THE ASHÁNINKA OF THE RIO ENE,
CORDILLERA VILCABAMBA, PERU
The Asháninka are the second largest indigenous group in Peru.
They live in the rainforests near the headwaters that feed the
Amazon River, their ancestral homes are in the forests of Junin,
Pasco, Huanuco and parts of Ucayali Estimates of the number of
Asháninka living in Peru are between 25,00 - 45,000. this is a
remote zone and numbers of Asháninka have chosen "voluntary
isolation"preferring to remain "uncontacted".
The "internal armed conflict" in Peru during the 1980s to 2000s
severely affected the Asháninka in the Ene, Tambo and Perence
regions. Precise numbers do not exist "10,000 Asháninka were
displaced, 6,000 Asháninka died,and 5,000 Asháninka were taken
captive in their forest communities by the Shining Path (a Maoist
group) and between 30-40 Asháninka communities disappeared" 1
The Truth and reconciliation Commission, Peru august 28th, 2003
2.8 Los Pueblos Indigenas y el caso de los Asháninka P.24:
Tsimi – the Asháninka Bioclimatic Association
SANCORE (Association of Asháninka Coffee producers)
The Asháninka Photography Project
A hydro-electric dam,the Paquitzapango Dam would impact the Otishi National Park and the Ashaninka Communal Reserve. Many Ashaninka would lose their lands, livelihoods and means of subsistence.
CARE Central Asháninka del Rio Ene.
About DAMS - International Rivers Slideshow
All Photographs © Angela Cumberbirch.All Rights are Reserved |
 An Ashaninka man walks home along the banks of the Ene River. |
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 Bosque de los Niños - a project started by Joaquín Leguía , managed in the Rio Tambo by ACPC |
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 A young Ashaninka child |
 Aerial shot of the Ene River, during the dry season. To the right is an Ashaninka home in a clearing in the forest. |
 SANCORE - (Association of Ashaninka Coffee Growers) load their harvest for sale to a collective. |
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 Early dawn and the moisture is still rising from the forest; An Ashaninka village hidden among the trees |
 Young Ashaninka boys return from bathing in the river. |
 View through the bamboo poles of an Ashaninka house.
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 Weaving the roof of a home from palm leaves. This is generally a collective activity, neighbors pitch in to help. |
 Checking the organic beans that are drying in the sun. |
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 Drying cocoa beans. |
 Ashaninka woman laughing |
 Preparing Masato - a traditional Ashaninka beverage made from chewed, fermented yucca and camote. |
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 Preparing monkey for the evening meal. |
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 Weaving a strap for a Tsaroto, a traditional Ashaninka bag that all men carry. |
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 An Ashaninka kitchen; smoking a Zungaro (a giant catfish) . |
 Leaves of a plant (Barbasco.) that stuns fish, being pounded inside a hollowed out tree trunk. |
 Preparing breakfast at first light. |
 Preparing zungaro, a giant catfish. |
 A young Ashaninka boy with traditional face designs made from te crushed seeds of the achiote (bixa orellana) fruit. |
 The flower and immature fruit of the achiote (bixa orellana) shrub. |
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 Three young Ashaninka girls |
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 Breakfast time - An Ashaninka mother serves food to the children in this small two-family village. |
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 Ashaninka men share the morning meal. |
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 A traditional Ashaninka healing ritual - medicinal plants and cold water are heated with hots stones to purify the body. |
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 Children line up before the first classof the day. |
 Ashaninka children with traditional face designs and jewelry , in a very remote village in the high mountain forest. |
 An Ashaninka house in the igh mountain forest
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 Off to tend to a chacre, (a smallvegetable plot) where yucca, beans and other vegetables are grown |
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 Ashaninka Ronderos: Ronderos were given some guns by the Army to protect themselves against attack during the armed conflict. |
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 Young children huddle together during the chilly dawn of the high mountain forests. |
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 An Ashaninka home in an area over-taken by squatting colonists fromthe Andes. Traditional Ashaninka homes are not enclosed by walls. |
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 Guests are offered Masato, a traditional Ashaninka beverage. |
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 Ashaninka women cross the plano in the dry season to deliver goods to the village in the distance. |
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 Footall is a favorite pastime of the Ashaninka |
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 Ashaninka boys with their football. |
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 Cotton is harvested, spun, dyed with vegetable dyes and woven into Cushma's, the traditional dress, which can take upto 3 months to complete. |
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 A husband and wife wearing the traditional hand-made cushma (left) and a dress from purchased cloth (right). |
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 A father and son - showing the past traditional dress (still worn daily by many of the older Asaninka) and worn by all for important occasions such as visits to neighbors and ceremonial occasions ,and the current mode of dree worn by many young men. |
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 an Ashaninka village at nightfall. |
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 A forest rat near the Parijaro waterfall. |
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 Parijaro, a sacred Ashaninka waterfall. |
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 Aerial viewof the Cutivireni River, a fast running white water river - main tributary to the Ene. |
 The Ashaninka Photography Project.
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