Mama Cocha

Mama Cocha (in modern Quechua orthography Mama Qucha, meaning 'Mother Sea' or 'Mother of the Waters') is the venerated Andean and coastal deity of the Pacific Ocean, of the high-altitude lagoons, of the gulfs and of all continental bodies of water in Inca religion and in the pre-Columbian coastal cultures (such as the Chimú and the Chincha). Conceived in the sacred hydrology of the Andes as the primordial matrix from which all the waters of the cosmos spring, Mama Cocha surrounds the inhabited earth and feeds, through invisible underground veins, the mountain springs (puquios) and the sacred lakes of the highlands, such as Titicaca and Chinchaycocha. Supreme patron of the fishermen and navigators who sailed the cold Humboldt currents in totora reed boats (cavalitos de totora) and sea rafts, she was revered to calm violent waves and to grant abundant catches of anchoveta and corvina. Her most precious and sacred offering consisted of the red spiny shells of Spondylus (mullu), gathered in deep dives in the warm waters of Ecuador and deposited in the coastal and lakeside sanctuaries to request regular rains.

5 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

The sea, the fish, the shell and the wave

Primary sources

• Bernabé Cobo, Historia del Nuevo Mundo. translation: Edition by Francisco Mateos, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Madrid, 1956.
• Pedro Cieza de León, Crónica del Perú. translation: Edition by Francesca Cantù, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 1986.

Studies

• Maria Rostworowski, Costa peruana prehispánica. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1989.
• Brian S. Bauer, The Sacred Landscape of the Inca: The Cusco Ceque System. University of Texas Press, 1998.
• Izumi Shimada, Cultura Chimú: Estado, ideología y orfebrería. Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1994.