Sombrero de cuero chaqueño
A leather hat-making tradition from Tarija's Chaco region, worn as a defining identity marker of the criollo chaqueño cowboy culture. The hat's documented adoption as a specific identity symbol dates to 1977, when a Tarija folkloric group deliberately took up the leather hat to visually distinguish themselves as Bolivian chaqueños rather than be mistaken for Argentine gauchos at a national folk festival — a rare case in the archive of a traditional craft object's symbolic role being consciously and recently constructed.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed; Bolivia is a State Party to the 2003 ICH Convention
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.
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 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 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 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…
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…
The making of cotizas — sandals fitted with pieces of animal leather tied to the feet — worn by the parranderos of the Parranda de San Pedro, a UNESCO-inscribed (2013) Afro-Venezuelan religious festival celebrated each 29 June in Guarenas…
The making of fine leather gloves in the Paris tradition — cut from peau de chevreau (kid leather) or peau de porc (pigskin) in a single piece per hand, stretched over a wooden glove form, and hand-sewn with a specific saddle stitch.
The hand-crafting of leather saddles and equestrian tack, founded as a formal commercial tradition in Puerto Rico in 1970 by Lalin, a Cuban-born craftsman who specialized in saddle- and horse-gear-making from a young age.
A tradition of fine leather working in Florence encompassing tooling, gilding, dyeing, and shaping of vegetable-tanned leather into bookbindings, desk accessories, handbags, and decorative objects — rooted in the medieval guild system and…
The making of specialized leather equipment for bullfighting in the Ronda tradition — including the montera (the distinctive black silk and wool bullfighter's hat with its leather interior structure); the zapatilla taurina (the…
A leather saddlery tradition centered on Villa de Cura, Aragua state — historically the gateway to the Guárico llanos — producing hand-tooled saddles (sillas de montar), tack, and riding gear for Venezuela's llanero cattle-ranching culture.