Tinkuy dance during the Pukllay, the Q’eros most extensive and anticipated communal celebration in the annual cycle. The Pullkay is the new year feast, it celebrates the procreation of the flocks and herds of animals, the renovation of the community bonds and relationships, and it is an opportunity for the young men and women of close communities to meet.
The Colque Sur pass, where the Pukllay dances and celebrations take place.
Picture of Ricardo Apaza, president of the Hatun Q’ero community, his wife Irene and their first son Fabian.
Pic 1: alpaca with a broken leg. Pic 2: Q’eros traditional house, recently dismantled.
Lucio Chura plays the pinkuyllu, the typical Andean flute used in a variety of public festivals and communal ceremonies. During the Pukllay, the Q’eros most extensive and anticipated communal celebration in the annual cycle, men play the flute to accompany the women who sing the two kind of typical songs: pukklay taki and animal taki.
View of Chua Chua, the first village of the Hatun Q’ero community. The Q’eros are a Quechua-speaking community from the Peruvian Andes situated on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Vilcanota, roughly 100 kilometres outside of Cuzco.
Three women and a kid are approaching the area where the Tinkuy dances will take place, on the Colque Sur pass.
Pic 1: Inside a typical home in the Hatun Q’ero community, four brothers are watching a cartoon on a tablet, while their domesticated alpaca stands next to them. Pic 2: a dog in the fields around the Hatun Q’ero community.
Pic 1: Ricardo Apaza, president of the Hatun Q’ero community. Pic 2: a hatchet that is used to cut the meat for the first ritual meal of the day.
The head and the legs of an alpaca that has just been killed to be eaten during the ritual meals of the Pullkay, the Q’eros carnival.
Josue plays a big shell during the Tinkuy dance.
Pic 1: Emilio in the fields next to his house, in the Hatun Q’ero community. Pic 2: the day before, Emilio holds an alpaca leg while two men skin the animal.
A bottle of “cañazo”, coca leaves and the machete used to cut the tree around which people dance during the Tinkuy.
Pic 1: Aurelia (25) dressed in typical clothes for the Pukllay. Pic 2: Aurelia’s sister in law braids her hair.
Three siblings in a typical home in the Hatun Q’ero community.
Pic 1: A truck with a picture of Jesus Christ on the gravel road that connects Hatun Q’ero to the nearest town of Paucartambo. Pic 2: Suyana (81) is the oldest person in the Hatun Q’ero community. She has a little wooden cross around her neck and says she believes both in the Andean Deities and in the Christian God.
Lucio Chura is fixing his house roof.
The tree around which people will dance during the Tinkuy, adorned with balloons that represent abundance and prosperity. It will be cut at the end of the day, in a ritual called Yunza, to offer a tribute to Pachamama.
View of the Colque Sur pass.
