The Asháninka People are the second largest indigenous group in Peru, they live in the rainforests near the headwaters and rivers that feed the Amazon. Their ancestral lands are in the forests of Junin, Pasco, Huanuco and part of Ucayali.

Precise data does not exist, but of the estimated 35- 45,000 Asháninka in Peru, internal armed conflict during the 1980’s - 2000’s resulted in massive displacement, disappearance and death in the Asháninka communities located in the Ene, Tambo and Perene valleys in the Vilcabamba Mountain range. “…10,000 Asháninka were displaced, 6,000 Asháninka died, 5,000 Asháninka were held captive in their forest communities by the Shining Path (a Maoist group), and between thirty and forty Asháninka communities disappeared”.