[Music] the town of auro which lies at an altitude of 3,700 m above sea level in the mountains in the West of Bolivia was an important pre-colombian ceremonial site it was refounded by the Spanish in 16006 and continued to be a sacred site for the uru people some of whom would travel from Far a field to perform the rituals especially for the big EO Festival the Spanish banned these ceremonies in the 17th century but they continued under the guise of the Christian liturgy the andian gods were concealed behind Christian icons and the andian divinities became
the Saints [Music] [Music] the carnival now takes place once a year before lent lasting for 10 days and giving rise to a whole panoply of popular Arts expressed in masks textiles and embroidery the ETO Festival was transformed into a Christian ritual celebrated on candle mask the 2nd of February the traditional lama lama or diablada dance became the main dance in the auru carnival the key event in the carnival is the procession or inada which combines Christian elements with borrowings from the medieval mystery plays during the ceremony the dancers cover the 4 km which form the
roote of the procession and they continue to do so for a full 20 hour hour without interruption more than 28,000 dancers and 10,000 musicians take part in the procession [Music]
