Copied from Alexiuss
Kogi: The last remnants of the ancient Tairona civilization.
It required me some serious digging, but what I have discovered was an incredible story of a Lost city, a civilization amidst jungles of Colombia:
This is the story of Tairona............................
Hundreds of years ago, Taironas used to live in harmony with the world around them.
In the mountains, amidst jungle they had built large, environmentally sound cities such as this one:
These were cities that worked with nature, instead of tearing forests down or encasing them in little square parks.
The Taironas had produced sculptural (albeit ugly ~Rayvn~) art out of gold, that they've used in various ceremonies:
In 1514 Spanish Conquistadors came to shores of South America.
And with them, they had brought slavery and forced Christianity that destroyed all other culture. With them, they had brought rifles, horses, dogs and DEATH.
War waged by Conquistadors on Taironas for their gold had forced Taironas to flee, deep into the mountains…
deep into the jungle.... where last remnants of their culture had found refuge, inside this pyramid shaped, massive Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta mountain range:
While most other cultures have been eradicated or converted by the Spanish conquerors, Taironas have maintained theirs.
They had hid away for centuries... and became known as the Kogi, emerging rarely into our world to "keep a watch over it"
In 1991, BBC documentary crew was allowed to enter the “Lost city”, by passing into the depths of Sierra Nevada triangle.
What they had found was an incredible culture that lived in union with nature, with beliefs that the earth is their "mother" and that it is alive. With a belief that plants and even mountains shouldn’t be harmed, as they are living, interconnected things.
With men, reaching the age of 102.
Most incredible and unique is the story of how Kogi priests are taught to respect nature.
They are prepared for a connection with nature from birth:
The young acolytes are taken away from their families; at the age of three and four, and they would live in darkness, in stone huts at the base of glaciers for 18 years, trying to IMAGINE, create the world in their minds.
And after 18 years of not seeing the sunrise, they are allowed to emerge from the hut and witness the full glory of mother nature, "the heart of the world" at the top of the mountains:
...and at this point the old priest says to the acolyte, “You see, it is really more beautiful than you could have ever imagined it. This world is yours to protect. You are its guardian.”
The Kogi believe that the mountain glaciers are the “heart of the world” and for good reason- at the glaciers, at the top of the mountains start the rivers that deliver water downwards to their villages, down to their forests, bringing life.
The Kogi call outsiders, any other culture as "Little Brother" and refer to themselves as the "Elder Brother”… which is quite interesting, that for all our knowledge and technology, we are indeed younger than they are and disconnected from nature, disconnected from its beauty in our metal and concrete cities.
The Kogi call themselves the "Elder Brother" because they believe they are the guardians not only of the sacred mountain on which they live but also of the whole planet.
The Kogi live entirely on what they can grow on the land they live on and have managed to do this for thousands of years. They live completely in balance with nature and the ecosystem. They have no crime and murder of another Kogi has never happened.
They live in little villages like this one, in valleys between mountains:
Through the BBC documentary crew, the only outsiders who were allowed into their sacred mountain, the Kogi have given the rest of the world the following message:
For decades, the Kogi have seen that the “heart of their world” has been dying- the glaciers have been melting from pollution, caused by the cities below.
The Sierra Nevada provides a perfect model of every type of terrain and microclimate on Earth. Its peaks are covered in snow and rise 17,000 feet above sea level, lower are forests, desert areas and mangrove swamps with coral reefs on the coast.
The Sierra Nevada acts like a microcosm of the macrocosm of the rest of the planet and the Kogi can tell from signs of its health what that of the rest of the world is like.
They predict that unless we stop polluting the air, burning fossil fuels, mining the earth, cutting down rain forests… that unless we change our ways we will kill mother earth, kill our planet.
You can watch full documentary on the Kogi here and feel for yourself what a total reversal of culture is like:
Documentary
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