THE PRINCESS OF THE ANDES
Vicuña wool is the most precious in the world. It is obtained, through an ancient Inca shearing ritual, by only a handful of Andean communities in southern Peru
Vicuña wool is the wool of the powerful. It is worn by the richest men on Earth, the only ones who can afford a thirty-thousand-dollar coat. Five centuries ago, only one man in the world had the right to wear it: the Inca, the king who ruled the vast Andean empire in South America. The wool of the vicuña — a wild camelid known as “the princess of the Andes” — is softer, brighter and finer than any other, and despite its lightness it provides extraordinary warmth. In the time of the Incas, there were more than a million vicuñas. Then the conquistadors slaughtered them, and only around thirty years ago did the sale of vicuña fibre become legal again. But only if the shearing is carried out on live animals.
This regulation has benefited local communities in Peru — especially the community of Picotani, on the Puno plateau, more than 4,500 meters above sea level and considered the “world capital of the vicuña” — who are the only ones entitled to sell the wool and, above all, to shear the animal. This practice is carried out once a year during the so-called chaku — or chaccu — a spectacular ritual of Inca origin during which vicuñas, which live in the wild, are captured, shorn and then released again.
