Tunpa

The Chiriguanos, also called the Ava Guaraní, were Guaraní-speaking farmers and warriors of the Andean foothills of south-eastern Bolivia. Tumpa, their word for a god, was also the title of the prophets who proclaimed themselves gods and called their people to fight the Spanish.

The Chiriguanos came from Guaraní who moved west from Paraguay in the early sixteenth century and mixed with the Chané. The Spanish called them people without religion, and until the nineteenth century they were impervious to missionaries: a Jesuit mission in 1767 had only 268 Chiriguano converts.

In 1778 and 1779 two prophetic leaders, one at Caiza and one at Mazavi, declared themselves gods and urged the Ava Guaraní to attack the Spanish. Both died between 1780 and 1781 after their attacks failed.