Tinku Festival, Bolivia

Certain events simply cannot be missed, and Tinku falls firmly into that category. The festival takes places in the highlands of the Bolivian Andes, and is one of the strangest events in the world.

Although Tinku is in fact a traditional dance, the festival itself is more of a ritual battle taking place yearly between rival communities, known as ayllus, from the Aymara and Quechua communities.

The event involves dancing and drinking chicha, an alcoholic drink made from fermented maize. Drunkenness is certainly not frowned upon, and it may be argued a good few cups of chicha give participants the Dutch courage they need in order to participate in the fights.

During Tinku, villagers from rival communities can be seen beating each other with their fists, whips, rocks and farming tools. As you might expect, deaths are common and the authorities sometimes attempt to control the event using tear gas and whips.

Perhaps the biggest Tinku takes place in the town of Macha, and it sometimes makes an appearance on national television. Although the Bolivian authorities attempted to control Tinku, the ritual serves to defuse conflicts between communities as well as reaffirm the cultural identity of indigenous people.

Visitors are seldom present at Tinku and it is advisable to be as considerate as possible of local customs, as well as avoiding being dragged into any of the fighting. Despite mounting criticism of Tinku within Bolivia, it must be said humans enjoy blood sports such as boxing all over the world and there is little difference here.