kolla
Kolla, also rendered Colla or Qulla, is a term with multiple uses in the Andes and in broader contexts. In ethnography, it refers to an indigenous highland population that historically inhabited parts of the central Andes in what are now Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The Kolla are traditionally associated with the Inca Empire’s Collasuyu region, and their ethnolinguistic identity is linked to the Aymara-speaking world of the Andean highlands. The Kolla language, known as Kolla or Qulla, is generally considered part of the Aymaran language family by many scholars, though classifications vary. Today, Kolla communities exist mainly in Bolivia, northern Chile, and northwestern Argentina, where people speak Spanish in addition to regional indigenous languages, and maintain distinctive cultural practices.
Beyond ethnography, the name Colla is used in historical geography to denote Collasuyu, one of the four