Qualla: Gran Pajonal

Gran Pajonal: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit César Cipriani, CC0. In 1742, an Asháninka leader named Juan Santos Atahualpa led a rebellion that destroyed every Franciscan mission in the Gran Pajonal and kept the plateau in indigenous hands for the next 150 years. That is the core fact of this place, and anyone telling the story honestly has to start there. The Spanish never came back in force. The rubber tappers eventually did, and the missionaries eventually did, and the Peruvian army eventually did. But the Asháninka are still here. In 2002, out of a population of roughly 7,000 people scattered across the plateau, 90 percent were Asháninka. The grass patches that give the Gran Pajonal its name - Great Scrubland in Spanish - exist because Asháninka farmers have been cultivating them for centuries, perhaps millennia, carving open spaces out of the surrounding rainforest.

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Image: César Cipriani | CC0

Gran Pajonal: The Grasslands That Humans Made

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit César Cipriani, CC0. The name Gran Pajonal puzzles visitors expecting savanna. The plateau lies in the upper Amazon basin, surrounded by tropical rainforest on every side. But at its elevation - ranging from about 900 to 1,400 meters - and after centuries of Asháninka agriculture, small patches of gr...

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Image: César Cipriani | CC0

Gran Pajonal: Juan Santos Atahualpa

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit César Cipriani, CC0. In 1733, a Franciscan named Juan Bautista de la Marca became the first Spaniard to visit the Gran Pajonal. The plateau was attractive to missionaries: it had a relatively dense indigenous population and a cooler, healthier climate than the Amazon lowlands. By 1735, an armed Spani...

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Image: César Cipriani | CC0

Gran Pajonal: Beyond the Spanish Reach

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit César Cipriani, CC0. For a century and a half after 1742, the Gran Pajonal was Asháninka territory in a way few places in Peru remained. The plateau is difficult to reach: it has no navigable rivers crossing it, and its elevation creates a hard transition from the surrounding lowland forest. Mountain...

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Image: César Cipriani | CC0

Gran Pajonal: The Wars Return

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit César Cipriani, CC0. In 1896 and 1897, the Franciscan priest Gabriel Sala visited the Gran Pajonal accompanied by armed men. His expedition opened a second wave of outside attention: plans for roads and railroads, new missions attempted and mostly failed. By 1935, three Catholic missions had been re-...

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Image: César Cipriani | CC0

Gran Pajonal: Thirty-Six Communities, Legal Title

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit César Cipriani, CC0. In the 1980s, with assistance from the World Bank and the government of Denmark, the Asháninka of the Gran Pajonal achieved legal title to most of their land. Ownership was formally deeded to 36 separate communities, with non-Asháninka allowed to reside and own land only within t...

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Image: César Cipriani | CC0