La Lindosa: The Painted Forest

The Serranía de La Lindosa in north-west Colombia is home to an extraordinary collection of rock art. On the bare rock faces of these sacred hills are ‘panels’ filled with boldly painted animals, people, plants and patterns, crowded together as if jostling to tell their stories.

Some images are clearly identifiable as particular species of local wildlife. Others remain controversial, like the paintings which some researchers identify as giant ground sloths, which have been extinct for thousands of years.

Until scientific dating analysis reveals more, researchers do not know the precise age of any of the paintings which are visible today. We do know that people have been painting on these rocks for over 12,000 years, since humans first arrived in this part of the Amazon.

Far from being purely ancient relics, these paintings are part of living Amazonian cultures. Researcher Carlos Castaño-Uribe believes that uncontacted peoples in the nearby area of Chiribiquete may still be making traditional rock art in similar ways today.

Rock art has been used for storytelling, historical memory, map-making, recording dances and rituals, and in shamans’ work to maintain the ecological balance of the forest. By painting the hills, the first people to arrive in the Amazon humanised these unfamiliar landscapes.

The paintings at La Lindosa are not only spectacular works of art. They represent the roots of an indigenous Amazonian way of life, a living culture which has coexisted with the rainforest and maintained its ecological balance for thousands of years. 

Since the area around La Lindosa was pacified around the time of Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement, researchers have been able to excavate the rock art sites to understand more about their historical importance and modern-day relevance.