The llawt'u or llawthu (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

,Teofilo Laime Ajacopa, Diccionario Bilingüe Iskay simipi yuyayk'ancha, La Paz, 2007 (Quechua-Spanish dictionary) Hispanicized spellings ''llauto, llautu'') was an outfit of the ruling

Sapa Inca The Sapa Inca (from ; ) was the monarch of the Inca Empire (''Tawantinsuyu'' "the region of the four rovinces), as well as ruler of the earlier Kingdom of Cusco and the later Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba, Peru, Vilcabamba. While the origins ...

s. It was a variety of

turban A turban (from Persian language, Persian دولبند‌, ''dolband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Commun ...

with the colours of the

Tahuantinsuyo The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

. The llawt'u was traditionally woven from

vicuña wool Vicuña wool refers to the hair of the South American vicuña, a camelid related to llamas and alpacas. The wool has, after shahtoosh, the second smallest fiber diameter of all animal hair and is the most expensive legal wool. Properties The do ...

with different-colored plaits. On the front was a stripe of wool called the maskapaycha. The symbol of the '' quriqinqi'' was displayed on the front. It has been said that small dried frogs were worn under the garment as part of a tradition whose origins have been long lost.

Sources

Inca Peruvian clothing Latin American clothing Headgear {{Peru-archaeology-stub