Ausangate (Quechua Awsanqati), the highest peak of the Cordillera Vilcanota south-east of Cusco, is the pre-eminent apu, or mountain lord, of the southern Peruvian Quechua world, including the Q'ero communities on its northern slopes. Ethnographies of the region describe him as a powerful male lord who governs weather and water, grants increase to alpaca and llama herds, and watches over the communities within his view, receiving woven offerings, libations and despacho bundles from ritual specialists. The great pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit'i, timed to the reappearance of the Pleiades, takes place at the Sinakara sanctuary on his flank, fusing devotion to the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i with the older cult of the mountain.
Domains
mountains
weather
herd fertility
Powers
to send or withhold rain, hail and snow over the highlands
to grant fertility and increase to alpaca and llama herds
to watch over, protect and punish the people living within his gaze
Randall, Robert. 'Qoyllur Rit'i, an Inca Fiesta of the Pleiades: Reflections on Time and Space in the Andean World.' Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Études Andines 11(1-2): 37-81, 1982.
Allen, Catherine J. The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.
Salas Carreño, Guillermo. Lugares parientes: comida, cohabitación y mundos andinos. Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, 2019.