Situlli Center
The Situlli Center was founded in 2004 in the Peruvian Amazon with the purpose of safely and responsibly providing treatment for different illnesses and promoting self-development using ancestral medicine. The method consists of retreats in the Amazonian jungle whereby plants with purifying properties are specially prepared to be consumed by participants through the guidance of a shaman. In this setting, the traditional medicine from the Amazon is used in the context of retreats and seminars, covering every aspect of a person: physical, mental, social, and spiritual.
Being aware of the increasing necessity of people to reach a balance between the deeper part of themselves and nature, and to find the meaning of their life, Situlli open its doors to offer the benefits of traditional Peruvian medicine to people that come from different parts of Peru and of the world.
The founder of the Situlli Center is Winston Tangoa Chujandama, Peruvian, mixed raced and native from Chazuta. He started to learn the ancestral knowledge of his folk healer ancestors with strict practices that he now is sharing with the objective of helping people recover from illnesses and reach a state of welfare. With him works a staff of well qualified people, who receive and support participants throughout the healing process.
The person in charge of the medical treatment with medicinal plants in the different communities of the Amazon is the folk healer also known as vegetalista.
The folk healer improves his body with natural medicine through a series of purging rituals and energetic learning: this process is called “the diet”. It Consists in being isolated in the jungle, sometimes for long periods of time (several months), following strict rules with regards to such things as food intake and exposure to chemical products. Throughout this process, the folk healer apprentice ingests plants that are referred to as “master plants” because they induce altered states of consciousness in which ancestral learnings are acquired as part of a sacred initiation.
At the moment the patient takes the medicinal plants, a deep connection is established with the folk healer. The healer guides the healing process by following rituals involving sacred chants called “Ícaros”. These chantsguide the patient through the labyrinth of the unconscious, resulting in deeper awareness and knowledge of the self which in and of itself is a core element of the healing process.
The Amazonian region covers seven million square kilometers and it spans to the territories of 9 countries: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Surinam, and French Guiana.
The Amazon Jungle has five and half million squared kilometers of rainforest; which are constituted as the biggest in the world. The areas have a greatest biodiversity of the planet, due to, the variety of ecosystems and altitudinal ecological zones. There are also 42 ethno-linguistic groups and 50 native towns. In the Peruvian Amazon you can indentify 2 natural regions: The high jungle and the low jungle.
The Amazon is also land of mystery. The immensity of the jungle, the exuberant nature amazed and at the same time frightens visitors, because one’s spirit becomes more sensitive to fantasy and superstition. The natives, as well as visitors can feel the presence of mysterious forces.
Perhaps one of the most popular knowledge of the people that live in the jungle of the eastern slopes of the central Andes is the deep understanding of plants and animals with which they share their lives.
Traditional medicine can be described as the sum of all theoretical and practical knowledge, explicable or not, used for diagnosis, prevention and suppression of physical, mental or social disorders, based only on experience and observation, that has been transmitted orally or written from one generation to another.
Due to the historical and cultural contexts in our country (result of the phenomenonofconquestand colonization),this body of knowledge has been attempted to be framed by Western science into rational explanations. Our knowledge of origin has not been incorporated properly and many times its value has been completely denied, despite its importance in tradition and health of many indigenous communities.
Situlli Center is committed to recovering and teaching this knowledge in order to promote the value and proper use of the ancestral medicines. We recognize the sacred nature that invites us to discover and heal our bodies and our deepest wounds.