The Kallawaya are an indigenous group living in the Andes of Bolivia. They live in the Bautista Saavedra Province and Muñecas Province of the La Paz Department but are best known for being an itinerant group of traditional healers that travel on foot to reach their patients.[1][2] According to the UNESCO Safeguarding Project, the Kallawaya can be traced to the pre-Inca period as direct descendants of the Tiwanaku and Mollo cultures, meaning their existence has lasted approximately 1,000 years.[1][3] They are known to have performed complex procedures like brain surgery alongside their continuous use of medicinal plants as early as 700 AD. Most famously, they are known to have helped to save thousands of lives during the construction of the Panama Canal, in which they used traditional plant remedies to treat the malaria epidemic.[4] Some historical sources even cite the Kallawayas as the first to use quinine to prevent and control malaria.[5] In 2012, there were 11,662 Kallawaya throughout Bolivia.[6]
- ^ a b "Proclamation 2003: "The Andean Cosmovision of the Kallawaya"". UNESCO. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ^ Hannß, Katja. "The Etymology of Kallawaya". Journal of Language Contact (10), 2017, p. 219-263
- ^ "Wisdom of Mollo Culture Kallawaya". boliviacontact.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ^ "Kallawaya Medicine Men". 23 April 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Preedy, Victor R. (2008). Botanical medicine in clinical practice. CABI. pp. 41–. ISBN 978-1-84593-413-2. Archived from the original on November 26, 2017. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
- ^ "Censo de Población y Vivienda 2012 Bolivia Características de la Población". Instituto Nacional de Estadística, República de Bolivia. p. 29. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2020.