We began the morning by attending sacrament meeting at the Urubamba Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They meet in a moderately sized and very well maintained building right in the center of the town.   It was good to be with the Saints.  They badly needed an organist, though.  The opening hymn was confusing as to rhythm and off key, and there were points at which almost nobody was singing.  Fortunately, one of... Read more

    In my immediately previous post, I wrote very briefly about the Rev. Hiram Bingham, the very prominent early Protestant missionary to what were then called the Sandwich Islands, which we today know as Hawaii.   His son — Hiram Bingham II — also served as a missionary in the islands of the Pacific and eventually on Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands.   That is where Hiram Bingham III, the future “discoverer” of Machu Picchu was born.  In Honolulu,... Read more

    The latest installment of the biweekly Deseret News column by Bill Hamblin and Dan Peterson has appeared:   “Viracocha and the gods of the Inca Empire”   ***   You might also find this recent ScienceNews article of interest:   “These knotted cords may hide the first evidence that the Incas collected taxes: Stringed devices called khipus are undergoing more research scrutiny, but most remain enigmatic”   ***   “In the variety of its charms and the power... Read more

    Several times, here and elsewhere, I’ve cited a quip from the late Pope St. John Paul II, whom I greatly admired and to whom I was once was fairly close during a meeting held in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls:   When asked whether a Christian must believe in Hell, he replied that, yes, Christian faith necessitates belief in Hell.  “But,” he added, “we may hope that it will be empty.”   I’ve described myself on multiple occasions... Read more

    It being Friday, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship has again published a new article.  This one is by the very productive Matt Bowen, of Brigham Young University – Hawaii:   “‘And They Shall Be Had Again’: Onomastic Allusions to Joseph in Moses 1:41 in View of the So-called Canon Formula”   Abstract: Moses 1:41 echoes or plays on the etymological meaning of the name Joseph — “may he [Yahweh] add,” as the Lord foretells to Moses... Read more

    We spent almost all of today in the so-called Valle Sagrado de los Incas, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which is the valley of the Urubamba River.  (We’re still in it.)  It is generally reckoned as extending from the old Inca town of Pisac in the east through the old Inca town of Ollantaytambo to the spectacular ruins of Machu Picchu in the West.  It passes within about twelve miles of Cusco.     The Incas thought of the Sacred... Read more

    It simply demands saying:  We’re in hot water now.   But we began the morning with a visit to what is left of the once enormously important Inca temple of Coricancha (or Qoricancha, or whatever spelling you prefer), which was principally dedicated to Inti, the sun god.  The name, in Quechua, means something like “golden enclosure” — which seems to have been literally true:  It is said that the walls of the temple were plated with thick gold... Read more

    The relevant Wikipedia article says that the indigenous name of Cusco is Qusqu and says that, although the name was used in the imperial Inca language, Quechua, it actually originated in the Aymara language, which may or may not be related to Quechua but which remains today as one of the official languages of Bolivia.  According to this account, Cusco is derived from the phrase qusqu wanka (‘Rock of the owl’), which in turn comes from an Aymara foundation myth for the city.   Our local... Read more

    Today — 20 June 2019 — is the Catholic feast day of Corpus Christi, set sixty days after Easter and celebrating the supposed continuing post-resurrection physical presence of Christ in the wafer and wine of the Mass.  (Catholics believe that presence to be literal, and not merely symbolic or metaphorical even if not detectible via chemical analysis of wine and wafer).  In other words, the feast is very specifically and explicitly Catholic and isn’t celebrated by Protestants (or... Read more

    We headed out this morning to look at several very important Inca archaeological sites, beginning with the massive citadel or fortress — our local guide consistently called it a temple — of Sacsayhuamán or Saqsaywaman (or just about any roughly similar spelling that you care to choose; it sounds something like “sexy woman”) to the north of Cusco.  I’m not sure exactly on what grounds it has been pronounced a fortress.  The massive walls and the hilltop location would certainly... Read more