VISION
Our vision at Pachamama Temple goes beyond the genuine desire to help individuals heal and grow. Through the healing that we have received on personal levels, we have developed a sincere calling to help the local community and their children, for without them and their ancient knowledge, none of the healing would have been possible. We have our hearts and souls in the project of opening a school for young Shipibo generations to receive proper education. It is an institution that enables the magnificent culture and profound plant medicines knowledge of the Shipibos to carry on. The School project used to be a dream of an individual, now is coming to life.
EDUCATION MAKES THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
Opening a Shipibo school on the Pachamama Temple premises was more than a promise. It was a manifestation of gathered gratitude from those whose lives improved after experiencing healing in traditional Shipibo way. It is an idea of supporting the local communities and providing free education. The “westerners” have decided that receiving healing is not the end and the good continues in a circle of healing and gratitude. Our gratitude took the form of a school that is being conducted by one of our Shamans Maestro Luis Marquez Pinedo.
The school has met all the conditions to hold classes on weekends, and now is in the process of becoming a recognized institution for all those in need of education, especially the young and the pregnant mothers who otherwise cannot experience the benefits of formal knowledge.
SHIPIBO IN THE PAST
More than 600 years ago, the Shipibo Konibo people, was a culture of self-education, exercising a family leadership in the topics of: Land, Water and Nature.
This allowed the Shipibo families to live in harmony with Mother Earth, nature, water, animals, birds, trees, fish, and the spiritual beings of each of the elements of the Earth.
Mother Earth as the centre of life for the Shipibo people, whom they loved and respected because She enabled them to grow plants and was the home of animals where the interaction of lives exists. Despite of living a non-materialistic life, the Shipibos consider themselves wealthy for they believe they have been given all the life’s treasures from Mother Earth. Shamans were their best health professions in favour of the community, connoisseurs of plants for different types of healings in the physical and spiritual realms.
SHIPIBO IN THE PRESENT
When the state implemented formal education, all the knowledge of the Shipibo culture turned into a hidden science, stigmatized for it’s people. The knowledge of other cultures is now sooner than ever penetrating the Shipibos and leaving unwanted marks like cultural ignorance, disappearance of the language as a means of cultural and social communication, rejection of traditional medicine, rejection of the way of life, empowerment of the knowledge of another culture and destroying the environment. Unfortunately, the influence of the west on the Shipibos is taking it’s toll.
SHIPIBO IN THE FUTURE
Our plans are now focused on creating officially recognized school with traditional subjects as well as modern schooling subjects like science, biology, chemistry, music, law, languages, agriculture and many more. The school project was created to preserve the Shipibo culture and allow that culture to grow in all the points below:
- To strengthen and practice daily mother tongue.
- To rescue and learn the traditional technology in the cultivation and use of medicinal and non medicinal plants.
- To rescue and learn traditional technologies for the breeding of native domestic animals.
- To promote inter-culturalism with other peoples, letting them know the technology, uses, customs, and traditions of the Shipibo-Konibo people.
- To promote the good use of nature as God’s pharmacy.
- To establish a diversified plan for the education of children in order to rescue the ancestral tradition.
- Each person involved in the project will plant a tree as payment to Mother Earth.
- Revolving loans in the breeding of minor birds.
- To conduct exchanges with the children of Europe at the level of traditional knowledge.
OUR LONG TERM GOAL
The school was founded as an attempt to save the Shipibo culture and enrich the indigenous people by providing free education in many spheres of life. The project has just sprouted, and we hope to witness it evolve into a Shipibo university. The Shipibo people deserve their culture and thousands year old knowledge to live on. In these turbulent times, their children deserve to know the importance of learning English and ecology. This project takes the best of both worlds, and creates a better place for the generations to come.
Support Our Vision
If you are interested in helping our school vision come to life, please get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you.