Las Leyendas de la Selva

There is something mysterious about the thick Amazonian rainforest. No wonder it has inspired so many stories, beliefs, myths in countries of South America. A classical one being the Eldorado story for instance. Although that’s more of a colonization related legend. All the same, a myth. But the amount of other leyendas circulating in the local communities in these areas is amazing. The creativity, creepiness, funniness, symbolism, morals of these stories make you wonder, excited and inspired. And they create a whole belief system. A connection with the spiritual world. Stronger among the local communities of course, but a culture known or understood all over the country.

When I was telling my Spanish professor about our trip to Tarapoto (a city at the edge of the Andes and at the beginning of the Peruvian Amazonia), she asked me in a joking way whether I met the Chullachaqui or the Tunche. She then explained that they are creatures, spirits of the selva (rainforest): Chullachaqui. The chullachaqui is a creature with one goat leg and one normal leg (or two normal legs but facing opposite directions), haunting the forests, taking appearances as people the lost wonderer knows, seducing them into the middle of the forest, where who knows what happens to them J I think the Brazilian version of them might be somehow Saci. The point is, that my teacher immediately had a story to share about a friend meeting these spirits in the forest.

Knowing about the Chullachaqui and the Tunche, explains the case of the windowless houses as well. In Lamas (a pueblo near Tarapoto) for instance, the traditional way of building a house is not to build any windows. Explanation being: preventing the bad spirits from entering the house. Practical explanation being: keeping the air fresher (we are talking about adobe houses), and preventing animals as well from entering. Of course animals can still enter through the doors and walls (again, adobe houses), which is why they sleep in the attic: a ladder leading the way up. A ladder which may be removed by the wife to punish the late and drunk arriving husband, posing the challenge: you can sleep up there if you are sober enough to put the ladder up and climb it. Otherwise you sleep downstairs exposed to possible animal attacks and other discomforts.

Leyendas as morals. Issue being: Greediness. There used to be a lake in the town. The town being far away from the sea, the lake’s salt supply played a crucial role in the local’s lives. It was the mother of the lake, the Boa that provided the salt and the lake. You were not supposed to be greedy and take too much salt from the lake. But as we know, people were. And hence came the punishment of Mother Boa. She left the lake, left the town, leaving the lake empty of water, empty of salt. She wondered away into the mountains, where she deployed her salt supply. This is why those hills are today rich in salt. And the empty lake today in the town currently functions as a football pitch…

Me encantan estas leyendas! El chullachaqui, el tunche, Mother Boa, are just a few examples of the possibly thousands of other mysteries. And it’s so beautiful how these influence beliefs, customs, lifestyles. Yet an other way of expressing fear and respect of the selva. 

View over Lamas, with the footballpitch/ ex-lake