Dr. Johan Reinhard is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at The Mountain Institute, West Virginia, a Visiting Professor at Catholic University, Salta, Argentina, and an Honorary Professor of Catholic University, Arequipa, Peru. [1]
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Born in Joliet, Illinois, he began his undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona, before going on to receive his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Vienna, Austria (1974). Much of Dr. Reinhard's current research focuses on the sacred beliefs and cultural practices of mountain peoples and in the preservation of their cultural patrimony, especially in the Andes and the Himalayas. He has conducted anthropological field research since 1980 in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. His investigations have led him to present theories to explain the mystery of the Nazca Lines (giant desert drawings), pre-Hispanic ceremonial sites built on Andean mountain summits, and the ancient ceremonial centers of Machu Picchu, Chavin, and Tiahuanaco. During 1989-92 he directed an underwater archaeological research project in Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake, that resulted in the discovery of rare Inca and Tiahuanaco artifacts. He has lived more than ten years in the Himalayas, conducting anthropological research primarily in Nepal, but he has also undertaken investigations in Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, and the Garhwal Himalaya. His studies included: Himalayan shamanism (traditional religious practitioners); the role of sacred mountains in Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism; the sacred "hidden lands" of Tibetan Buddhism (six of which he has explored); and one of the world's last nomadic hunting and gathering tribes (the Raute in western Nepal). Elsewhere in Asia he has studied Muslim fishermen (1977) in the Maldive Islands (Indian Ocean). During his time in Nepal, he directed Peace Corps Training Projects, was a member of teams that made some of the first rafting descents of Himalayan rivers (Trisuli and Sun Kosi), and was a member of the successful 1976 American Everest Expedition. While living in Austria, Dr. Reinhard participated in an underwater archaeological study (1972) of a Neolithic site at Mondsee. He was also a member of teams which undertook nautical archaeological research of Roman shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea off southern Italy (1965 and 1967) and of an Iron Age Villanovan village (1965) in an Italian lake (Lago di Bolsena). He participated in underwater archaeological investigations of sacred lakes of the Incas in the craters of Licancabur in 1981-82 (at 19,300 ft the world's highest dives) and Paniri (19,100 ft) in 1983 and in lower-lying lakes near Cuzco in 1987 and 2004 (Lakes Urcos, Huacarpay and Piuray, and in the highlands of Ecuador (2009), while in 2007 and 2010 he was a member of teams that investigated sacred lakes of the Aztecs in craters on Mt. Toluca in Mexico and underwater archaeological sites in Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan in 2010.
He has investigated traditional religious beliefs and climbed sacred mountains in Greece (2002) and in Bali, Indonesia (2007). He has served as a cinematographer for the BBC, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Scientific Film Institute of Germany, and his research has been featured in several TV documentaries, including National Geographic Explorer, BBC, NOVA, PBS, and Discovery. He has lectured on cruise ships traveling in the Caribbean, along the Pacific coast of South America, and to Antarctica, the Galapagos, and Easter Island, and also lectured on round-the-world flights for the National Geographic Society. He speaks Spanish, Nepali, and German, and undertook analysis of two unwritten languages: Raji (a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal) and Kusunda, one of the world's rarest languages.
While making over 200 ascents in the Andes, he led expeditions resulting in the discovery of more than 40 high altitude Inca ritual sites. He directed teams that recovered four Inca human sacrifices on Ampato (6,312 m) in southern Peru, including the Mummy Juanita (the "Ice Maiden").[1] His expeditions in the Andes during 1996-1999 led to the discovery of fourteen more Inca human sacrifices on five mountains above 18,000 ft (5,500 m). In 1999 he directed the excavations of three perfectly preserved mummies at over 22,000 feet (6,739 m) on Llullaillaco, the world’s highest archaeological site. In 1995 and 1999 Time selected Dr. Reinhard's finds as among “the world's ten most important scientific discoveries” of those years.
Dr. Reinhard has over seventy publications and is a member of several organizations, including the American Anthropological Association, the Society for American Archaeology, the Explorers Club, the Institute of Andean Studies, and the Royal Geographical Society. Three museums have been built to exhibit the archeological finds made during his expeditions: the Museo Santuarios Andinos (Museum of Andean Sanctuaries) in Arequipa (Peru); the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana (MAAM) (Museum of High Mountain Archaeology) in Salta (Argentina); and a site museum in the village of Challapampa, Island of the Sun, Lake Titicaca (Bolivia). He has received several awards for his research in the Andes, including the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1987, the Puma de Oro (Bolivia's highest award in the field of archaeology) in 1992, the Gold Medal of the city of Arequipa in 1996, and the Explorers Medal of the Explorers Club in 2002. In 2000 he was selected by Outside magazine as one of “today’s 25 most extraordinary explorers,” and in 2001 the Ford Motor Company chose him as one of twelve "Heroes for the Planet." His latest books include "The Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes" (2005), "Machu Picchu: Exploring an Ancient Sacred Center" (2007), and "Inca Rituals and Sacred Mountains: A Study of the World's Highest Archaeological Sites" (with Constanza Ceruti) (2010).