City of Gold
Ancient traditions of the Inka Empire will be the subject of a talk being given in Budleigh Salterton on Saturday 22 June. Retired anthropology professor Don Juan Núñez del Prado Bejar has devoted over 30 years to studying the spiritual practices of the Q’ero Indians, an indigenous people living in a remote area of Peru . It was Don Juan’s father, anthropologist Oscar Núñez del Prado, who brought the Q’ero to the world’s notice following a 1955 expedition to the Peruvian Andes. The Q’ero see themselves as the last living descendants of the Inka people, believing that their ancestors fled to the mountains of Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Here, explains Don Juan, they maintained the Andean philosophy which, like Buddhism, argues that everything – from solid matter to living beings – is made up of living energy. Like the Spanish conquistadores, our own Sir Walter Raleigh, born in East Budleigh, was tempted to ex...