Population & Culture

Bolivia’s cultural heritage is among the richest in South America. Too often we limit the pre-Columbian history of this country to the history of the Incas, a summary that is unfair and far too short.

The Tiwanaku were one of the great civilizations to have left its mark in Bolivia. Founded on the shores of Lake Titicaca, it dominated a population of approximately 70,000 people, on a territory that reached from southern Peru to northern Argentina. Founded in 600 BC, this empire came to an end around 1200 AD, seemingly because of a 40-year drought that destabilized an economy based on the trade of agricultural products and the arts.

Tiwanaku played an important role; its beliefs, techniques and discoveries (in areas such as ceramics, botany, astronomy or anatomy – the Tiwanaku people practiced trepanning, for example) served as a basis for the future occupants of the area, the most famous being the Incas. Unfortunately, excavations have allowed us to discover only 20% of the existing Tiwanaku remains.

Following the decline of the Tiwanaku Empire, rival Aymaras lordships took control of the Altiplano for three centuries, until the Incan Empire. One of the lordships had taken over the others, dominating and organizing a territory from southern Colombia to northern Argentina and Chile. 150 years after the beginning of the Incan Empire, the conquistadores arrived in the area, around 1530. As of 1545, they began exploiting the incredible wealth of the Potosi mines. The diseases that were brought with the invaders and the almost slave-like working conditions destroyed the local populations whose cultures were unable to resist the pressures of the new masters.

The result of this busy history is a mixed people, mainly Indian, and clearly divided between the Kollas of the highlands and the Cambas of the lowlands (Amazonia and Oriente).

Although minimally populated (seven residents per square kilometre, one of the lowest population densities of the planet, to the point where it is common not to see a single person during a whole day of travelling) Bolivia is a land of many different ethnic populations. Panos, Chipayas, Araucos, Chapacuras, Guaranis...many of them have maintained their ancestral ways of life and are having more and more difficulty living with the ever-expanding modern world, both geographically and culturally.

An Aymara of the Altiplano has nothing to do with a Yungueño, even less with an Indian of the Amazon basin. Skin color, language, traditions: everything is different in practically every way. Bolivia is likely be the last refuge for many indigenous cultures: Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, Tacana, Pano, Aruaco, Chapacura, Botocudo, to name a few. To witness this, one has only to walk through La Paz, a melting-pot city, and to follow a rainbow poncho or a cholita in one of the many popular markets where you can find dozens of colorful and fragrant stalls.

One of modern Bolivia’s challenges is to make its motto, which is written in the Constitution, become a reality: ‘’Unity in its diversity’’.