Bochica (also alluded to as Nemquetaha, Nemqueteba and Sadigua) is a mythical figure in the

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

of the

Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...

, who inhabited the ''

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

'' before the Spanish invasion by

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

in the central

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

highlands of present-day

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. There is little documentation concerning Bochica, who was mentioned by name in records from 1563 from Ubaque. "Bochica was variously described by witnesses as a building which elchorPérez de Arteaga had destroyed -- as the father of a 'tiger' -- perhaps a puma or jaguar that had recently been attacking travellers of local roads, and as an 'idol'. When asked who Bochica was, Ubaque replied that 'he is a wind' -- (''un viento'') -- and that he was in the site of the building that the Spanish had destroyed." In the 1688 work, ''Historia general de las conquistas del Nuevo Reyno de Granada'', by Spanish bishop Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita, Bochica had "become a civilising hero, descending to earth to found the Muisca religion". Mulder-nueva_granada

Bochica appeared in

Pasca Pasca is a town and municipality in the Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca department of Colombia located in the Andes. It belongs to the Sumapaz Province. Pasca is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at a distance of from the capital B ...

in Cundinamarca and later in Gámeza, Boyacá where the people showed him hospitability. He retreated in the Toya cave where many ''

cacique A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (; ; feminine form: ), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European cont ...

s'' visited him for wisdom. ''Caciques'' from Tópaga, Tota, Pesca, Firavitoba and others consulted Bochica. After the supreme being of the Muisca,

Chiminigagua Chiminigagua, Chiminichagua or Chimichagua was the supreme being, omnipotent god and creator of the world in the religion of the Muisca.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.1, p.15 The Muisca and their confederation were one of the four advanced civilizatio ...

sent them to

Sugamuxi Sugamuxi (died 1539) was the last '' iraca''; ''cacique'' of the sacred City of the Sun Suamox. Sugamuxi, presently called Sogamoso, was an important city in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the times be ...

the city became a sacred place where the Temple of the Sun would be erected and religious festivities organised around the arrival of Bochica.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.5, p.37

References

Bibliography

* Cobo Betancourt, Juan F. (2024). '' The Coming of the Kingdom: The Muisca, Catholic Reform, and Spanish Colonialism in the New Kingdom of Granada''. Open access. Cambridge University Press. * * * * Simón, Pedro. ''Noticias historiales de las conquistas de tierra firme en las Indias occidentales''. Bogotá: Casa editorial de Medardo Rivas 1892.

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading