Culture of Peru

Over half of Peru’s 28.5 million people live along the coast. Most of the rest live in the Andes Mountains and less than 5% live in the tropical rainforests in eastern Peru. About 45% of the population is indigenous and about 37% is mestizo (mix of indigenous and Spanish). About 15% of Peruvians are white and the rest are of Asian, African or other descent.

Peru has a large variety of arts and crafts. The diversity, color and creativity of Peru's folk art has made it a fundamental activity not just for Peru's cultural identity, but also as a way of life for thousands of families and even entire communities, such as Sarhua and Quinua in Ayacucho.

Works of art spark admiration amongst Peruvians and foreigners alike Peruvian art is steeped in centuries of history and imbued with pre-Hispanic shapes and symbols which have merged with art brought over by the Spaniards. Peru has forged a multiple and complex identity which is paradoxically one of the reasons why Peruvian arts and crafts are tending to shift towards naïf art, lending their works a touch of innocence.

Thanks to recent archaeological discoveries of musical instruments, experts now know that in Peru, music has been played at least as far back as 10,000 years ago. Some of these ancient instruments were quenas, zampoñas, pututos (trumpets made from sea conch). A wide variety of other wind instruments were crafted from a range of materials such as cane, mud, bone, horns and precious metals, as well as various percussion instruments. Various percussion instruments were also made from these materials.

Peru celebrates some 3,000 festivals a year. Most of them are held in homage to a patron saint and are part of the Christian calendar adopted in colonial times, although they have blended with the magical beliefs of ancient forms of worship. These religious festivals occur alongside pagan celebrations dating back to ancestral myths in native communities in the jungle, as well as dozens of festivals created over the following centuries.