Isle of the Sun, Bolivia

As the discovery of the Andean Ice Maiden underscores, the high peaks were honored as some the most sacred places in the geography of the Andes. Mountain lakes also have connections to the gods in many mountain areas. On the border of Peru and Bolivia, at 12,500 feet above sea level, Lake Titicaca, is the highest navigable body of water in world. Deified by the Tiahuanaco culture, Titicaca is still honored today as a sacred site connected to Viracocha, the Inca creator deity associated with mountain cults and water.

Following his interest in Andean sacred sites, during 1989 - 1992, Mountain Institute Senior Research Fellow Dr. Johan Reinhard searched the Lake surrounding the Island of the Sun, a ceremonial center for Inca culture. There he and his scuba diving partners discovered rare gold artifacts from the Tiahuanaco culture including a gold beaker perhaps used for holding ritual liquids. An extremely fine medallion of hammered gold, 1,500 years old, depicts the deity known as the "gateway god" of Tiahuanaco.

Precious artifacts such as these are usually taken to large museums in metropolitan areas, touted by the press, and rarely available to the local cultures that descended from their creators. Following that pattern, the Lake Titicaca artifacts were displayed in La Paz, Bolivia and were reported by Reinhard in the March 1992 issue of National Geographic. However, thanks in part to the support of The Mountain Institute, they have found a home back on the Island of Sun in the Challapampa Community Museum.

Placing the artifacts back in the hands of their rightful owners, the indigenous descendants of the original cultures, also has several practical benefits. The museum allows the local people to view, study, interpret and value their own cultural heritage. The people of the area have added their own discoveries to the museum. And, in an area with few sources of outside income, the museum can be a cornerstone of ecologically and culturally sensitive tourism for the area.