Chakana, The Andean Cross

When I travelled down the Andean high plateau from Peru to Chile and the regions west of the Andes, one particular symbol kept cropping up everywhere in the ruins and artefacts left behind by the pre-Colombian civilizations which dwelt there for several thousands of years. See the first photo. I have forgotten the exact spot where I took this photo but it was in the Atacama region in Chile, either at the spot where a track that takes you to the Moon Valley in the desert branches off the main road OR near the entrance of the archeological complex called "The Tulor ruins" where the remains of a prehistoric town were found.

It's a cross formed with equal length arms pointing in the four cardinal directions with a square superimposed on it and a circle in the center. The geometry and the method of constructing it has been precisely defined (see the second graphic I picked from a brochure our guide gave).

I had heard our guides while in Peru call it an "Inca Cross". And it does appear in several Inca artefacts and religious decorations (see the third photo of a medallion found at the ruins of an Inca temple in Racqui in Peru). However it's oldest known appearance pre-dates the Incas by several centuries. The oldest known use of this symbol has been dated to somewhere around 1000BCE to 800BCE in the remains of the Chavin culture.

The Akapana - a large terraced structure close to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, which perhaps was the main religious center of the Tiwanaku culture that preceded the Incas, is in fact shaped like this "Inca" Cross. (See the fourth photo of the ruins of Akapana)

And the fifth photo showing the Cross, etched into a stone slab. This is actually a type of "fastener" used in the Tiwnaku architecture where two stone slabs could be fitted together by fitting the projections on one into the depression of the other)

In fact, in the language of the indigenous Quechua people (one of the native tribes of the Andean altiplano - high plateau) this shape is called Chakana - meaning a "bridge" or a "Way to cross over".

BUT a "bridge" between what? "Cross over" to where?

Every culture has such symbols which have an important place in its beliefs and customs.

The ancient Egyptians for example had an idealized graphic of the Papyrus plant - every old Egyptian temple you visit, you will find this graphic everywhere you look and it did carry a deep meaning for them.

(See my writeup about that in Marathi

https://wherenonehavegonebefore.blogspot.com/2022/12/blog-post_37.html

or in English

https://www.facebook.com/satish.joshi.161/posts/pfbid0S2SE6qux3oD31417wLGGk1fwYGAathCvbgNWZ5cQxHoQAvtmsgYLtF8QXtrLsADdl)

We have our own Swastik (and I mean the symbol of well-being, purity, prosperity, good fortune in Indian culture. And NOT it's distortion by Hitler and his Nazis into a symbol of hate, oppression and genocide).

What was the meaning of the Chakana for the pre-historic cultures of South America? That's where there has been a fair amount of disagreement - largely because none of these societies who revered this symbol wrote anything down and when the Spanish conquered them, they never bothered to learn anything about the cultures of those who they massacred.

According to some this symbol actually represents the constellation of the Southern Cross which is one of the brightest asterisms visible everywhere in the southern hemisphere. And the Southern cross does appear on many Inca religious artefacts (for example see the 6th Photo of a gold plate that was found in the Inca temple of Koricancha in Cusco with the Southern Cross at the center). The southern cross was the symbol of the domain where the gods like the Sun god Inti or the Moon god Qilla reigned (See the grpahics in the upper left and upper right corners of the plate).

According to others the Chakana represents the 3 worlds. Hana (or Hanan) Pacha : The domain of the gods, Kay Pacha : Where the humans, animals, trees etc dwelt and the Uku Pacha : The nether world, The kingdom of Mamapacha, the mother of everything - crops, soil, trees , all living things. And the circle in the center represents, a way for a Shaman to cross into these other worlds or planes of existence!

In any case it is said that the similarity between the Chakana revered by the Incas and their subject tribes and the Christian Cross was capitalized on by the Christian missionaries who went to South America after the Spanish Conquest. That and the similarity in appearance of the supreme God of the Incas Viracocha (see the picture of Viracocha carved on the mountainside in Ollantaytambo) to the pictures of a bearded Jesus, were two powerful tools which helped the missionaries to convince the population to convert to Christianity!