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Potosi Mines (BOLIVIA)
Surely, there has been many speculations to where the “Devil” lives, where is it found? What does it do? … The very common religious belief is that it lives in hell. Other phylosophical views tend to say that the devil is found inside us….. Let us tell you where the devil lives and what it does…. The devil lives in the famous Mines of the village of Potosi in Bolivia. What does it do? It accepts the bribes of the miners in return to leaving them alone in their mining labours.
At over 13,000 feet above sea level, Potosi is the highest city of it’s size in the world. After the discovery of silver in Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), Potosi grew into the largest and most opulent city in the Americas. The city’s rich colonial architecture and tragic history as a colonial mining town has earned recognition from UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The tragic history of Potosi starts when the Spanish colonials exploiting the village through mining in the village for silver. During this time the Spanish used thousands of Potosi locals, as slaves resulting in the deaths of many of them because of the harsh treatment they faced.
When we talked to the miners in Potosi, they told us that in the 1500’s, so much silver was obtained in these mines, that you could actually build a bridge from Potosi to Spain.
After having had a background information of the Potosi mines, we walked through the cobblestone streets of the village to visit the primitively worked mines with no mechanization at all. And of course through the maze like tunnels of these mines, we were eager to meet the deadliest enemy of our spiritual world, the Devil, who lived in these tunnels.
According to the Potosi beliefs (which very much integrates the ancient Inca beliefs and way of life with the Christian ones in a perfect blend) the Devil lives underground therefore he owns the mine. So, reasoning in paralel to this belief, Potosi miners are basically stealing from the Devil while mining for silver. In order to not enfuriate the Devil, the Potosi miners have found a way to maintain the relationship in good terms, such that it has become a tradition in Potosi. They have built a statuette representing the Devil and every Friday they present it with gifts such as cigarettes and Coca leaves, in other words, the Devil is bribed to not interfere with their work in the mines.
In our journey through the very narrow tunnels of the Potosi mines, we met with the devil, offered it gifts and continued our way more deeper to the 4-5 storied mines. However, we had been warned by the miners to chew Coca leaves during our journey (which they traditionally do, because it provides them with oxygen and energy). They were right; the more deeper we went, the more narrower the tunnels became and the more difficulty we had in breathing.
When finally we got out, we had got rid of one phoby but had developed another one: We were no longer scared of the Devil as long as had enough packets to smoke, but we had developed acute claustrophobia.