Ukhu Pacha- Inca LocationLocation · Realm"Underworld"

The Inner World

Ukhu means "inner" in Quechua. Ukhu Pacha was the earth's interior, accessible through caves, springs, and lakes. Seeds germinated there before pushing upward into the light. The dead entered there. Inti traveled through it each night before rising at dawn. The amaru, the great serpent, moved through its passages, tracing the paths of underground rivers and emerging through holes in the earth.

Inti's Night Journey

Each evening, the sun set into the western sea and traveled through Ukhu Pacha during the hours of darkness, passing beneath the earth to emerge in the east at dawn. Temples and sacred structures were oriented to capture the first rays of morning, the moment when Inti emerged from the underworld. The rekindling of sacred fire at the solstice festivals celebrated this emergence. Rituals at dusk and dawn marked the thresholds of the sun's passage with solemn observance.

Caves and Pacarinas

Caves were physical portals connecting the surface to Ukhu Pacha. The founding mythology of the Inca dynasty began in caves: the four Ayar brothers and their sisters emerged from the caves of Pacaritambo, ascending from the inner world to found Cusco. The most sacred opening, Capac T'oqo, the Royal Cave, was the passage through which the future rulers had climbed from darkness into light.

Throughout the Andes, caves were venerated as pacarinas, places of origin from which specific peoples had first emerged. Viracocha had created the nations of the Andes from stone at Tiwanaku and sent them underground to travel through Ukhu Pacha before emerging at their designated pacarinas across the landscape. Each ethnic group maintained its own pacarina as among the most sacred huacas in its territory, visiting the site for annual ceremonies. The Spanish campaigns of extirpation targeted pacarinas specifically, attempting to sever the connection between communities and their origins.

The Dead and Their Dwellings

The dead entered Ukhu Pacha through caves, crevices, and burial sites. Bodies were placed in natural caves, carved rock niches, and chullpas, the above-ground burial towers found throughout the highlands, often on hillsides at the boundary between the living world and the earth's interior. The Inca elite received mummification. Common people received careful burial with offerings of food, chicha, and coca to sustain them below.

Families visited their ancestors' graves during designated festivals, bringing food and drink and conversing with the deceased as though they were still present.

The Mallqui Ancestors

Mallqui, the preserved bodies of ancestors kept in caves and rock shelters, were among the most important objects of veneration. The word means both "ancestor" and "seedling." The mallqui were active presences who could aid or harm their descendants. Communities consulted them on important matters and brought them out during festivals dressed in new textiles.

The Spanish campaigns against idolatry targeted the mallqui. Colonial officials searched caves and burial sites, confiscating ancestor mummies and burning them publicly. Pablo José de Arriaga documented these campaigns in his "Extirpación de la idolatría del Pirú" (1621), describing the horror of communities forced to watch their ancestors destroyed. The practice proved extraordinarily difficult to eradicate. Communities hid their mallqui in increasingly remote locations, and ancestor veneration continued covertly for generations.

Supay and the Underworld Spirits

Supay, often translated as "devil" under colonial influence, was originally a lord of the dead rather than a figure of absolute evil. Supay received the dead and governed their passage through the underworld.

Other beings inhabited Ukhu Pacha alongside the dead. Springs were points where the underworld's waters emerged into the living world, venerated as huacas, and the sacred water that issued from them was believed to carry the power of the inner world. The gentiles, beings from a previous age destroyed by Viracocha's flood, dwelled below the surface and occasionally emerged at ruins and ancient sites to trouble the living. These beings required respectful engagement through offerings and proper ritual.