Kichwa-Lamista people

The Kichwa-Lamista or Lamistas are an indigenous people of Peru. They live in the city of Lamas and its associated agricultural communities in the San Martin Region, especially in the Province of Lamas. They speak the Kichwa language and have a traditional culture which combines elements of Amazonian, Andean and European origin. The Peruvian government designates all speakers of Kichwa resident in San Martin Department as "Lamistas", but they themselves differentiate between the people of Lamas, Sisa and the Huallaga River.

The ethnogenesis of the Kichwa-Lamistas postdates the conquest of the region by the Spanish, when groups belonging to various Amazonian ethnicities were forcibly settled around the city of Lamas. These groups adopted the Quechua language and largely abandoned their original ethnic identities, although pre-conquest tribal differences would affect the development of a system of lineages among the Lamistas.

The centre of the Kichwa-Lamista culture is the Lamas suburb of Wayku, the nucleus from which the ethnic group migrated to other locations. The Kichwa-Lamistas largely practice Catholicism, alongside indigenous shamanic practices, and their most important celebration is the feast of Santa Rosa Raymi in Lamas.