Supay

Supay (in the colonial Quechua spelling çupay or zupay) is the complex Andean spiritual entity originally associated with shadows, ancestral ghosts, caves and the underground depths of the Ukhu Pacha. Far from being a Manichaean personification of absolute evil in the pre-Hispanic religion of the Incas, the term designated a morally ambivalent spiritual power, able to be beneficial or dangerous according to the first Quechua lexicons of the sixteenth century. During colonial evangelization in the Viceroyalty of Peru, theologians such as José de Acosta and the bishops of the Third Lima Council (1582-1583) chose the word supay to translate the Christian concept of 'Devil' or 'Demon' in indigenous catechisms and sermonaries. This forced demonization generated a powerful Andean religious syncretism, particularly alive among the workers of the silver and tin mines of Potosí and Oruro (in Bolivia), where Supay became El Tío ('The Uncle'), the absolute lord of the underground galleries, who protects miners from cave-ins and reveals the metal veins in exchange for offerings of coca leaves, cigarettes and cane liquor, celebrated every year in the famous Diablada dance of the Oruro Carnival.

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

The caves, the metals, the subterranean fire and the horned masks

Primary sources

• Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, Lexicon, o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Peru. translation: Facsimile edition by Raúl Porras Barrenechea, Instituto de Historia, Lima, 1951.
• Diego González Holguín, Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua Qquichua. translation: Edition by Raúl Porras Barrenechea, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, 1952.

Studies

• Michael T. Taussig, The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. University of North Carolina Press, 1980.
• June Nash, We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us: Dependency and Exploitation in Bolivian Tin Mines. Columbia University Press, 1979.
• Pierre Duviols, La destrucción de las religiones andinas: Conquista y cristianización. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1977.