Layqa

{{About||the mountain in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia|Layqa (Bolivia)|the mountain in the La Paz Department, Bolivia|Layqa Qullu}}

Layqa (Aymara and Quechua){{Ref Bertonio}}Teofilo Laime Ajacopa, Diccionario Bilingüe Iskay simipi yuyayk'ancha, La Paz, 2007 (Quechua-Spanish dictionary) is a term employed prior to the Spanish Conquest to denote a ceremonial healer from the Quechua speaking central Peruvian highlands. After the arrival of the European Inquisitors, Catholic priests, began referring to all Quechua magico-religious practitioners by this title, equating the layqa with ‘sorcerer’ or ‘witch.’ Early references to the layqa appear in the Spanish Chronicles, as well as the Huarochirí Manuscript,Salomon, Frank; Urioste, George L. (1991). The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. University of Texas Press. doi:10.7560/730526. {{ISBN|978-0-292-73052-6}}. commissioned in 1608 by a clerical prosecutor and Inquisitor, Father Francisco de Avila, who used it for the persecution of indigenous worships and beliefs.

Several contemporary investigators, including psychiatrist and anthropologist Ina Rösing,{{Cite book |last=Rösing |first=Ina |title=Die Verbannung der Trauer: Nächtliche Heilungsrituale in den Hochanden Boliviens |date=1987 |publisher=Greno |pages=79 |language=de |trans-title=The Banishment of Sorrow: Nighttime Healing Rituals in the High Andes of Bolivia}} and medical anthropologist Alberto Villoldo have attempted to clarify that the layqa in the prehispanic world were not 'witches', but traditional healers and wisdom teachers.