We specialize tailor-made –and add on tours in Greenland. Any tours are to be found at our place, with focus on culture, nature and history. Our shop in the city center provides you with information about our top day tours, such as boat tours to the ice fiord, abandoned village, inhabited village in the bottom of the enormous fiord, whale watching, restaurant in the fiord, hiking tours, city tours and much more!
Tupilak Team
Henrik Skydsbjerg – henrik@tupilak.gl Manager
Pilunnguaq R. Thomsen – pilu@tupilak.gl Travel agent and accountant
Seria Inusugtok – seria@tupilaktravel.gl Travel and tourist agent
Pipaluk Ostermann – pipa@tupilaktravel.gl
Travel and tourist agent
Natasha Petersen – natasha@tupilaktravel.gl
Travel and tourist agent
Contact
info@tupilak.gl Office: +299 31 32 18 Emergency phone: +299 58 39 18 Monday to Friday – 8:30 AM to 5 PM Saturdays – 10 AM to 1 PM
In Greenlandic Inuit (Kalaallit) traditions, a tupilak was an avenging monster fabricated by a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism by using various objects such as animal parts (bone, skin, hair, sinew, etc.) and even parts taken from the corpses of children. The creature was given life by ritualistic chants. It was then placed into the sea to seek and destroy a specific enemy.
The use of a tupilak was risky, however, because if it was sent to destroy someone who had greater magical powers than the one who had formed it, it could be sent back to kill its maker instead, although the maker of tupilak could escape by public confession of her or his own deed.
Because tupilaks were made in secret, in isolated places and from perishable materials, none have been preserved. Early European visitors to Greenland, fascinated by the native legend, were eager to see what tupilaks looked like so the Inuit began to carve representations of them out of sperm whale.
Today, tupilaks of many different shapes and sizes are carved from various materials such as narwhal and walrus tusk, wood and caribou antler. They are an important part of Greenlandic Inuit art and are highly prized as collectibles.