OUR COLLECTION — LATIN AMERICA — BOLIVIA 431. TOTORA NATIVITY
This Nativity contains 11 small painted clay figures riding in a boat made from dried totora reeds. The scene was made by the Uru people in the Lake Titicaca area of Bolivia. The clay figures stand 2 inches tall. The boat is 10 inches long.
The Uru, an indigenous people predating the Incas, still live on Lake Titicaca upon floating mats of dried totora (a reedlike papyrus that grows in dense brakes in the marshy shallows). From the totora, the Uru and other lake dwellers make their famed balsas—boats fashioned of bundles of dried reeds lashed together that resemble the crescent-shaped papyrus craft pictured on ancient Egyptian monuments.
The Uru, an indigenous people predating the Incas, still live on Lake Titicaca upon floating mats of dried totora (a reedlike papyrus that grows in dense brakes in the marshy shallows). From the totora, the Uru and other lake dwellers make their famed balsas—boats fashioned of bundles of dried reeds lashed together that resemble the crescent-shaped papyrus craft pictured on ancient Egyptian monuments.