Carnival of Oruro

From the Uru to the Virgin of the Mineshaft

Oruro was a pilgrimage centre of the Andean world long before the Spanish arrived, and its carnival grew out of pre-Columbian rituals of the Uru people. When the Spanish banned the native Itu ceremonies in the seventeenth century, the Uru continued them in the form of a Catholic ritual at Candlemas, with Christian icons concealing Andean gods. Legend says that in 1756 an image of the Virgin appeared in a mineshaft of Oruro’s richest silver mine, and ever since the carnival has honoured the Virgen del Socavón, the Virgin of the Mineshaft. The Christian Virgin and Devil blended with Pachamama and the mountain spirit Tío Supay.

UNESCO proclaimed the Carnival a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001.

The Entrada

More than 28,000 dancers and 10,000 musicians in about fifty groups take part in the Entrada, repeating the four-kilometre route to the sanctuary for twenty hours without a break. The dances come from across Bolivia: negritos, the Afro-Bolivian saya, caporales, tinku, llamerada, kullawada, morenada and many more — but the Diablada, the dance of the devils, has become the carnival’s leading dance. The pilgrimage culminates in two mystery plays, one about the Spanish conquest and one in which the Archangel Michael defeats the Devil and the Seven Deadly Sins, introduced by the clergy in 1818. Marching bands also compete at their own national festival before the carnival.