[AMA] I have been to Tinku in Bolivia, a Andean ritual in which entire villages foil in the face to honor Pachamama with their own blood

I’m back, maybe you remember me for one of the following loves:

• I have been to the feria of pyrotechnics of Tultepec – Explosive bulls
• I went to the festival of explosive hammers in Mexico
• I have been to the vegetarian phuket festival [Gore/NSFW]

For those who are at my first love: I am an Italian photographer and I am trying to document events that tell the collective identity of a people. Sacred celebrations, popular parties and extreme rites in which devotion pushes the human being beyond its limits, staging contradictions, courage and complexity of the human condition.

Thanks to your support I decided to make an extra step: we opened a site www.sacratos.com (Still in Beta!) And within the next year I would like to bring a series of documentaries on these traditions, traveling as always only with hand luggage.
Each advice on the name, format or site is more than well accepted 🙏 🙏

Call for Ciance we move on to the event:

In my last love I said that the Festival dei Toritos In Tultepec it was the most extreme experience on a physical level. I hadn’t done Tinku yet. The Tinku takes place at over 4000mt altitude: different communities are facing to offer blood to the Pachamama, Mother Earth.

Already only breathing at that height is difficult. Add warm, crowd, tear me, whips, punches in the face and (in my case) also diarrhea … and you have the complete picture.
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From Potosí there are about 3 hours of bus. There are no indications: we woke up at 5, we went to the station and after 3 hours of frost we found a minibus wrapped (Video of the MiniBus Strapieno). They are 1.83: you can imagine suffering.

Upon arrival we had to record as photographers. Everyone was drunk, they asked us $ 50 for authorization. We told him that we were poor like shit: they gave us a beer and free permission.

On a technical level I chose very low shot times and a ND filter: the crowd moved like a unique wave and I wanted that chaos to be visible even in the photos.

Unfortunately I was able to document only one day. When the evening fall, the situation degenerated: everyone was drunk, they started to launch stones and called many would not have stopped until someone had died. At that point it was better to leave.

I leave you to my report: https://danielecolucci.com/tinku

And a Mini video of the event

Ready to the Domadne 🙂