A VINE FOR THE SOUL: YAGÉ AND CHAGRO IN COLOMBIA

A Conversation with Taita Crispin Chindoy and Xochi Bucuru Botache. Moderated and Translated by Dr. Joe Tafur

The variety of ancestral plant medicine in Colombia is very diverse. Among the sacred plants Yagé is one of the most widely used plants for the treatment of physical and spiritual diseases and disorders. This event will explore the tradition, history and knowledge of this medicine and the benefits and implications of its ceremonial and therapeutic use. This event will feature Taita Crispin Chindoy, native doctor, healer and anthropologist from the Kamentsa ethnic group of Alto Putumayo, as well as Xochi Bucuru, native doctor, health educator and communicator, dedicated to work with ethnic groups native to Colombia and South America. Through traditional knowledge and anthropology, we will share the importance of this sacred plant and traditions for the native people, and how its misuses have caused degraded images of these traditions. This presentation will merge traditional anthropological language with the vision of medicine, where the true doctors and connoisseurs of this millenary science are promoted and valued.

Cultural Tras la Huella (CTH)  is a nonprofit organization based in Colombia, that protects, shares and documents traditional knowledge, cultural and artistic, in support of personal and social development.

Taita Crispín Chindoy is a member of the Kamëntšá Indigenous People of the Sibundoy Valley located in Upper Putumayo, Colombia. He began his path in yagé medicine when he was 7 years old, where he received the medicine from his father, who was then the governor of his community. From this age on, he has dedicated his life to the study of the sacred plant, the yagé vine, which constitutes one of the most fundamental bases of the cosmogony of his culture. With the interest of training to serve his people, he decided to start training in anthropology at the Externado de Colombia University, where by 2015 he consolidated his thesis: "The pint is not like they paint it", where he argues the multiple benefits of the medicine of yagé and how this plant has been affected by the West as a dangerous psychoactive.

Xochi Bucuru Botache is a Native doctor of Indigenous inheritance. Since adolescence (14 years) she has cultivated the knowledge of traditional medicine, therapeutics and botany that has been preserved  through time in the rural and native oral tradition. She has dedicated her life to learn the a diversity of knowledge of ancestral medicine. To strengthen her knowledge, she has done different studies and trainings, with various schools of alternative and integrative medicine that have allowed her to provide a comprehensive medical service today. She have more than more than 10 years of experience practicing in the therapeutic field of natural and ancestral medicine. For 7 years she has expanded her experience to recreate pedagogical scenarios, where she transmits essential knowledge for well-being and conscious health with different methods and tools.

Joe Tafur, M.D.,is a Colombian-American family physician originally from Phoenix, Arizona. After completing his family medicine training at UCLA, Dr. Tafur spent two years in academic research at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry in a lab focused on mind-body medicine. After his research fellowship, over a period of six years, he lived and worked in the Peruvian Amazon at the traditional healing center Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. There he worked closely with master Shipibo shaman Ricardo Amaringo and trained in ayahuasca shamanism. In his new book “The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine,” through a series of stories, Dr. Tafur shares his unique experience and integrative medical theories. The book strives to illuminate the intersection between biology, emotion and spirituality. He is Co-founder of Modern Spirit, a nonprofit dedicated to demonstrating the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare.

This talk will be recorded and immediately available for rewatch for all attendees.

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A Vine for the Soul: Yagé and Chagro in Colombia