Girl buying bread for Todos Santos in Oruro, Bolivia

A girl and her family in Oruro, Bolivia, buy bread with which to decorate the shrine that they will build at Todos Santo for her dead father who died two years before. In the Altiplano of Bolivia, it is customary that a family, in which there has been a death within the last three years, build a shrine at home at Todos Santos, decorating it with religious symbols as well as a picture of the deceased and food and drink that he or she liked, and then call down the spirit for a three day visit. The bread is a particularly important type of decoration. There are pieces of bread shaped like human beings, representing the dead, and there are also pieces in the shape of various old Inca symbols such as the sun and the moon.

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Filename: 4845.jpg
Copyright: Copyright © 2002 Anders Ryman. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 5572x3698 / 8.9MB; All Saints Day Altiplano Ceremonies Females Girls Horizontal Inca Latin America Life Cycle Ritual One Person with Others Oruro Area Rite of Passage South America The Andes Todos Santos bread building ceremony christianity colour image colour photography commercial building death rites edifice edifices female feminine figures girl market nature religious symbol rite ritual scenery seller signs skies sky sun sunlight vendors woman young
Contained in galleries: Todos Santos, Bolivia

A girl and her family in Oruro, Bolivia, buy bread with which to decorate the shrine that they will build at Todos Santo for her dead father who died two years before. In the Altiplano of Bolivia, it is customary that a family, in which there has been a death within the last three years, build a shrine at home at Todos Santos, decorating it with religious symbols as well as a picture of the deceased and food and drink that he or she liked, and then call down the spirit for a three day visit. The bread is a particularly important type of decoration. There are pieces of bread shaped like human beings, representing the dead, and there are also pieces in the shape of various old Inca symbols such as the sun and the moon.