Chincha

The Chincha were a seafaring and trading people of the Chincha Valley on the coast of Peru, whose kingdom flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They believed themselves descended from jaguars, which gave them their warlike and domineering nature, and worshipped a jaguar god.

Their chief god was Chinchaycamac, who held a rich oracle near the great adobe pyramids of La Centinela. Their merchants sailing the Pacific revered a star called Chundri, perhaps used for navigation, and the gods were said to have come from an island sanctuary called Urpihuachay, She Who Bears Doves.

The Incas under Pachacuti brought Chincha into their empire peacefully, but its lords kept much of their autonomy. In 1532 the lord of Chincha was carried in a litter to meet Pizarro at Cajamarca, where he was killed.