Tinku, The Ancestral Bolivian Fight Club

MACHA, BOLIVIA - MAY 03: People of Humajila play music as they walk towards Macha to take part in a mass for Fiesta de La Cruz on May 3, 2021 in Macha, Bolivia. Every May, villagers of Bolivian town of Macha and surrounding communities celebrate Fiesta de La Cruz, a syncretist ritual to give thanks for the year's crops. The stellar and most violent event of the celebrations is known as Tinku, which in Quechua means encounter. Tinku starts with men and women of different Quechua communities dancing and singing but celebrations soon turn into violent street combats. Fighters use their fists and also trow rocks to defeat opponents of rival towns while local police act as referees able to stop combat if anyone falls to the floor. While one-on-one combats are the rule, sometimes massive combats are witnessed by locals and tourists. According to the ancestral Quechua tradition, Tinku honors Mother Nature or Pachamama, goddess of fertility for the Andean cultures. Winners will be richer and secure more prosperous crops in the coming year. It is celebrated every year on May 4 in Macha, a small town between Oruro and Potosi in Central Bolivia. (Photo by Gaston Brito Miserocchi/Getty Images)