| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 200 (2000) [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Bolivia | |
| Languages | |
| Toromona | |
| Religion | |
| traditional tribal religion |
The Toromona are an indigenous people of Bolivia. They are uncontacted people living near the upper Madidi and Heath Rivers in northwestern Bolivia. [1] Bolivia's Administrative Resolution 48/2006, issued on 15 August 2006, created an "exclusive, reserved, and inviolable" portion of the Madidi National Park to protect the Toromona. [2]
The Toromona language is a Tacanan language. [1]
No non-natives have contacted this tribe. During the Spanish colonization, settlers found it difficult to adapt to the area of the Amazon Basin. Besides surviving, their main goal was to find a secret place called Paititi, an alleged hiding place of the Incas' most valuable treasures which had been sequestered away from the Spaniards. There are some historical records confirming that the Incas, in fact, sealed storage tunnels in ritual ceremonies. Father Miguel Cabello de Balboa wrote about a city of gold, describing Paititi as a place supposedly protected by warrior women; he also mentioned the Toromona tribe, alleging that they possessed no qualms or reservations with regards to the executing of outsiders.
Norwegian biologist Lars Hafskjold had searched exhaustively for the Toromona, and became quite famous due to his disappearance, somewhere in the region of the Madidi park in 1997.
The Toromona have occasionally been seen by other indigenous peoples in the region. [3] In the 21st century, anthropologist Michael Brohan was informed by members of the Araona people that they had contacted a group in voluntary isolation on the eastern bank of the Manuripi River, who were speakers of either Toromona or a nearly unintelligible dialect of Araona. [4]
Chaco, officially the Province of Chaco, is one of the 23 provinces in Argentina. Its capital and largest city, is Resistencia. It is located in the north-east of the country.
Uncontacted peoples are groups of indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighbouring communities and the world community. Groups who decide to remain uncontacted are referred to as indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Legal protections make estimating the total number of uncontacted peoples challenging, but estimates from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the UN and the non-profit group Survival International point to between 100 and 200 uncontacted peoples numbering up to 10,000 individuals total. A majority of uncontacted peoples live in South America, particularly northern Brazil, where the Brazilian government and National Geographic estimate between 77 and 84 tribes reside.
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Paititi is a legendary Inca lost city or utopian rich land. It allegedly lies east of the Andes, hidden somewhere within the remote rainforests of southeast Peru, northern Bolivia or northwest Brazil. The Paititi legend in Peru revolves around the story of the culture-hero Inkarri, who, after he had founded Q'ero and Cusco, retreated toward the jungles of Pantiacolla to live out the rest of his days in his refuge city of Paititi. Other versions of the legend see Paititi as an Inca refuge in the border area between Bolivia and Brazil.
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Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory is a protected area and Native Community Land in Bolivia situated between the north of the Cochabamba Department and the south of the Beni Department. It protects part of the Bolivian Yungas ecoregion. The indigenous people living within the park belong to the Tsimané, Yuracaré, and Mojeño-Trinitario peoples. The southern portion of the park has been colonized by agricultural settlers, primarily coca farmers, since the 1970s. The Bolivian government estimates that 10% of the park has been deforested by their presence.
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