The Kofan Shamans in Colombia
The Kofan shamans are their people’s Traditional Authorities, the spiritual leaders who safeguard Kofan traditions and culture through their ritual ceremonies of indigenous medicine. At the center of these ceremonies is the drinking of Yagé, a sacred medicine made with a jungle vine with powerful properties first described scientifically by the late Dr. Richard Evans Schultes (R.I.P.), the Harvard professor widely known as the founder of modern ethnobotany. They come together from their reserves of Santa Rosa del Guamuéz, Afilador, Yarinal, and Santa Rosa de Sucumbíos in the southern Colombian departments of Putumayo and Nariño.