Danger of Theorizing Part X – Legends of a White and Bearded God Part II

In the last post the comments of a white god as written by Pedro Cieza de Leon in 1541 was listed. Continuing with the information regarding the legends of a white god who visited the Peruvian area in antiquity, the following is from Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.

Gamboa (often called Sarmiento) was a celebrated navigator and captain in the Spanish army. While stationed in Cuzco, Peru, he was ordered by the Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, to compile a history of the natives. Summoning some of the oldest wise men still living in the ancient Inca capital, Sarmiento interviewed them individually, then compared their testimonies to draw his conclusions and make his compilation.

The manuscript he prepared was called Historia de Los Incas, La Segunda Parte de La Historia Llamada Indica, the second of what was originally projected to be three separate books. The manuscript remained unpublished in the custody of the Spanish crown for many years, finally finding its way by sale to the library at the University of Göttingen, [Germany], where it was discovered and published in 1906. Sarmiento’s version of the white god legend is as follows:

“All the Indians agree that they were created by this Viracocha, who they believe was a man of medium height, white and clothed in a white robe gathered around his body, and that he carried a staff and a book in his hands. After this, they tell a strange story; that is, that after this Viracocha created all the people, he came walking to a place where a large group had congregated … Viracocha continued his journey, doing the works of piety and instructing the people he had created … and wishing to leave the land of Peru, he gave a speech to those he had created, advising them of things which were to happen in the future. He warned them that people would come saying that they were the Viracocha, their creator, and that the people should not believe the impostors, but that in the coming ages he would send his messengers to teach and support them. And having said this, he and his two companions went into the ocean and walked away over the waters, without sinking, as if they had been walking on land.”

Then there is the record of Juan de Betanzos who was among the first conquistadores who invaded Peru with Francisco Pizarro. Immediately upon entering the country, he began studying Quechua, the language of the Incas, until he became proficient enough to be named official interpreter for the royal court. He was skilled enough in the native language that his first publications were Spanish-Quechua dictionaries. Betanzos married one of the former Inca princesses and lived in Cuzco, compiling data and observations first hand until 1551, when his major treatise on the traditions and history of the Andean Indians, Suma y Narracion de Los Incas, appeared. He took special care to preserve the “order of speaking of the natives” in his writings. This is Betanzo’s description of the god Viracocha:

“Asking the Indians what idea or figure they had of this Viracocha when the ancients saw him according to their traditions they had received, they told me that he was a man of tall stature, and that he had white clothing that came to his feet, and that his robe he had drawn at the waist, and that he had short hair, and that he had a crown on his head like a priest would wear, and that he walked with his head bare, and that he had a certain thing in his hands that looked to them like the small religious books the priests carry around with them today. I asked them the name of this person in whose honor the stone monument was erected and they told me that he was called Con Tici Viracocha Pachayachachic, which in their tongue, means, ‘god, creator of the earth.’ ”

An additional account is from an Indian of the southern sector of the Inca empire who prided himself on having been “Christianized.” He wrote under the unwieldy name of Don Joan de Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui, and his manuscript, a curious mixture of Spanish and Quechua words, remained unpublished until 1880. Santacruz Pachacuti’s version of the white god tradition, though, is most interesting:

“Some years after the devils had been cast out of this land, there came to these provinces and kingdoms of Tabantinsuyo a bearded man of medium build with long hair, wearing a rather long tunic, and they say that he was more than a youth. He had white hairs, was slender, walked with a staff, and he taught the people with great love, calling them all his sons and daughters. When he journeyed through the provinces he performed many miracles visibly: he healed the sick by touching them with his hands. He had no belongings or possessions, and spoke all of the languages of the provinces better than the natives, and they called him Tonapa or Tarapaca Viracochanpa Chayachicachan or Pacchacan and Bicchhaycamayoc Cunacaycamayoc. He chastised the people with great love and they listened to him with rapt attention, receiving what he preached to them, indicating and emphasizing each chapter of the discourse.”

Legends in Mesoamerica fall far short of these extremely detailed accounts, shortened her for sake of space, but extensive in their descriptive nature of this white God.