traditionsIlla practiceilla
said EE-ya, Quechua
also: conopa · canopa · inqaychu · enqa · Andean miniature practice
traditionThe AndesBoliviaPeruconfidence mediumneeds checking
Two limits are stated rather than assumed. The illa rite is described in the source as something Inca religious leaders performed, and this record prints what the museum published about the mixture and the placement and does not reconstruct the wording or the sequence of the rite from other Andean material. And the Alasitas blessing is performed by people acting as shaman whose practice the sources describe but do not set out; this record names the step and leaves it there. — the Dallas Museum of Art's account, which attributes the filling of the cavity to Inca religious leaders, and the Alasitas account, which names the blessers without publishing what they do
The atlas prints the restriction and stops. Why.
A practice of making the small thing stand for the large one. Its oldest form is the illa: a carved stone llama or alpaca, palm-sized, with a cylindrical hole sunk into the back between the shoulders — a container, fed with a mixture and then set in a pasture. Its most visible modern form is the Alasitas fair, where people buy miniature houses, cars, banknotes, tools and diplomas to give to somebody else, on the understanding that the full-size version follows within the year.
citedQuechua illa, a term for the small carved stone figures used in herding and household rites; colonial Spanish sources call them conopa or canopa, and Quechua-speaking herding communities also say inqaychu and enqa
The variants are not synonyms for one object. The atlas keeps them as a family of related terms and does not flatten them. cited
When
a dated Inca illa of 1400–1540; the fair running every 24 January since 1781 still carried cited
| Period | Inca to the present |
|---|---|
| How the date is known | a dated example survives |
| Note | from_year is the earlier end of the Dallas Museum of Art's date range for its camelid vessel, 1400 to 1540. The practice is older in the sources' own account — Posnansky's observation of miniature offerings in the Tiwanaku culture, and the pre-Columbian Aymara Guyatt — but neither carries a year this project can cite, so the object date stands as the floor. |
Years are stored astronomically — 1 CE is 1, 1 BCE is 0, 500 BCE is −499 — and printed the way a reader says them. How these dates are made.
The thing itself
| Form | Figurine |
|---|---|
| Made of | Earth and ash · Wood · Paper · Fired clay · Gold |
| Goes | In a field · On a wall · At the till · In a pocket or a bag |
| Made by | carvers for the stone illa; stallholders and small manufacturers for the Alasitas miniatures and the plaster Ekeko. Blessing at Alasitas is done by people acting as shaman, and by Catholic clergy at the cathedral. |
| Retired | no — it is kept |
| Note | The Dallas Museum of Art's example is described as green and black hard stone with a cylindrical hole in the back; no measurement was read, so none is given. Ekeko figures were first modelled in clay and are now usually cast in plaster. |
What its carriers say it stops
Reported, attributed, not tested here. Each row below is somebody's claim, with their name on it.
- Infertility citedsaid by Inca religious practice as described by the Dallas Museum of Art — the cavity filled with llama fat, blood and other ceremonial objects during fertility rituals, aimed at pastoral and agricultural fertility
- Harm to livestock citedsaid by highland Andean communities, who the same account says still use illa in fertility rituals for their camelid herds
- Poverty citedsaid by Ekeko's worshippers, who clip banknotes to the figure and hold that he brings monetary wealth, generally on an offering first
- Bad luck, unspecified citedsaid by the Tiwanaku population as recorded by Arthur Posnansky, who offered miniatures of what they wished to have around 22 December to ask their deities for good luck
- Harm to a house or a field citedsaid by Bolivian households, who bury a sullu — a dried llama foetus — under the foundations as an offering to Pachamama, bought at the same counters
The story
The Dallas Museum of Art's Inca camelid vessel, made between 1400 and 1540, is the object this record is named from. Dana Olesch, writing for the museum in 2017, describes what the hole was for: Inca religious leaders likely inserted a mixture of llama fat, blood and other ceremonial objects into it during fertility rituals. The aim was pastoral and agricultural fertility, and several Inca-related groups ended the rite by placing the illa in a pasture. Olesch records that highland communities in the Andes still use illa in fertility rituals for their camelid herds.
The second half of the practice is a fair with a date on it. Alasitas runs for a month from 24 January in La Paz, honouring Ekeko, the Aymara god of abundance, and takes its name from the Aymara for 'buy from me'. Its pre-Columbian ancestor, according to the account, is an Aymara event called Guyatt, at which people prayed for good crops and exchanged basic goods; Arthur Posnansky observed that in the Tiwanaku culture, around 22 December, the population worshipped their deities for good luck by offering miniatures of what they wished to have. The colonial move is dated precisely: during the 1781 siege of La Paz, Sebastián Segurola re-established the celebration and shifted it from October to 24 January, as a gesture of gratitude to Our Lady of Peace. Transactions were made with stone coins; the cult of Ekeko was slowly reintroduced, appearing first modelled in clay, and cast in plaster now.
The figure himself carries the logic on his body: Ekeko is a moustached man in Andean dress, loaded with bags and baskets of grain and food, household objects and currency notes, and modern statues have a circular opening in the mouth so that a lit cigarette can be put in as an offering. Banknotes are clipped to him. Grain is offered for good harvests. He is placed in a good spot in the house.
The calendar is shared with the Church and both sides turn up. At midday on 24 January the Catholic Church blesses the gifts at the main cathedral in La Paz; before or after that, men and, less often, women acting as shaman bless the miniatures at the fair. In March 2011 Bolivia's Minister of Cultures, Elizabeth Salguero, nominated Alasitas to UNESCO alongside two other Bolivian festivals. In 2016 the Feast of Alasita and the miniatures of the Puno Altiplano were declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation of Peru.
Inference — the practice is the atlas's clearest case of buying being the rite rather than the preliminary to it. In most traditions here, purchase is how you acquire an object that a separate act then charges. At Alasitas the transaction is the ritual gesture: you buy the small thing, you give it away, and the claim is lodged. The illa says the same in the other direction — the object is fed and buried rather than worn, so the charm is a deposit and never an ornament.
How it is made and carried
For the illa: a figure is carved from hard stone with a cavity in the back, a mixture is put in, and it is set in the pasture the herd walks over. For Alasitas: a miniature is bought from a stall, blessed — by a person acting as shaman at the fair, by the Church at the cathedral at midday on 24 January, or by both — and given to somebody else. For Ekeko: the figure is placed in a good spot at home and fed. Banknotes go on him; grain is offered for harvests; a lit cigarette goes in the mouth of the versions built to take one, in the most recent form of the practice once a year.
Now
Live, urban, and on two heritage registers. Alasitas fills streets and parks across central La Paz with smaller fairs in the neighbourhoods; other Bolivian fiestas fold alasitas into their own observances, including the feasts of the Virgin of Copacabana and the Virgin of Urkupiña; in Peru the main Ekeko festival is held on 3 May at Puno, on the Machallata hill, and elsewhere the Ekeko fair falls in October under the name Calvario. The Mercado de las Brujas on Calle Linares in La Paz supplies the year-round trade, with roughly 60 per cent of its sales falling in October, when Pachamama offerings cluster.
Where you can see one
- Another collection — the Dallas Museum of Art — an Inca camelid-form stone vessel of 1400–1540, green and black, with a cylindrical hole in the back
- Museo Larco — Andean material
An accession number appears here only where it was read off a catalogue page that is linked. No link, no number.
What this is near
What names this one
Each in its own words, from its own page.
Where this came from
- The Emperor's New Groove: Llama Iconography and the Inca Empire — Dallas Museum of Art (Uncrated) read 2026-09-16
- Ekeko — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- Alasitas — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- The Witches' Market — Wikipedia read 2026-09-16
- Un paseo de fe y magia — Nexos, Universidad de Lima; by Daniela Ramos, 31 October 2024 read 2026-09-16
- Browse the Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices — UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage read 2026-09-16
Elsewhere
Record updated 2026-09-17. This record as JSON. Every field carries its own provenance; the tier chips above say which.