The Shipibo People
The Shipibo History
In streets of Iquitos or Pucallpa, pasajeros will immediately notice the Shipibo people of Peru walking through the cities, offering beautiful woven tapestries to tourists and meeting with pasajeros and staff of Ayahuasca retreat centers. Most Shipibo shaman’s come from Pucallpa which is where Wiler calls home and where the Ayahuasca Spirit Healing Center is located.
The people of shipibo are a small indigenous group of Peruvians whose total population equates to approximately 35,000 people in approximately 300 villages in the region. The Shipibo speak Shipibo but have also borrowed certain Spanish words to speak a mix of the two. Most Shipibo, especially those that work in centers for pasajeros, speak Spanish as well or are able to communicate easily with those that do, using their blended language.
As we previously mentioned when describing the village of Limongema, the Shipibo are mostly hunters, fishermen, artisans and some of the best chef’s we’ve ever come across! (You will see what we mean when you taste the incredible meals prepared for you by our gifted, warm, friendly and talented cooks). Additionally, the tapestries that are (usually) created by Shipibo women, are beautifully woven and intricately designed to reflect visions or icaros that are seen to them via Ayahuasca ceremonies. They are truly one of a kind and for those that have worked with the medicine before, they know how accurately they can enrapture visions from the ceremony in tapestry form.
Shamanism has been prevalent in the history of the Shipibo with a strong respect given to those that take the path of the Shaman in each village. Shamans are not only the go-to authority when it comes to physical ailments but also spiritual/mental and emotional anomalies that those in the village may be facing. A true confidant and trusted authority, Shamans undergo decades of training, countless plant diets and an abundance of ceremonies before being ready to heal others with plant medicine.
Now that westerners have taken note in the last couple of decades of the incredible healing powers of plant medicine and specifically Ayahuasca, the Shipibo are pleased to share their gifts with those in need. A friendly smile, a few laughs during the ceremony (which are very welcomed and sometimes needed) and an energy unlike you’ve ever felt is what most of pasajeros describe regarding the staff and Shamans at our center.
We at Ayahuasca Spirit Healing Centre are most grateful that we’ve been given the opportunity to work with such a remarkable and gifted group of people such as the Shipibo, that social initiatives and giving back to the community of Limongema is something that is paramount to our values and pillars of our center.
This is how we organize Mother’s Day for all the mothers in the village, May 2020:
We go get supplies and gather all the village men making them to do a special lunch for mother’s day.
They have been cooking all night so that on the day all the mothers can come and just enjoy a delicious home made food.
Is a day in which the women just relax, do nothing at all. They just sing, dance, play football and have fun :).
Celebrations are held in style here as life is harsh and any excuse to have a good time is hgreatly taken advantage of .
One of the things westerners should learn to do.
