Editing Muisca (section)

== Culture ==
{{see also|Muisca art|Muisca cuisine|Muisca mummification|Muisca music|Women in Muisca society}}
The Muisca were an agrarian and ceramic society of the [[Andes]] of the north of [[South America]]. Their political and administrative organization enabled them to form a compact cultural unity with great discipline.

The contributions of the Muisca culture to the Colombian national identity have been many.

=== Heraldry ===
Pre-Columbian Muisca patterns appear in various seals of modern municipalities located on the [[Altiplano Cundiboyacense]], for instance [[Sopó]] and [[Guatavita]], [[Cundinamarca Department|Cundinamarca]].<ref name="websiteSopó">{{in lang|es}} [http://www.sopo-cundinamarca.gov.co/index.shtml Official website Sopó] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221203730/http://www.sopo-cundinamarca.gov.co/index.shtml |date=2016-02-21 }} – accessed 05-05-2016</ref><ref name=websiteGuatavita>{{in lang|es}} [http://www.guatavita-cundinamarca.gov.co/index.shtml#3 Official website Guatavita] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130073551/http://guatavita-cundinamarca.gov.co/index.shtml#3 |date=2016-01-30 }} – accessed 05-05-2016</ref> The remaining Muisca people in central Colombia also have their own seal.<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Escudo_pueblo_muisca.JPG Seal of the Muisca people] – Commons</ref>

=== Sports ===
The Muisca culture had certain sports which were part of their rituals. The ''turmequé'' game, also known as [[Tejo (sport)|tejo]], has survived and became a popular sport of Colombia. Also important were matches of [[Amateur wrestling|wrestling]]. The winner received a finely woven cotton blanket from the chief and was qualified as a [[guecha warrior]].

=== Religion ===
{{main|Muisca religion}}
Recent scholarship on the Muisca contends that [[Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita]]'s 1688 ''Historia general'' of New Granada, has unduly shaped understandings of Muisca religion, saying that it was "full of confident assertions concerning a Muisca 'religion' with a pantheon of deities, creation stories, and visions of the afterlife, led from great temples by high priests -- some of whom were pictured, at great expense, in three richly illustrated pages that accompanied his book."<ref>Cobo Betancourt, Juan F. (2024). ''[[doi:10.1017/9781009314046|The Coming of the Kingdom: The Muisca, Catholic Reform, and Spanish Colonialism in the New Kingdom of Granada]]''. Open access. Cambridge University Press, p. 23</ref>

Muisca priests were educated from childhood and led the main religious ceremonies. Only the priests could enter the temples. Besides the religious activities, the priests had much influence in the lives of the people, giving counsel in matters of farming or war. The religion originally included [[human sacrifice]], but the practice may have been extinct by the time of the Spanish conquest, as there are no first-hand Spanish accounts.

Oral tradition suggests that every family gave up a child for [[Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures|sacrifice]], that the children were regarded as sacred and cared for until the age of 15, when their lives were then offered to the Sun-god, [[Sué]].

==== Deities ====
* [[Sué]], Suá, Zuhé or Xué (The Sun god): he is the father of the Muisca. His [[Sun Temple (Sogamoso)|temple]] was in [[Sogamoso|Suamox]], the sacred city of the Sun. He was the most venerated god, especially by the Confederation of the ''zaque'', who was considered his descendant. "was "full of confident assertions and visions of the afterlife, led from great temples by high priest --some of whom were pictured, at great expensse, in three richly illustrated title pages that accompied his book"
* [[Chía (goddess)|Chía]] (The Moon-goddess): her temple was in what is today the municipality of [[Chía, Cundinamarca|Chía]]. She was widely worshipped by the Confederation of the ''zipa'', who was considered her son.
* [[Bochica]]: though not properly a god, he enjoyed the same status as one. He was a chief or hero eternized in the oral tradition. The land was flooded by a [[goddess]], a beautiful and sometimes mean woman, or by [[Chibchacum]], protector of the farmers. Bochica listened to the complaints of the Muisca about floods. With his stick, he broke two rocks at the edge of the [[Tequendama Falls]] and all the water came out, forming a waterfall. Bochica punished Huitaca and Chibchacum:  He made Huitaca an owl and made her hold up the sky. Chibchacum was tasked with holding up the Earth.
* [[Bachué]]: the mother of the Muisca people. It was said that a beautiful woman with a baby came out of [[Lake Iguaque]]. Bachué sat down at the bank of the lake and waited for the child to grow up. When he was old enough, they married and had many children, who were the Muisca. Bachué taught them to hunt, to farm, to respect the laws, and to worship the gods. Bachué was so good and loved that the Muisca referred to her as ''Furachoque'' (Good woman in [[Chibcha]]). When they became old, Bachué and her husband decided to go back to the deep of the lagoon. That day the Muisca were so sad, but at the same time very happy because they knew their mother was very happy. Other versions of the legend say that after stepping into the lagoon of Iguaque, Bachué ascended to the sky and became [[Chía goddess|Chía]]; in other versions Chia and Bachué are two different figures.

==== Astronomy ====
{{Main|Muisca astronomy}}
{{see also|Muisca calendar}}
The cult of the Muisca centered on two main deities; [[Sué]] for the Sun and [[Chía (goddess)|Chía]] for the Moon. They developed a vigesimal (based on 20) [[Muisca calendar|calendar]] and knew exactly the timing of the [[summer solstice]] (June 21), which they considered the Day of ''Sué'', the Sun god. The Sué temple was in [[Sogamoso]], the sacred city of the Sun and the seat of the [[Iraca]] (priest). The Muisca name of the city, ''Suamox'' or ''Sugamuxi'', means "City of the Sun". On the [[solstice]], the ''zaque'' went to Suamox for a major festival where ritual offerings were made. It was the only day of the year when the ''zaque'' showed his face, as he was considered a descendant of the Sun god.<ref>Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.13, p.80</ref>

=== Mythology ===
{{Main|Muisca mythology}}
The Muisca mythology is well documented. Many of the writers who contributed to the ''Chronicles of the West Indies'' were based in Bogotá. They recorded many of the myths as they were interested in the traditions and culture of the conquered people. The Muisca territory became the seat of the colonial administration for the [[New Kingdom of Granada]] (Spanish: ''Nuevo Reino de Granada'').

=== El Dorado ===
{{Main|El Dorado}}
The origin of the legend of ''El Dorado'' (Spanish for "The Golden") in the early 16th century may originate with the [[Muisca Confederation]]. In 1539, Sebastián de Belalcázar's treasurer, Gonzalo de la Peña, wrote that the expedition left Popayán towards Bogotá "in search of a land called El Dorado".<ref name=OriginElDorado>Trupp, T. L.; [https://www.earthasweknowit.com/pages/muisca_and_el_dorado The Origin of the Legend of El Dorado]</ref> This marks the earliest recorded use of the phrase, occurring just before his meeting with Jiménez de Quesada and the Muisca. In 1550, over ten years after the conquest, Jiménez de Quesada described the continued quest for El Dorado: "All the reports ... which set everyone's feet marching from the North Sea so excitedly ... later appeared to be the same thing, namely this kingdom of New Granada." 

Other Spanish references speak of El Dorado not as a golden land, but rather to chief whose body was anointed in gold powder as part of a ritual. The ''zipa'' offered gold and other treasures to the Guatavita goddess. To do so, the ''zipa'' covered himself with gold dust and washed it off in the lake while tossing gold trinkets into the waters. This tradition was well known outside the Confederation, as far as the [[Caribbean Sea]]. Two small golden rafts were discovered in 1856 and 1969 that seem to confirm this ritual.<ref name=OriginElDorado></ref> Each was in the Muisca style of gold work, with a primary central chief surrounded by attendants. The first of these artifacts was destroyed in a fire, while the surviving raft can be seen in Bogotá's Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold).  

The Spaniards were attracted by stories of a "city of gold" that did not exist. Indigenous people sometimes got rid of the avaricious Spaniards in that way, pointing them in the direction of other peoples. [[Lake Guatavita]] was explored by conquistadors who were looking for gold offerings from the ''zipa'' to the goddess. The legend grew until the term became a metaphor for any place where great wealth may be found or made.

=== Architecture ===
{{Main|Muisca architecture}}
The Muisca did not construct large stone structures. They didn't use the abundant rock to leave monumental ruins as has happened with other American cultures. Their houses were built with clay, canes, and wood. The houses had a conical form, most of them to the point that [[Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada]], founder of [[Bogotá]], gave the area the name ''Valle de los Alcázares'' ("Valley of the Palaces"). The houses had small doors and windows, and the dwellings of the higher rank citizens were different. The Muisca used little furniture as they would typically sit on the floor.

[[File:TISQUESUSA1.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Tisquesusa]], ''zipa'' when the Spanish arrived<br />The ''zipa'' was richly ornamented in gold and expensive cloth]]
[[File:AQUIMINZAQUE.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Aquiminzaque]], the last ''zaque'', executed by the Spanish]]