VIRGEN DE URKUPINA. COCHABAMBA. BOLIVIA.
Religious celebration of Urkupina Virgin. The ancient bolivian traditions mixed up with catholicism and booze.
the celebration takes place every year in the third week of august, in quillacollo, near a few miles of cochabamba, bolivia.
according to the legend, the virgin appears to a little girl shepherdess in the top of a hill, "the calvario". every year the pilgrims comes to the top of the calvario, where they ask for favors to the virgin. in order to make real this demands, the shaman (or priest) mix up the indigenous bolivian traditions with catholicism and bless (chaya) on the pilgrims with beer and firecrackers. the pilgrims pay for this and give booze and cigarettes to the priest. it´s a big religious festivity with 3 days of dance, lots of alcohol, pilgrimage and over 50.000 faithful pilgrims.
Cochabamba. Bolivia. August 2007.
In the Walking bolivia. photo essay.
9 responses
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Jorge Bernal said (27 Feb 2008):
great composition
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John Linton gave props (2 Jul 2008):
Oh yeah! Your essay rocks!
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Gabe Maxson gave props (17 Aug 2008):
Has my vote.
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Laura Boston-Thek gave props (24 Aug 2008):
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Ewa James said (30 Aug 2008):
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Dennis Groom gave props (15 Sep 2008):
Nice work.
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Portia Söderberg gave props (10 Oct 2008):
definitely a yeah! awesome entry!
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Simon Kossoff gave props (14 Oct 2008):
Good entry and great story, my vote.
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tatjana krstic said (17 Oct 2008):
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