Chayanta province is one of sixteen provinces in the Potosí Department. It is located between 18° 23' and 19° 6' South and between 65° 23' and 66° 19' West.
In the late eighteenth century the province was the scene of a rebellion of the Aymara-speaking population led by Tomás Katari and exacerbated by his assassination in January 1781. It was also the scene of a peasant rebellion in 1927.
Division
The province comprises four municipalities, which are partly further subdivided into cantons.
The main language of the province is Quechua, spoken by 79%, while 33% of the population speak Spanish. The population increased from 73,128 inhabitants (1992 census) to 90,205 (2001 census), an increase of 23.4%. The capital of the province is Colquechaca.
97% of the population have no access to electricity, 98% have no sanitary facilities.
74% of the population are employed in agriculture, 1% in mining, 13% in industry, 12% in general services. 93% of the population are Catholics, 5% Protestants.
Sergio Serulnikov, Subverting Colonial Authority: Challenges to Spanish Rule in Eighteenth-Century Southern Andes (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003)
Sergio Serulnikov, Tomás Catari y la producción de justicia (Buenos Aires: CEDES, 1988)
Erick D. Langer, "Andean Rituals of Revolt: The Chayanta Rebellion of 1927," Ethnohistory 37(1990): 227–53
Tristan Platt, Estado boliviano y ayllu andino: tierra y tributo en el norte de Potosi (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1982)