About Rao Kaibo
Asociacion Rao Kaibo is a non-profit organisation founded in 2019 to support, preserve and extend the medicine wisdom tradition of Don Pedro Sinuiri.
Asociacion Rao Kaibo works with Don Pedro and his extended family, and partner organisations and individuals who share our aim to preserve and vitalise his priceless wisdom so that future generations might benefit.
Medicine at a crossroads
The Shipibo culture has reached a threshold. Don Pedro and his generation will be the last people to have known a world before the arrival of Westerners seeking healing and knowledge through plant medicine. In many places, vital features of traditional practice have been diluted and even discarded to make it more palatable to wealthy (comparatively, at least) foreign visitors. In this way, business and consumerism have infiltrated medicine practice in Peru. In addition, the ability of Shipibos to keep their own culture alive and strong is under assault from the forces of modernity.
Protecting ancient wisdom
Shipibo language is an oral tradition, passed on through story and song from generation to generation. Many younger Shipibos today, particularly those who have migrated to the city, might still understand their native tongue, but fewer and fewer are able to speak it (and therefore, pass it on). Fewer young Shipibos feel the call to train as traditional healers, because they know it’s hard work! Mainstream and social media are increasingly indoctrinating them with promises of a comfortable life filled with consumer goods. In this way, we are rapidly moving into a transitional generation where the wisdom of the ancients is in danger of fading away.
Don Pedro is unfailingly generous with his medicine, sharing and transmitting the wisdom earned during a lifetime of dedicated practice and passed down his lineage since time immemorial. And our mission is to assist him with this in every way possible.
What we do
We are committed to developing our own practice as Onanyas (curanderos) under the tutelage of Don Pedro; and learning the Shipibo language.
We have been involved in building and renovation projects on Pedro’s land to make the accommodation available for dieters as comfortable as possible.
We help to spread the word about Don Pedro’s work, primarily online, so more of you come to share in his medicine and play your own part, however big or small, in preserving it for future generations.
Meet the Team
"Wiso Ino"
“My Shipibo name is Wiso Ino. I met Don Pedro and his family when I was just 17, when I came to the jungle looking for physical and emotional healing. I was young and crazy but blessed to find Don Pedro. I was seduced (in a good way!) by the magical plant kingdom and found I was able to heal myself with dieta. Without knowing how or why, a great force came to me and I started to diet very seriously. At this point, I committed my life to learning and understanding traditional Shipibo medicine.
“I’m still learning and working to spread the message of the plants and our master. We are the medicine, we are love!”
"Koin Koin"
“The name given to me by Don Pedro is Koin Koin, a kind of bird named for its distinctive call. Koin also means ‘smoke’ in Shipibo, and I have a strong connection to mapacho tobacco, a key plant ally and teacher on this particular medicine path.
“I first came to Peru at the end of 2015 looking for answers after reaching a difficult point in my life. I dabbled with other Masters for a couple of years, before beginning my training in earnest with Don Pedro in 2017. I have dedicated myself to this calling ever since, and have moved my life to be near my master in Peru.”
