Chincheros Mestana Cloth Dimension | txm0112

Chincheros Mestana Cloth

txm0112
Product Size: 26.5" x 24.5"

$250.00

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Fair Trade

Hand Made

This sturdy mestana cloth is hand woven and features traditional Chincheros motifs in its bands. The designs are woven to produce an image with positive color and weave effect on one side and opposite color and weave effect of the same image on the reverse, making it beautiful on both sides. Makes a fitting mestana or altar cloth. Edges are finished with the distinctive nawi awapa edging or eye border, which is believed to have special protective qualities. To the Inca, this eye represents a place of generation, like a seed in a furrow or a sprout on a potato. From the Chincheros of the high Andes mountains of Peru.

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Dimensions

Size: 26.5" x 24.5"

Product Origin

Q'ero

Q'ero Nation of Peru
The Q'ero Nation is located a one day ride on horseback from the road to Paucartambo in Cusco and is the oldest in the Inca Tradition. They live 4,300 meters high in the Peruvian Andes. They grow and eat potatoes, such as olluco and oca. Children between the ages of 7-14 attend school. Medical assistance is scarce. They work and live as a community of 800 or so people. They marry among themselves and have kept their customs alive since Incan times.
The main activity of the Q'ero, besides agriculture, is weaving. They use natural dyes for their wool. Their techniques and designs are considered to be the closest to those of their ancestors. Their weavings have been displayed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
The Q'ero believe they are the last descendants of the Inca. According to tradition, their ancestors defended themselves from invading Spanish conquistadores with the aid of the local mountain deities (los Apus) which devastated the Spanish Army near Wiraquchapampa.
The religion of the Q'ero is syncretic, consisting of a mixture of European Christianity with elements of the traditional religion of the Andes. Shamans of different levels (e.g., Altumisayuq, Pampamisayuq) still have a high reputation. They worship Mother Nature (Pachamama) as well as other mountain spirits like Apu Ausangate and other regional deities.

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The Qocha design is typically woven in a three-color complementary-warp weave made up of symmetrically arranged zigzags, each composed of lines of triangles. The pattern and colors on one side of the cloth appear on the opposite side in reverse. John Cohen and Steven Webster recorded the name qocha, meaning lake in Quechua, while Oscar Nunez del Prado recorded this design as puytu or rhomboid.