THE BRIBRI AWÁ: GUARDIAN OF ANCESTRAL MEDICINE, SPIRITUALITY AND SACRED KNOWLEDGE (Medicina Ancestral y Espiritualidad en Costa Rica | Ditsöwöú)

The Awá holds one of the most respected roles within the Bribri culture of Costa Rica.

Deep within the Bribri Indigenous Territory of Talamanca stands one of the most respected figures in Bribri culture: the Awá, a guardian of knowledge passed down through generations.

Simply translating Awá as “shaman” does not fully express the meaning or importance of this traditional role. Within Bribri culture, the Awá is recognized as a specialist in ancestral knowledge connected to traditional medicine, ceremonial chants, medicinal plants, spirituality, and the Bribri understanding of illness, healing and balance.

Sources from the University of Costa Rica describe the Awá as one of the great keepers of Bribri knowledge, while research into ancestral medicine documents the important role of the Awá in traditional healing practices.

Knowledge That Is Not Open to Everyone

Becoming an Awá is not simply a matter of deciding to study medicinal plants or participate in spiritual ceremonies.

Traditionally, this knowledge belongs to a much deeper cultural structure. Bribri society is organized through matrilineal clans, passed down through the mother's lineage, and traditional roles and responsibilities form part of this social order.

According to traditional knowledge preserved within our community, future spiritual guides are identified within particular lineages and are later guided by experienced elders and masters. Their preparation requires many years of discipline, observation, memorization and learning.

For this reason, the knowledge of the Awá cannot be understood as a course or spiritual practice that any visitor can simply learn.

Certain teachings are protected by a strong principle of cultural discretion and respect. Some knowledge is transmitted only to those who, according to tradition, carry the responsibility of receiving, preserving and eventually passing it on.

Years of Preparation

The traditional training of an Awá can continue for many years.

Throughout this process, knowledge is transmitted about medicinal plants, traditional treatments, stories, ceremonies, chants, specialized objects and the Bribri understanding of the spiritual world.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this tradition is the suwo’. Research conducted with Bribri and Cabécar specialists describes it as a specialized linguistic form, distinct from everyday Bribri, used by Awápa and other traditional masters during certain healing practices and ceremonies.

Some ceremonial chants can continue for hours and may be repeated over several nights.

This helps explain why becoming an Awá involves far more than learning certain words or practices. It means gradually entering a complex system of knowledge that has been preserved primarily through oral transmission from one generation to another.

Plants, Chants and Traditional Objects

Bribri ancestral medicine involves a complex relationship between the individual, medicinal plants, ceremonial knowledge and the spiritual understanding of certain illnesses and imbalances.

Traditionally, Awápa have used different plants as part of their practices, together with specific chants and culturally significant objects.

Documentation from the University of Costa Rica describes, for example, the use of sacred healing stones in certain traditional practices.

There is also the Ulù, a wooden object used by the Awá as part of the Tsirík to represent and interpret particular ailments during the traditional diagnostic process.

These objects should not be viewed simply as curiosities for visitors. Their meaning belongs to a much broader system of knowledge and can only be fully understood within its cultural context.

Sibö and the Spiritual Dimension

To understand the Awá, it is also necessary to approach the Bribri worldview.

Within this worldview, Sibö holds a central place in the stories concerning the origin and order of the world.

The knowledge of the Awá is connected to an understanding in which human existence is not separated from nature, spirituality or the other beings that form part of the world.

From this traditional perspective, certain ailments are not understood exclusively through their physical dimension. A person's balance may also involve social, spiritual and natural elements.

The Awá therefore works within a distinct Bribri system of traditional medicine in which chants, plants, stories, objects and knowledge transmitted across generations acquire meaning together.

Intercultural research into Bribri and Cabécar traditional medicine emphasizes precisely this point: these traditions should be understood within their own worldview rather than reduced to superstition.

Why Can't Just Anyone Become an Awá?

This is one of the most important distinctions for visitors to understand when discovering Bribri culture.

In many parts of the modern world, words such as shaman, healer or spiritual guide may be used relatively freely.

Within Bribri tradition, however, Awá refers to a specific cultural role, associated with extensive preparation, particular responsibilities and knowledge transmitted within Bribri society itself.

For this reason, certain teachings are not shared with visitors simply out of curiosity, nor are they transformed into tourist activities.

This cultural reserve should not be interpreted as rejection.

It is a way of protecting what is considered solemn and sacred.

Preserving knowledge also means understanding what may be shared, who carries the responsibility to transmit it, and what must remain protected within the tradition.

The Awápa: Guardians of Memory

The importance of the Awá extends far beyond an individual ceremony.

Awápa have long served as keepers and transmitters of oral memory, traditional medicine, spirituality, and Bribri understandings of life, illness and death.

The University of Costa Rica has described them as great knowledge holders and guardians of traditional Bribri wisdom.

The continuity of this tradition has also faced challenges. Community sources have documented periods when the number of Awápa and other holders of traditional cultural roles declined considerably, followed by efforts to strengthen their training and preserve this knowledge for future generations.

For this reason, speaking about the Awá also means speaking about cultural resilience.

Every generation that preserves the language, stories, chants and traditional roles keeps another part of Bribri knowledge and memory alive.

A Spirituality That Invites Respect

From the perspective we wish to share as a community, peoples around the world have developed different ways of naming and understanding what they consider sacred, higher or creative.

For the Bribri, this understanding is deeply connected to Sibö and to a unique worldview passed down through generations.

This does not mean that every religion or culture is the same. Each has its own history, language, traditions and way of understanding existence.

For many Bribri people, however, there is a profound reflection on something that reaches beyond human differences: our condition as living beings, our spiritual dimension, and our relationship with the origin of existence.

The Awá preserves a distinctly Bribri way of approaching these profound questions.

And precisely for this reason, this tradition deserves to be discovered with respect — without stripping it of its mystery, turning it into a spectacle, or separating it from the culture that gives it meaning.

Discovering Without Appropriating

Visiting the Bribri Territory can offer a rare opportunity to listen, observe and discover a different way of understanding the world.

But an authentic cultural experience does not mean having access to everything.

Some stories can be shared.Some places can be visited.Some traditions can be explained.And some knowledge must remain under the care of those who carry the cultural responsibility to preserve it.

Understanding and respecting that boundary is itself part of discovering Bribri culture.

To Discover the Bribri People Is to Encounter a Living Culture

In Talamanca, Bribri culture continues to live through its language, clans, cacao, the Úsure, medicinal plants, rivers, families and knowledge transmitted from generation to generation.

Learning about the Awá offers a glimpse into just one part of a much larger cultural universe.

We do not invite visitors to become Awá or to appropriate knowledge that belongs to a protected tradition.

We invite you to come, listen, learn and respectfully experience a living Indigenous culture deeply connected to its territory, ancestral memory and traditions in the heart of Talamanca.

We welcome you to Ditsöwöú.