Bolivia · Sacred / Ritual Craft
Artesanía de Alasita
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, blessed, and gifted so that the recipient may receive the real object within the year. Artisans work across wood, plaster (yeso), ceramic, metal (metalmecánica), textile, and mixed-technique categories, all governed by scale (competition pieces must be under 15 cm) and judged annually in a formal municipal competition.
Risk level: Thriving · "Ritual journeys in La Paz during Alasita" was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017
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 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.
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…
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 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…
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 hand-knotting of a monumental Islamic medallion prayer carpet for the main prayer hall of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, certified by Guinness World Records as the largest hand-knotted carpet in the world.
'Ahu'ula ('red garment') refers to the feathered cloaks and capes that stood as the most sacred and politically significant objects of pre-contact Hawaiian material culture — constructed entirely by hand from plant fiber netting and the…
The preparation of henna paste from dried, crushed leaves of the Lawsonia inermis shrub and its freehand application in intricate geometric and floral designs onto the hands and feet, a practice rooted in Amazigh culture that accompanies…
PARTIAL RECORD BY DESIGN — An ephemeral healing-ceremony art form in which a hatałii (medicine person) and assistants pour dry pigment freehand onto the ground to create a large ritual image used within a specific healing ceremony and…
The Greek beeswax candle making tradition — the production of the specific Greek Orthodox beeswax candles (κηροί) from the pure Greek beeswax that is the required material for Orthodox liturgical candles, whose characteristic warm honey…
The knife-carving of intricate decorative patterns into a thick layer of sarooj, a traditional plaster material, applied to the mihrab -- the prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca -- within Omani mosques dating from the 13th to…