Sira y Baukara

This work depicts the “Devil’s Pulpit”, a peak in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy mountain range in Colombia. Summits like this one which are more than 5600 meters tall are sacred for the U’wa people because they are the dominion of immortal beings in their mythology. The U’wa narrate their sung myths in ceremonies and celebrations of many hours. One of them is the Aya myth of the creation of the world which evokes Sira and Baukara. Sira, which translates to light, creates the world with his thought and gives origin to the heat of the sun and the water of lakes to generate life. Baukara is a feminine deity creator of the uteri of mother earth where life was born: lakes.