Siku (instrument)

It is traditionally found all across the Andes but is more typically associated with music from the Kollasuyo, or Aymara speaking regions around Lake Titicaca.

Today the siku has been standardized to fit in with modern western forms of music and has been transported from its traditional roots.

Once the women partnered, they then became musically bonded with each other, as part of their religion, and neither could play the pipes with any other for the rest of their life.

The antara are traditionally made from a type of cane known as chuki or chajlla (Arundo donax) that grows in the ceja de la selva, literally "the eyebrow of the forest".

Some of them employ extra open-ended reeds attached to the front of the instrument to change the sound quality.

Siku ch'alla is tuned in E minor / G major, arka: D-F#-A-C-E-G-B and ira:E-G-B-D-F#-A.