Chiquitania

---

title: "Chiquitania" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["geography-of-bolivia", "tropical-and-subtropical-grasslands,-savannas,-and-shrublands", "regions-of-south-america"] description: "Region of tropical savannas in Bolivia" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquitania" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Region of tropical savannas in Bolivia ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Mapa_de_Bolivia_(región_Chiquitania).svg" caption="Map of the ecoregion"] ::

Chiquitania ("Chiquitos" or "Gran Chiquitania") is a region of tropical savannas in the Santa Cruz Department in eastern Bolivia.

Geography

"Chiquitos" is the colonial name for what is now essentially five of the six provinces that make up the Chiquitania, a region in Bolivia's Santa Cruz department. "Chiquitos" refers to a region, not a tribe.

Today, the Chiquitania lies within five provinces of Santa Cruz Department: Ángel Sandoval, Germán Busch, José Miguel de Velasco, Ñuflo de Chávez and Chiquitos province.{{Cite web |last=Roth |first=Hans |title=Events that happened at that time |work=Chiquitos: Misiones Jesuíticas |access-date=2009-01-21 |url=http://chiquitos.santacruz.gov.bo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=232&Itemid=55&lang=en_EN | publisher = San Ignacio de Velasco | title = I Congreso Internacional Chiquitano, 22–24 May 2008 | access-date = 2009-02-16 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080228232052/http://www.congresochiquitos.com/ | archive-date = 2008-02-28 | url = http://www.congresochiquitos.com/ | title = Provincia Boliviana de la Compañia de Jesús | access-date = 2009-01-19 | year = 2005 | language = es | publisher = Jesuitas Bolivia-Online | url = http://www.jesuitas.org.bo/

Peoples

One of the many tribes inhabiting Chiquitos were the Chiquitano, who still speak the Chiquitano language today.

Languages

Languages historically spoken in the Chiquitania included:

• Chiquitano
• Gorgotoqui (extinct)
• Otuke (extinct)
• Ayoreo
• Guarani

Today, Camba Spanish is the main vernacular lingua franca.

Missions

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Chiquitos_map_1789.jpg" caption="Map of Chiquitania from 1789"] ::

Main article: Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos

A notable feature are the 18th-century Jesuit reductions and Franciscan settlements scattered throughout the region. Six churches still remain in the zone and were selected in 1990 as UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the name Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos.

Ecosystem

The Chiquitano dry forest is the ecosystem which connects South America's two largest biomes, the Amazon and the Gran Chaco, a dense dry forest of thorn-covered trees and scrub that extends south into Paraguay and Brazil.

References

References

1. http://www.chiquitania.com {{webarchive. link. (2009-01-26 : The two names Chiquitos and Chiquitano should not be confused, the first is a place; that second a tribe.)
2. (2 September 2019). "'Murderer of nature': Evo Morales blamed as Bolivia battles devastating fires".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::