AYMARA (anc. Colla), a tribe of South American Indians, formerly inhabiting the country around Lake Titicaca and the neighbouring valleys of the Andes.
They, however, retained certain privileges, such as the use of their own language; and their treatment by their conquerors generally suggested that the latter believed themselves of Aymara blood.
Physically, the pure Aymara is short and thick-set, with a great chest development, and with the same reddish complexion, broad face, black eyes and rounded forehead which distinguish the Quichuas.
Society (1870), "The Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru."
The first historical records show us these people already possessed of a considerable civilization, and speaking two allied languages, Aymara and Quichua.
He joined the Jesuits in 1551, and in 1571 was sent as a missionary to Peru; he acted as provincial of his order from 1576 to 1581, was appointed theological adviser to the council of Lima in 1582, and in 1583 published a catechism in Quichua and Aymara - the first book printed in Peru.
Although Spanish is the language of the dominant minority, Quichua, Aymara and Guarani are the languages of the natives, who form a majority of the population.
According to Captain Carbajal, who descended it in the little 2 Pongo is a corruption of the Quichua puncu and the Aymara ponco, meaning a door.
Chuncho has also been used to describe one of three aboriginal stocks of Peru, the others being Quichua and Aymara.
The sierra or upland Indians, the most numerous and strongest type, belong largely to the Quichua and Aymara.
