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The Depository documents 24 techniques in Bolivia; by risk level: 1 critically endangered, 9 endangered, 12 vulnerable, 1 thriving. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
A pre-Columbian tied-hammock weaving technique practiced by Guarayo women in and around Urubichá, Santa Cruz department, using hand-spun native cotton thread (hilo guarayo) rather than industrial thread.
A vertical-loom cotton weaving tradition of the Isoseño-Guaraní people along the Parapetí River in Santa Cruz department, in which women weave entirely improvised, unrepeated geometric and figurative designs — no two pieces alike — using…
Two distinct pictorial weaving traditions from south-central Bolivia, produced on backstrap and vertical looms by Jalq'a and Tarabuco (Yampara) weavers of Chuquisaca and Potosí departments.
A distinct Andean weaving tradition of the Kallawaya people, itinerant herbalist healers of Bautista Saavedra province, La Paz department, whose textiles are woven with detailed figurative motifs of regional flora and fauna reflecting the…
An industrial-scale but technique-intensive felting craft centered in Sucre, Bolivia, where a small cluster of family-founded factories produce wool and rabbit-fur felt hoods (campanas or fustes) — the raw cone-shaped blanks from which…
A sheep-wool weaving tradition from Vallegrande, a highland valley town in Santa Cruz department settled by a historic mixing of Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní-Chané populations, producing textiles whose designs are described in regional…
The lapidary technique of cutting ametrine — a naturally bicolor quartz combining amethyst (purple) and citrine (yellow) within a single crystal — sourced almost exclusively from Bolivia's Anahí mine, the world's only significant…
A distinctive Jesuit-mission-era wood-carving tradition from Bolivia's Chiquitania region, fusing European Baroque architectural ornament with Chiquitano indigenous visual motifs (local flora, fauna, and mermaid figures supporting painted…
A masonry technique unique to the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, in which compacted salt is cut directly from the salar's surface into brick-like blocks and built into complete structures — walls, domed ceilings, furniture…
A fiber-bag weaving technique practiced by Ayoreode women of Bolivia's Chaco Boreal, using thread hand-spun from the leaves of the garabatá plant (a native bromeliad).
A palm-leaf hat woven from the leaves of the Saó palm (Trithrinax schizophylla), legally declared the official "Símbolo Cultural Cruceño" (Cultural Symbol of Santa Cruz) by Bolivian departmental law in 2007 and worn as an identity marker…
A net-weave (malla de red) textile technique of the Weenhayek people of Bolivia's Gran Chaco, in which women hand-spin thread from the caraguatá plant and freehand-weave it, without ruler or fixed pattern, into llica net bags and other…
The construction of the charango, a small ten-string Andean lute historically built with a dried armadillo-shell resonator back and now predominantly hand-carved or laminated from wood, a material shift driven by international…
A violin-making tradition originating in the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos, where Swiss missionary Martín Schmid founded the region's first music school at San Javier in 1730, training Chiquitano communities to build and play European…
A pre-Hispanic natural freeze-drying (lyophilization) technique that transforms bitter potato varieties into a durable, long-storage staple.
Bolivia's national spirit, a clear grape brandy distilled exclusively from Muscat of Alexandria grapes grown at exceptional altitude (1,600–2,200 meters) in the valleys of Tarija, Chuquisaca, La Paz, and Potosí.
A hand-building pottery tradition from Cotoca, near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in which women potters (loceras) build vessels and figurative sculpture entirely from coils of clay without a wheel or mold, drawing on local pre-Columbian…
Pre-Hispanic-rooted, wood-fired village pottery from Huayculi, a small community five kilometers from Tarata in Cochabamba's Valle Alto, producing hand- and wheel-thrown utilitarian ware (pots, jugs, jars, tableware) alongside decorative…
The making of finely detailed miniature objects — houses, vehicles, food, currency, diplomas, and more — for Bolivia's Alasita festival, an Aymara ritual tradition honoring Ekeko, the god of abundance, in which miniatures are bought,…
A self-invented sculptural technique, developed and copyrighted by Tarija artisan Ruth Mercado since 2002, that builds miniature figures of rural chapaco men and women — depicted farming, making music, tending children — entirely from…
All miscellaneous & heritage-adjacent craft techniques worldwide →
A leather hat-making tradition from Tarija's Chaco region, worn as a defining identity marker of the criollo chaqueño cowboy culture.
The sculptural mask-making trade behind Oruro's Diablada (Dance of the Devils), the centerpiece of the UNESCO-inscribed Carnaval de Oruro.
Colonial-rooted Bolivian silversmithing centered on Potosí, once the Spanish Empire's principal silver-minting city, historically practiced through forging, filigree, and lost-wax casting workshops.
An ancestral Aymara boat-building technique from Suriqui Island, Lake Titicaca, in which bundles of totora reed are shaped by hand and foot into Viking-canoe-silhouetted vessels without nails, adhesive, or powered tools — reeds alone,…