SENEN BIRI ETHNO-BOTANICAL GARDEN
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Elias Sinti Majin, widely respected among the indigenous peoples of Peru as a revered elder of the Shipbo-Conibo nation, founded, with ten other families, the Nuevo Ceilan community and healing center in 1973. At the heart of the community is an ancient
Mango tree which serves as a living icon, providing both physical and spiritual nourishment - as do the surrounding acres of cultivated and wild jungle. Every plant, bush and tree has an ageless role in the Shipibo cultural lineage, and as such each is regarded
with reverence. Elias, his wife, Exilda, and their extended family tend to this land, the nascent Senen Biri Ethno-Botanical Garden, stewarding the thousands of plant species with equal care and respect. It is their cultural duty, their way of being in the
world.
When You care for the Garden
We ask your help in stabilizing the fledgling Senen Biri Ethno-Botanical Garden and, in doing so, help preserve a vast, centuries-old repository of plant knowledge located deep in the Amazon rainforest.
As with many indigenous cultures, the Shipibo understand that a sustainable, healthy existence comes from caring wholly for that which cares for you. And from deep caring comes deep understanding. Recognized as fluent in the “language of the plants,” the
Shipibo have been stewards of their jungle habitat for centuries, nurturing and being nourished in return. Their weavings, songs and stories - in short, their cultural identity - preserves an unparalleled breadth and depth of knowledge of countless plant species
and their uses.
Very soon, 30 hectares of land adjoining the Nuevo Ceilan property will be put on the market, certain to catch the eye of logging, mining and other development interests. However, the current owner of that piece of property, a Shipibo elder
aware of Elias’s heart and intentions, offered the land to the community for the reduced price of $11,500, providing they can raise that amount by October 2, 2015. By many standards, this is not a great sum of money; but for a family whose subsistence depends
on what their jungle habitat provides, it’s a daunting amount to secure in so little time.
The Garden cares for You
Among the first steps toward realizing this goal is the creation of the The Senen Biri Ethno-Botanical Garden: a timeless reservoir of traditional plant lore, a preserve for rare and threatened plant species, a resource for medical, botanical and anthropological
research, cross-cultural education and exchange--and more concretely: food and medicine for all and a sustainable livelihood for members of the Nuevo Ceilan community. Currently, Elias and family own 26 hectares of land four hours up the Ucayali river from
Pucallpa, Peru. A portion of this land is cultivated for subsistence foods. The balance of the land and surrounding habitat remain undeveloped, sustained and sustaining.
For the moment
However, this careful balance could easily be destroyed were this property required to serve short-sighted financial profits over plants and people. Any development that radically shifts the ecological balance of this land will negatively impact the existing
garden and the lives of those in Nuevo Ceilan; it will also be another blow to the badly wounded Amazon rainforest, and as a result, the health of all species across the globe.
With your help, The Senen Biri Ethno-Botanical Garden Project will see that this small portion of the Amazon jungle remains alive and cared for. Please help preserve a rich cultural legacy for the benefit of all. Not only will Elias and his family continue
in their centuries-old role of caretakers of the plants, but those across the planet can continue to benefit from the healing, research and wisdom available through understanding the interconnectivity of plants, people and their shared habitat.
All donations are tax-deductible and processed by our partner NGO Pachamama's Path. For those donating $250 or more to adopt a plant in your name, we will contact you with options of plant species and the medicinal applications of each.
Please contact us for more information or with questions regarding our goals, donations or gifts: [email protected].
For more projects from our NGO, visit us
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Gift Examples of our authentic textile and bracelets are below. Each textile and bracelet are handmade and therefore one of a kind. Textiles are hand painted and stitched and both the bracelet and the textiles are made directly from family
members in Nuevo Ceilan.
