A hand-carved stone amulet from the Calle de las Brujas, the witches' market in the historic center of La Paz, Bolivia. The street runs along Calle Linares, a steep block above the church of San Francisco, where Aymara vendors and yatiri healers have sold amulets, herbs, and offerings for generations. It is a working market with a real name on the map, not a story invented for a label. These pieces came out of it.
Each figure is worked by hand into a single dense form, dark, smoothed by age and handling, small enough to close inside one hand. No two are alike. Each was carved by a different hand and none was made twice. This listing is for a single amulet. Choose your figure from the variants, and you receive the exact piece shown.
These were never decoration. In Bolivia the amulet is a working object, held in the hand or set on a household altar for a specific reason. Choose the one that is yours.
The Tradition Behind Them
The market is a layered place. Aymara belief and Catholic faith have been set over one another here across centuries, and its amulets carry that mixed inheritance. Most descend from the Andean stone charms known as illas, small carved figures kept close or set on an altar to draw blessing and increase toward their keeper. The practice is old and well documented. A Quechua dictionary compiled in 1608 already defined the illa as a stone kept for wealth and good fortune, and museums in London and New York hold the carved camelid illas and conopas that Andean households once buried in their corrals to protect the herd. One figure among these came later, across the ocean: the protective hand, an amulet with Iberian roots that crossed the Atlantic with the Spanish and was reworked here in stone.
The Four Amulets
Condor. Messenger of the upper world, the bird that flies highest and carries word to the gods. Carried for safe passage and for rising.
Llama. The classic illa, the figure the whole stone-amulet tradition is built around. The herd was wealth in the Andes, and the carved llama was kept for prosperity and increase.
Turtle. The armored body that outlasts everything around it. Carried for health and a long life.
Hand. A closed hand gripping a small bag of money, a serpent coiled around it. The serpent is Katari, the Andean guardian that sheds its skin and renews. Together they read plainly: wealth held in the hand, and guarded. Carried to keep what you have and turn away envy and the evil eye.
Details
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Origin: Calle de las Brujas, La Paz, Bolivia
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Provenance: Held more than fifty years
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Material: Hand-carved stone
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Height: Approximately 1.5 to 2.5 inches, varying by piece
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Condition: Vintage, with honest wear consistent with age
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Sold as: One amulet per order; choose your figure by variant; each is one of one
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Ships from: Taos, New Mexico
Display and Styling
Set a single amulet on a desk, a windowsill, or a bedside shelf where it can be picked up and held. Grouped with other small carvings in a bowl or on an open shelf, the dark carved stone suits folk-art, Southwestern, studio, and globally layered interiors. Small enough to carry in a pocket or bag, the way these were first kept.
FAQ
Where do these come from?
The Calle de las Brujas, the witches' market in the historic center of La Paz, Bolivia, along Calle Linares above the church of San Francisco. They have been held more than fifty years.
What is a protection amulet?
One carried or kept to guard its keeper. In the La Paz market the hand with a coiled serpent is the protective figure, kept to hold wealth and turn away envy and the evil eye.
Is this like an azabache or mal de ojo charm?
It belongs to the same family of evil-eye protection, the Spanish and Latin American tradition of the guarding hand. The difference is the material. This is carved stone, not jet, which is what azabache means.
What does each amulet mean?
The condor is for safe passage, the llama for prosperity, the turtle for long life, and the hand for holding and guarding wealth, with the coiled serpent as its guardian.
Are they antique?
They are vintage, held more than fifty years. They belong to a living Andean tradition rather than being excavated artifacts, and they are sold as folk objects, not antiquities.
Will I receive the exact piece shown?
Yes. Each variant is one of one, and you receive the specific piece pictured for the variant you choose.
What are they made of?
Hand-carved stone. The dark surface is stone, not jet.
Sources
On the illa and conopa tradition
- Diego González Holguín, Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua qquichua o del inca (Lima, 1608), defining the illa (also spelled ylla) as a stone kept for wealth and good fortune.
- Catherine J. Allen, "The Living Ones: Miniatures and Animation in the Andes," Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 72 (2016), 416 to 441.
- Brooklyn Museum, Camelid Conopa, Inca, carved stone, accession 36.683.
- The British Museum, London: stone camelid conopa (Am1946,11.1) and gold llama offering figurine (Am1921,0721.1).
Broader context, not direct evidence for the illa tradition
- UNESCO, "Andean Cosmovision of the Kallawaya," Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, proclaimed 2003 and inscribed 2008. Andean ritual knowledge, healing, and cosmovision.
- W. L. Hildburgh, "Images of the Human Hand as Amulets in Spain," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 18 (1955), 67 to 89. The Iberian hand amulet, source for the Old World root of the Hand figure.
Explore more in the Amulets & Folk Objects collection.
