Pacha (Inca Mythology)

Pacha (Inca Mythology)

Uku Pacha (alternatively spelled Ukhu Pacha, Urin Pacha or Ukhupacha in Quechua) or Manca-Pacha (in Aymara) is the inner world. Uku Pacha is associated with the dead as well as with new life. As the realm of new life, the realm is associated with harvesting and Pachamama, the fertility goddess. As the realm associated with the dead, Uku Pacha is inhabited by the Supay, a group of demons that would torment the living.

Human disruptions of the Uku Pacha were considered a sacred matter and ceremonies and rituals were often associated with disturbances of the surface. In Incan custom, during the time of tilling for potato crops the disturbance of the soil was met with a host of sacred rituals. Similarly, rituals often brought food, drink (often alcoholic) and other comforts to cave openings for the spirits of ancestors.

When the Spanish conquered the area, rituals about Uku Pacha became crucial in missionary activity and mining operations. Brown contends that the dualistic nature and rituals surrounding openings to Uku Pacha may have made it easier to initially get indigenous laborers to work in the mines. However, at the same time, because mining was considered a perturbation of "subterranean life and the spirits that ruled it; they yielded to sacredness that did not belong to the familiar universe, a deeper and riskier sacredness." In order to insure that the perturbation did not cause evil in the miners or the world, indigenous populations made traditional offering to the Supay. However, Catholic missionaries preached that the Supay were purely evil and equated them with the devil and hell and thus prohibited offerings. Ritual surrounding Uku Pacha thus retained importance even after Spanish conquest.