Second World Wheel

Andes of Ecuador

In 1999 as work on the second World Wheel began, a Wisdom Center was started in the Andes of Ecuador. Visitors to the tiny Otavaleñan village of Peguche, high in the Andes, will find a two-story stone sculpture of Achili Pachacamac, their pre-Incan deity that I carved with the help of the village. Three new projects flourish: an indigenous women’s group called Hwari Marki (women’s hands) that helps single women develop crafts to sell so that they can be independent, a charming bed and breakfast inn, and a school for the Otavaleñan children to preserve their culture.

Left: Inti Raimi, harvest ceremony with sculpture in Peguche. Left to right, shamans, Vijali, Edie Hartshorne the Outreach Coordinator for the World Wheel, Matico and friend, Photo Cherese Udell. Right: Vijali with Otavaleñan children, Photo Cherese Udell.

 

Left: Matico Lema founder of Hwari Maki women’s group for Otavaleñan women, photo E. Hartshorne. Right: Shairy Quimbo, Otavaleñan healer from Peguche, photo E. Hartshorne.

Amazon of Ecuador

In 2000 I began a World Wheel Center in the Ecuadorian Amazon east of Macas and the work of the refuge and center continues today. Generous donations have made it possible to purchase three hundred acres of virgin rainforest for a nature reserve, complete with lagoon, an island, waterfalls, and two rivers. I have returned this land to the indigenous Shuar families of the area (it had been taken away from them by the Silesian missionaries) to be caretakers of our precious rainforest, the lungs of our planet. I am in the process of sculpting Anaconda Woman, the Shuar spirit of water, near the sacred waterfall with my Shuar friends and their children. Along the river we have established a Wisdom Center, Amazonico Refugio, with traditional buildings of thatch and bamboo siding, tree houses for guests, and a school for the Shuar children, taught by the elders. This is a way to preserve the Shuar culture, the knowledge of the rainforest medicinal plants, and how to live sustainablely within the environment— all knowledge necessary for the survival and health of our life on this planet.

Left: World Wheel Amazonico Refugio, ceremony with Shuar musicians, photo E. Hartshorne. Right: Shuar ceremonial dance, photo E. Hartshorne.

 

Left: Federico Tsamaraint teaching in the Shuar Refugio School, a World Wheel project, photo E. Hartshorne. Right: Vijali giving out drawings from children in New Mexico, USA, photo E. Hartshorne

 

And Beyond...

The World Wheel will be continuing through Senegal and Kenya Africa, India, Brazil, and the South Pacific. So stay tuned for further updates!

Vijali Hamilton •  World Wheel Retreat •  HC 64, Box 2703 •  Castle Valley, UT 84532