Kashinawa Rapé – Brazilian Tradition

Mood: Present, Clear, Relieved
Best For: Clearing the head, chanting, staying in the here and now

Also known as: Rapé, Hapé, Indian snuff, Rome Poto, Huni Kuin rapé
Tribe: Kaxinawá (Huni Kuin)
Origin: Brazil

The Kaxinawá use rapé for the body and for the mind: to ease pain, to clear the breath, and to be present here and now.

Kashinawa Hapé

All our rapés are traditional and made by indigenous people from many different tribes, each one prepared with the wisdom of their elders. Every rapé contains tobacco, ashes, a mix of plants, and one plant that gives that rapé its specific power.

In the Kaxinawá tribe, rapé is used for many purposes. It relieves physical pain and headaches and clears blocked sinuses. It is also mental medicine, used together with chanting to bring a person fully into the present. Rapé connects the tribe with the spirits of the jungle, and depending on its exact ingredients it can heal, sharpen concentration, support the hunt, or serve as a spiritual link.

About the Huni Kuin

The Kaxinawá, also known as Cashinauá or Caxinauá, are indigenous people of Brazil and Peru. Their name comes from kaxi, bat, and nawa, people, and may also mean people who walk about at night. Their own name is Huni Kuin: real men, true people, from huni, man, and kuin, real. Their language belongs to the Pano family, and they call it hatxa kuin, the true language.

About 4,000 Huni Kuin live today in the state of Acre in western Brazil, where they make up 42% of the indigenous population.

Use a kuripe to receive it yourself, or a tepi when it is served to you. More about the Kaxinawá people.