves to be the elder brothers and stewards of the planet. Western civilization are the "younger brothers" and they have a strong ecological message that the younger brothers are destroying the world.
I find these people to be riveting. Everything they do is sacred and they have lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years. They have an interesting spiritual practice where their leaders are taken as babies and kept in total darkness for 9 years, working on meditation and interacting with nature spirits. They later emerge into the light and continue their training.
Sometime in the late 80's the BBC made a documentary about them, the only one like it ever made and it is very, very well done. Here is a link to it on Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...3096312859
Despite the somewhat poor quality, this is a GREAT documentary. Try watching the first 7 minutes of it to get a good feel for the topic. I suspect you'll like it!
There's a lot more on the internet out there on the Kogi, and worth checking out if you are interested in such things. Here are a few more
http://www.labyrinthina.com/kogi.htm
http://tairona.myzen.co.uk/index.php/about/news/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...3828100552
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQjscRuOqnY
Love to all
I have just learned about an extremely fascinating culture in northern Colombia, a people called the Kogi.
They are believed to be the only surviving pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas, direct descendants of the ancient Tairona people.
They live in a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains that is actually a microcosm of the whole world. At the base is the tropics and the warm Caribbean Sea. At the top is permafrost and snowy peaks. There is everything in between at different elevations. Desert, rain forest, tundra, all of it.
The Kogi believe that their meditation and spiritual practices protect the world -- that they are guardians of life on earth. They consider themselves to be the elder brothers and stewards of the planet. Western civilization are the "younger brothers" and they have a strong ecological message that the younger brothers are destroying the world.
I find these people to be riveting. Everything they do is sacred and they have lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years. They have an interesting spiritual practice where their leaders are taken as babies and kept in total darkness for 9 years, working on meditation and interacting with nature spirits. They later emerge into the light and continue their training.
Sometime in the late 80's the BBC made a documentary about them, the only one like it ever made and it is very, very well done. Here is a link to it on Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...3096312859
Despite the somewhat poor quality, this is a GREAT documentary. Try watching the first 7 minutes of it to get a good feel for the topic. I suspect you'll like it!
There's a lot more on the internet out there on the Kogi, and worth checking out if you are interested in such things. Here are a few more
http://www.labyrinthina.com/kogi.htm
http://tairona.myzen.co.uk/index.php/about/news/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...3828100552
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQjscRuOqnY
Love to all