The inca and his Collasuyu advisors
In the inca royal council, the Collasuyu representatives were dignitaries of Aymara origin, who wore hemispherical and truncated-cone caps.
The Inca ruler wore various royal insignia that identified him as the Zapan Inka, or “great authority.” On his head, he exhibited the llautu, a type of headband woven in different colored wool yarns, and the masqa paycha, a fine woolen tassel that was sown onto the llautu and fell over the forehead.
From his capital, the city of Cuzco, the Zapan Inka governed Tawantinsuyu with the assistance of a Royal Council comprising a select group of representatives from the Empire’s four large territorial divisions: Antisuyu, Condesuyu, Chinchaysuyu and Collasuyu. The Collasuyu authorities represented the quadrant extending south from Cuzco, that included southern Peru and a large part of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. They were the highest dignitaries from Lake Titicaca’s most important chiefdoms and were recognized by their hemispherical or truncated-cone caps. The low hemispherical caps belonged to the Colla groups, and the tall hemispherical caps, to the Cana groups – both of which lived on the lake’s northern side. The monochrome truncated-cone caps identified the Pacaje, and the polychrome truncated-cone caps, the Caranga, Aullaga and Quillaca populations – societies that occupied the lake’s southern side. In other words, all of the vast ethnic and political diversity of Collasuyu, the Empire’s extensive southern territory, was represented in the Inca’s Royal Council exclusively by dignitaries of Aymara origin.