Pablo Amaringo
Encyclopedia
Pablo Cesar Amaringo was an acclaimed Peru
vian artist, renowned for his intricate, colourful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogen
ic plant brew, ayahuasca
. He was first brought to the West's attention by Dennis McKenna
and Luis Eduardo Luna
, who met Pablo in Pucallpa
while traveling during work on an ethnobotanical project. Pablo worked as a vegetalista, a shaman in the mestizo
tradition of healing, for many years; up to his death, he painted, helped run the Usko-Ayar school of painting, and supervised ayahuasca retreats.
Amaringo was born the seventh of thirteen children in 1943 in Puerto Libertad
, a small settlement on the banks of a tributary of the Ucayali River. When Amaringo was a boy, his family were reduced to extreme poverty after some years of relative prosperity. As a result, they moved to Pucallpa where Amaringo attended school for just two years before he was forced to find work to help support the family. When he was 17 Amaringo became extremely ill, nearly dying from severe heart problems. For over two years he could not work. He believes he was eventually cured due to a local healer.
It was while recovering from this illness that he started to draw and paint for the first time. Amaringo began making drawings with pencil and shading with soot from lamps. From a friend employed in a car factory he got permatex, a blue substance with which he coloured the drawings. He had no money for paper so he used cardboard boxes. Sometimes he took a little lipstick and other cosmetics from his sisters. Later he used ink, watercolours and then a friend gave him six tubes of oil paint.
Soon Amaringo began to make money from portraits, but lost his market when photographers began to colour black-and-white prints. With the discovery of his new artistic talent Amaringo's career as a healer also received exposure. For seven years, 1970–76, he travelled extensively in the region acting as a traditional healer.
When Luna and McKenna met Amaringo in 1985 he was living in poverty, barely surviving by teaching English to young people from his home and selling the odd painting to passing tourists. Luna suggested he paint some of his visions, a project which became the basis of a co-authored book, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (North Atlantic Books - ISBN 1-55643-311-5).
Since the publication of this book in 1999, Amaringo had not produced any further writings about his work apart from occasional interviews. In 2006, however, he reappeared as a writer, penning the preface for a new book on plant medicines, sacred hallucinogens, and shamanism, called Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul (Destiny Books - ISBN 1-59477-118-9). After a lengthy battle with illness, Amaringo died on 16 November 2009.
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian artist, renowned for his intricate, colourful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogen
Entheogen
An entheogen , in the strict sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts...
ic plant brew, ayahuasca
Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of dimethyltryptamine-containing species of shrubs from the Psychotria genus...
. He was first brought to the West's attention by Dennis McKenna
Dennis McKenna
Dennis Jon McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist, author and brother to well-known psychedelics proponent Terence McKenna.-Profile:...
and Luis Eduardo Luna
Luis Eduardo Luna
Luis Eduardo Luna, anthropologist and noted ayahuasca researcher. Dr. Luna was born in 1947, in Florencia, Colombia. He received his doctorate in 1989 from the Institute of Comparative Religion at Stockholm University, as well as an honorary doctorate in 2000 from Saint Lawrence University, New...
, who met Pablo in Pucallpa
Pucallpa
Pucallpa is a city in eastern Peru located on the banks of the Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Amazon River. It is the capital of the Ucayali region, the Coronel Portillo Province and the Calleria District....
while traveling during work on an ethnobotanical project. Pablo worked as a vegetalista, a shaman in the mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
tradition of healing, for many years; up to his death, he painted, helped run the Usko-Ayar school of painting, and supervised ayahuasca retreats.
Amaringo was born the seventh of thirteen children in 1943 in Puerto Libertad
Puerto Libertad
Puerto Libertad is a village and municipality in Misiones Province in northeastern Argentina.-References:...
, a small settlement on the banks of a tributary of the Ucayali River. When Amaringo was a boy, his family were reduced to extreme poverty after some years of relative prosperity. As a result, they moved to Pucallpa where Amaringo attended school for just two years before he was forced to find work to help support the family. When he was 17 Amaringo became extremely ill, nearly dying from severe heart problems. For over two years he could not work. He believes he was eventually cured due to a local healer.
It was while recovering from this illness that he started to draw and paint for the first time. Amaringo began making drawings with pencil and shading with soot from lamps. From a friend employed in a car factory he got permatex, a blue substance with which he coloured the drawings. He had no money for paper so he used cardboard boxes. Sometimes he took a little lipstick and other cosmetics from his sisters. Later he used ink, watercolours and then a friend gave him six tubes of oil paint.
Soon Amaringo began to make money from portraits, but lost his market when photographers began to colour black-and-white prints. With the discovery of his new artistic talent Amaringo's career as a healer also received exposure. For seven years, 1970–76, he travelled extensively in the region acting as a traditional healer.
When Luna and McKenna met Amaringo in 1985 he was living in poverty, barely surviving by teaching English to young people from his home and selling the odd painting to passing tourists. Luna suggested he paint some of his visions, a project which became the basis of a co-authored book, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (North Atlantic Books - ISBN 1-55643-311-5).
Since the publication of this book in 1999, Amaringo had not produced any further writings about his work apart from occasional interviews. In 2006, however, he reappeared as a writer, penning the preface for a new book on plant medicines, sacred hallucinogens, and shamanism, called Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul (Destiny Books - ISBN 1-59477-118-9). After a lengthy battle with illness, Amaringo died on 16 November 2009.