Bolivian indigenous celebrate New Year

Several thousand people celebrated at dawn the winter solstice during a traditional gathering at the pre-Inca Tiwanaku citadel marking the Aymara Indian New Year.

Tourists joined Bolivians of Aymara Indian origins in welcoming the first rays of sun at 7:15 am (1115 GMT) through the Gateway of the Sun, a monolithic monument to this ancient city, once the heart of a powerful Andean empire that saw its height between AD 500 and 1,000.

The celebration also had political undertones this year, after socialist President Evo Morales, himself an Aymara native, decreed "willkakuti" or "return of the sun" a holiday on June 21 as part of the "indigenous renaissance" at the heart of his political agenda.

"May the first rays of the sun of this new year bring joy, hope, energy and the force to go forward... and provide, from the government, everything that is necessary to consolidate" change in Bolivia, said Culture Minister Pablo Groux.

For the Aymara natives, the celebration in Western Bolivia, which took place in frigid temperatures, marked the start of the year 5517.

The date is based on the five 1,000-year cycles of the indigenous population plus the 517 years since Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, according to popular interpretation among the natives.

Tiwanaku, also called Taipikala, located 70 kilometers (43 miles) from La Paz, was the capital of a vast Andean empire that stretched from the western part of Bolivia to Argentina and the northeastern coast of Chile.