Luwu Regency (Kabupaten Luwu in Indonesian) is a regency of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The administrative capital lies at Belopa, since the former capital of Palopo became an independent municipality (city) in 2006, at which date Luwu Regency was split into Palopo city, North Luwu Regency, and East Luwu Regency, with the residue remaining as the new Luwu Regency. The first Regent of the reduced Luwu Regency was H. M. Basmin Mattayang from 2004-2009, then Ir. H. Andi Mudzakkar replaced him as Regent from 2009-2014 following the first direct election in Luwu. Luwu is well known for its natural resources, such as rice, cocoa, coconut, banana, sagu (sago), rambutan, langsat, and others.

Luwu is named after the Luwu Kingdom, one of the three biggest kingdoms (and the oldest one) in South Sulawesi; the two kingdoms were Gowa-Tallo (which became Gowa Regency and Makassar) and Bone (which became Bone Regency). The name "Luwu" had been known from the 13th century when the first king of the Lontara period of Luwu was throned. In Luwu history, there are two periods; the Galigo period and the Lontara period.

The Galigo period is matched from La Galigo or I La Galigo (an ancient literature, the longest epic in the world) which founded by B.F. Matthes in 1888. By R.A. Kern, a Dutch historian, the Galigo period is described as pre-historic time. The other historians said Galigo as pseudo-history. In I La Galigo, there are three places that said; Wara, Luwu, and Wewangriu that always said as Tompotikka.

Sanusi Daeng Mattata, author of Luwu dalam Revolusi, said that Luwu word is taken from riulo which means divine extended from above. This name is related to oral tradition that sacred in Luwu. In that oral tradition said that this world is divinely extended from sky, paved, then blessed by abundant natural resources.

...
Wikipedia