El Bule : Wixárika tradition

Witness to the colonization on Mexican territory, the Wixárika people remain one of the few pre-Hispanic communities that has preserved their identity to this day. Their cosmovision is characterized by a parallelism between creation and ephemerality, a mythology primarily governed by symmetry. Caves in western Mexico have revealed pictographs testifying the geometric order that the Wixáritari have assigned to the universe.

The bule, named "o kãye" by the Wixáritari, is a dry gourd used to contain and transport water

The Huichols fill new gourds with water which they repeatedly change until they are completely clean inside.

Vida y arte de los Huicholes, Artes de México, 1960

Gourds decorated with yarn

Vida y arte de los Huicholes, Artes de México, 1960

In offerings, the bule is ornamented with flaura and fauna patterns, hand-made with cotton threads, but this know-how goes beyond the simple intention of imitating nature: the geometric forms shaped around the bule give this everyday object a votive meaning. Artistic hands freeze the analogies and balance of the world with beeswax.

Yarn paintings originated with "nierikas", a square offeringmade of wood covered with wax and pressed intothewax designs ofyarn representing whatever the Huichol is asking of the gods.

Huichol invocation to our Mother the rain, 1975

Gourds decorated with yarn, 1970

Our selection of Bules are made by Diego, from Santa Catarina, State of Jalisco