|
|
|
 |
||
|
||
|
Wise Elders |
--Notable Individuals--
---Societal Elders---
|
Wise Elder's Project
Introduction
Sometimes we forget where we've been. We often look to the future with no reference to our past. But every now and then we learn about those who came before us and reflect on what mattered when they were alive. Every so often, we find value in their earlier visions of how our communities should function.
--Scott Terry, SF Chronicle
The mission of Sacred Sites International includes respecting the traditional people who honor and preserve their sacred sites. Since 1990, when we started Sacred Sites International, we have been privileged to meet many traditional elders who have kept their sacred sites alive, fought to protect and preserve them and in some cases, resurrected and restored them. These elders are also the guardians of cultural knowledge, traditions, ceremonies and stories.
We have seen how vitally important it is to honor traditional elders for the sacred knowledge they retain – the location of sacred places and the relationships of these sites within greater sacred landscapes; the sacred stories, songs and chants; sacred rituals and healing techniques; knowledge of traditional plants and medicinal herbs.
Here, we have stories of individuals, couples and families who have worked to preserve their cultures, their sacred places and traditional practices. There are, also, examples of elders from other traditional cultures, such as the Cofan of South America, the Hunzas of Western Pakistan and the Abkhasians of the Republic of Georgia, where older people remain productive and engaged members of their communities well into their 80s and beyond.
Traditional elders can share important knowledge and values with contemporary industrialized cultures. They can also be models for how to treat older people in wholesome, healthy ways. Traditional cultures and their elders could help developed cultures learn about healing plants that may have benefits for greater humanity; they could teach other cultures about traditional habitat management and caring for endangered species; and about specialized farming techniques such as those used by the Hopi to grow corn in an arid environment – something that may be particularly helpful in our era of global warming.
Perhaps others have stories about significant elders whom they have met. We invite people to submit their stories about traditional elders through our blog.
Notable Individuals
1. Aunty Pua and Uncle Ned Lindsey
Aunty Pua as she was affectionately known, was born in 1914 in Honaunau on the Big Island. Her great-grandmother was a chanter at the famous City of Refuge where ancient Hawaiians took refuge after breaking a kapu (taboo). According to her son, Ed Lindsey, this is where she got her spiritual strength.
We first met Eugene Sekaquaptewa in 1991 when we visited the Hopi Mesas on a Sacred Sites International study tour to Northern Arizona Indian sites. He was from a progressive family and we learned about his parents and their lives through reading the life story of his mother, Me and Mine, as told to Louise Udall. Eugene’s family believed in education and he became a teacher, as did his brother, Emory, whom we also met. Eugene walked in both the Hopi and the “white” worlds; he was a leader of his medicine lodge with the Eagle Clan.
He taught us to recognize ceremonial kivas and respect them by not walking on or near them. He also showed us the eagles his clan kept for ceremonies. A highlight of our tour was when Eugene took us to the Bacavi-Hotevilla school where all the students had computers and they were also schooled in the traditions of Hopi.
I was born , on August 31, 1942, in the small town of Hazaribagh, India which is surrounded by jungles. I spent my early childhood with our tribal people in the jungles where I developed my deep love and knowledge about the tribal folklore. I also developed an understanding of the deeper spiritual significance of tribal life and its meaning even though it can never be experienced or understood in the same sense by non tribal people.
In 1998 I was invited to Baldan Baraivan, Mongolia, at the request of 97-year-old Lama Tovuu. He had studied at Baldan Baraivan as a young boy and witnessed the destruction of the monastery and the atrocities of the communist regime when monks and lamas were put to death or sent to Siberia. Lama Tovuu was sent to a labor camp but sometime in the mid-20th century, he escaped and returned to his home in Mongolia where he survived by becoming a shepherd, but never forgot his religion.
We first met Bing Ong, a Chinese community leader, in the summer of 2002. He was involved with trying to save the seriously endangered Bok Kai Temple in Marysville, California. Bing wore a black T-shirt with the following imprinted upon it, “ Demolition is forever.”
Societal Elders
The Abkhazians live in the Caucasus Mountains in the northern part of the Republic of Georgia. There are an extremely high proportion of long-lived people in this area. One theory for this is that their diet is very simple, consisting of beans, nuts and yogurt along with fruits and vegetables.
Elders continue to be physically active and work well into their 80s doing gardening and tending to fruit orchards. Their work provides them with meaningful contributions to their communities. They are also very involved with their extended.
References:
Other Cultures, Elder Years by Ellen Rhoads Holmes & Lowell D. Holmes
How to Live to be 100: The life-style of the people of the Caucasus by Sula Benet
Cofán Elders Preserve Sacred Plants in the Orito Ing-Ane Medicinal Plants Sanctuary
Members of the indigenous Cofán tribe of Ecuador and Columbia, South American have seen farmers, ranchers and oilmen invade their ancestral lands to plant illegal coca crops, raise cattle and search for oil. Although elders of the tribe still practice shamanism and traditional medicine, many young Cofán have discarded their traditional life and now wear Western-style clothes, listen to pop music and speak Spanish rather than their traditional language.
In the summer of 2008, the Colombian government established the Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Plants Sanctuary to protect the plants the Cofán depend on for medicinal and spiritual purposes.
The Cofán, who number only about 2,600 people living between Colombia and Ecuador can now preserve their sacred sites including sacred plants and healing rituals. According to officials in Colombia, the reserve is the only national park in the world created for purpose of protecting native peoples, their sacred sites, plants and animals.
The idea for the sanctuary came after Cofán elders and other tribal leaders met with the national organization of indigenous shaman to search for an undeveloped wild region they could use to protect and preserve their medicinal plants. They took the proposal to national park authorities, who spent several years mapping out a 25,000-acre reserve.
The Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Plants Sanctuary, which means "our territory" in the Cofán language, ranges in elevation from 2,300 feet to nearly 10,000 feet above sea level in the southwestern regions of Nariño and Putumayo - about a two-hour drive from Cofán territory, where much of their traditional lands have been destroyed by farmers, ranchers and oilmen.
Aside from sacred value, the new park has abundant biodiversity, including about 400 bird varieties, numerous reptiles, and such rare species as chameleons, jaguars and Andean spectacled bears. Cofán elders have also identified nearly 100 plant species used for medicinal and religious purposes.
Two of the most important plants are yoco (Paullinia yoco), a vine used against fatigue and to prevent malaria, and yagé, a mildly hallucinogenic vine used in traditional sacred ceremonies. Other plants are used to treat inflammations, kidney ailments and rheumatism.
The newly created tribal park will ensure that sacred rituals and healing practices endure and new generations of Cofán can be trained to carry on time-honored traditions.
References:
“Colombia’s Cofán still fighting for survival”, Michael Ceasar, San Francisco Chronicle, July 8, 2008
www.cofan.org
This is a website where the Cofán people tell their story, share their history, include a bibliograhy and offer eco-tours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofan
 |
Hamayoon Baig, 102 years old rests in the family home in Faizabad, Hunza Valley, July 1, 2007 Pakistan. Hid brother died at 98 years of age and he says he still feels like living longer. “I think that I am still young.” he says. He was in the British army for 10 years in 1935 and afterwards settled back in Hunza as a farmer. “It took 3 days to walk to Gilgit back in the 30’s,” he stated. When he was in his 80’s Hunza finally got electricity. In 1989 a road was built to his village so he was finally able to drive a jeep verses a pony trek to Karimabad. |
The Hunzakuts, often referred to as Hunzas, live at the northern end of West Pakistan between Afghanistan and China. They take their name from the Hunza Valley where they live in the Karakoram Mountains, part of the Himalayas. There are many people in this area who live to be healthy and vigorous in their later years; many live to be 100 or older. They generally continue to work until the age of 100.
According to Alexander Leaf, in his book, Youth in Old Age, “The old people are esteemed for their wisdom that is thought to derive from long experience and their word in the family group is generally the law…There is no fixed or forced retirement age, and the elderly are not dismissed when they reach a certain age as occurs in our industrialized societies.”
 |
Bibi Aleha Bagum, 98,(L) talks with her daughter in-law Bibi Jalal,65, July 3, 2007 in Gulmit, Hunza Valley, Pakistan. She has lived in Gulmit all her life. Like all elderly in Hunza, she lives with family members who care for her. |
Older Samoans enjoy a place of elevated position within their extended families with whom they live. They are respected as dignified elders who are the people to go to if you have a problem or need advice.
Other Samoan elders have an elevated social status as chiefs or leaders of their villages. They are selected based on kinship, service, achievement and knowledge of Samoan customs. As such, they retain the oral histories and often have deep knowledge of traditional rituals.
References:
“Attitudes and perceptions concerning elderly Samoans in rural Western Samoa, American Samoa, and urban Honolulu” by J. D. Pearson
Other Cultures, Elder Years by Ellen Rhoads Holmes and Lowell D. Holmes
|
| ssif / special projects / wise elders |