Chapter 10 Chapter 9 The King of the Past and the Future

During my travels in the Andes, I reread a wonderful Viracocha legend that I had in hand several times.This story is spread in an area called Koyao on the shore of Lake Titicaca, which is quite different from the traditional Viracocha myth in terms of plot, and the god hero who brought civilization and enlightenment to the local people is also called Renamed to Thunupa: A long time ago, Su Nupa came to the plateau from the north with five disciples.This majestic, blue-eyed, bearded white man had a calm demeanor and a very simple and rigorous life.He exhorted the people to abstain from the vices of drunkenness, concubines, and quarrels.

Su Nupa traveled around the tribes in the Andes, established a peaceful and peaceful kingdom, taught the people various skills and taught them to live a civilized life.His great achievements were envied by a group of traitors, who stabbed him and seriously injured him: They put his body in a boat made of rushes and let it float on Lake Titicaca.Behold... the ship sailed away at once, with such speed that the good men who murdered him trembled - for there was no current in this lake... the ship sailed as far as Cochamarca, This is where the Desguardero River stands today.According to Indian legend, when the ship docked, it struck land with such force that it slammed into what is today the DesGuadero River, which never existed before.The Eucharist fell into the water of the lake and drifted to the shores of Arica many miles away... ②

god of death and resurrection The Sunupa in this story reminds us of the ancient Egyptian god of death and resurrection, Osiris (OSiris).There are some curious commonalities between the two legends.Regarding the myth of Osiris, the Greek biographer Plutarch (Plutarch) described the most complete and detailed ③.According to his records, Osiris brought civilization to his people, taught them various skills, persuaded them to quit the bad habits of cannibalism and sacrifice to gods, and formulated the first law code for them.Osiris then left Egypt and traveled around the world, spreading civilization and enlightenment to other countries.He never used force to force savage peoples to accept his laws; on the contrary, he appealed to their reason, and entered into rational argument with them.It is said that he conveyed his teachings to the people in the form of singing and singing, with the accompaniment of musical instruments.

However, his wife-in-law Set (Set) gathered 72 courtiers while others were abroad, and plotted against him secretly.After Osiris returned home, the gang held a banquet to wash him off.A gold-lacquered and carved wooden cabinet was prepared as a prize for any guest who could slip into the water cabinet.Unbeknownst to Osiris, this box was specially made for him.The guests tried one by one, but they all failed.Osiris dived in and lay down comfortably.Before he could climb out, the good men swarmed up, nailed the lid shut, and even sealed the cracks with molten lead so that no air could enter the box.Then, the wooden cabinet was thrown into the Nile.Unexpectedly, instead of sinking into the water, the box floated up and drifted along the Nile to the coast.

At this juncture, Osiris' wife, the goddess Isis (ISIS), decided to intervene. She cast a spell, found the wooden cabinet, and hid it in a hidden location. One day, her evil brother Seth went hunting in the swamp. , found the box, opened it, and in a fit of anger chopped Osiris's body into 14 pieces and dumped them all over Egypt. Isis came forward again to save her husband.She wove reeds into a small boat, coated the hull with a layer of turpentine, and then sailed on the Nile in this boat, looking for her husband's remains.After collecting all the fragmented bodies, she cast a spell to bring her husband's body back together again.Osiris, restored to his original form, undergoes a regeneration process to become the god of death and the lord of the underworld.Legend has it that Osiris would occasionally disguise himself as a mortal and return to the underworld.

Despite the great differences between the two legends, we find that the Egyptian Osiris and the South American Sunupa - Viracocha - have the following in common: ●Both bring civilization and enlightenment to the common people; ●Both are hated by good people; ● Both were murdered; ●Both are imprisoned in boxes or ships; ● Both are thrown into the water; ●Both drift along the river; ●Both end up in the sea. Could it be that these commonalities are just a coincidence?Is it not possible that there may be some hidden connection between the two legends? Suliku's reed boat The mountain air is very cold.I sat at the front of a motorboat, traveling at about 20 knots across the icy waters of Lake Titicaca.Overhead the sky was blue, reflecting the greenness of the shores like sapphires; the vast waters shone with copper and silver, stretching as far as the sky. . .

The legend mentions a boat made of reeds.I'm going to find out because I've heard that "rush boats" are the legendary means of transportation on Lake Titicaca.However, in recent years, the ancient art of building such ships has gradually been lost.Now we take a boat to Suriqui, because that is the only place where this craft is preserved. In a small village near the shore of the lake on the island of Surique I found two elderly Indians.They were weaving a boat out of bundles of rushes.The boat, which was about to be completed, was about 15 feet long and elegantly shaped.The belly of the ship is very wide, but the two ends are very narrow, and the bow and stern are raised high.

I sit and watch.The oldest of the two shipwrights wore on his head a peculiar pointed woolen hat, and a brown felt hat on top of it.From time to time he stretched out his bare left foot and kicked hard on the side of the boat, tightening the rope to hold the bundles of reeds in place.I noticed that every once in a while, he would put the rope in his hand and wipe it on his forehead, soaking some sweat to increase the stickiness of the rope. The boat under construction is parked in the backyard of a dilapidated farmhouse, with abandoned reeds scattered all over the ground.A brood of chickens surrounded the ship.An alpaca (alpaca) that was grazing looked over from time to time and glanced shyly.Within a few hours of my stay on the island, I saw several small boats under construction.The village was a typical Andean village, yet somehow I kept thinking of another place, another time.After thinking about it carefully, I finally understood the reason: The boats made of rush reeds on Surikui Island are very similar to the boats made of papyrus reeds in Egypt thousands of years ago for the pharaohs in the Nile River, both in terms of construction method and appearance. A boat used for rafting.When traveling in Egypt, I once entered the tomb of the ancient pharaoh and saw this kind of ship painted on the wall.Now I came to an unnamed island on Lake Titicaca. When I first saw these beautiful boats, I couldn't help shivering with excitement—even though I had been prepared in my heart after years of research.How could such a similar ship design appear in two places so far apart?Scholars have so far failed to come up with a satisfactory answer.But at least one expert in ancient navigation is trying to unravel the mystery.He observes these two types of ships:

The hull is also small and strong, with pointed ends.The rope that binds the hull extends from the deck, all the way around the bottom of the boat, neatly... Each reed is placed in an extremely precise position to achieve perfect balance and present a beautiful shape.The bundles of reeds were tightly bound together so that the whole ship looked like... a loggerhead of gilded wood with a pointed end and tail. The reed boats on the ancient Nile and the reed boats on Lake Titicaca (the local Indians claim that the technology of making such boats was taught to them by the "Viracocha people"), and there are other common features between them. point.Both, for example, were fitted with sails, suspended from the mast walls with their feet spread apart.Both were once used to carry cumbersome building materials such as obelisks and megaliths over long distances, one to the Egyptian temples of Giza, Luxor and Abydos, the other to Then it will be transported to the mysterious ancient city of Inca in Tihuanaco.

In ancient times, Tihuanaco City stood on the shore of Lake Titicaca, overlooking the magnificent and magical scenery on the lake.At that time, the lake was more than 100 feet deeper than it is now.Today, the great port that was once the capital of Viracocha is lost among the desolate hills and empty, windy plateaus, unnoticed. The road to Tihuanaco... After returning to the Bolivian mainland from Surizui Island, we drove a rented jeep across the plateau near Ti Huanaco, kicking up dust all the way.We passed two small towns, Puccarani and Laha, and saw groups of unpretentious Aymara Indians walking slowly on the narrow cobbled streets, Or sit quietly in the small square and bask in the sun.

Could these people be the descendants of the builders of Diwanaco City, as scholars claim?Should we believe the legends and admit that this ancient city was built by outlanders who settled here long ago and possessed boundless magic power? Notes: ① "South American Mythology", page 87. ②Ibid. ③ Plutarch's account, the following two books have concise summaries: Sidon Williams "Egyptian Legends and Stories", pp. 24-29; Wallace Budge "Ancient Egypt: From Gods to Gods" , pp. 178-183. M． V． Setonwilliams, Egyptian Legends and Stories, Rublcon Press, London, 1990, pp.24-9; E. A． Wallis Budge, From Fetlsh to God In Ancient, Oxford University Press, 1934, pp. 178～83. ④ Sol Heyerdale's "The Adventure of the Sun God", pages 43 and 295. Thor Heyerdahl, The Ra Expeditions, Bood Club Associates, London, 1972, pp. 43,295．