Photos-Palenque: Mayan ruins

Palenque-Mayan Ruins

Palenque, an ancient Mayan city in Chiapas, Mex. peeks out of the northern Lancandon jungle, the largest tropical rainforest in North America.
We toured the ruins for one afternoon, but we felt as if we had 'time-traveled' through the ages.
The Maya of approx. 200-900 A.D. called this sacred place, 'Otolum'( land with strong houses ) These temple-pyraminds, palaces and observatories were built without metal tools. A feature of this classic Mayan city is the hand-cut limestone blocks, and the underground water resevoirs for storage of rain water.
Then around 900 A.D., the Maya mysteriously quit the city.
The Spanish discovered Otolum in 1777 and the city was deserted. They changed the name to Palenque..walled fortress.
John Lloyd Stephens was a travel writer who published several books on his discoveries in Egypt and Arabia. He arrived in 1839 in Belize to trek towards the area in Chiapas that a huge interest for him through vague references of ancient peoples. It took him 6 months to get to Palenque. From his research there, the first extensive scholarly expedition he concluded:
" Here were the remains of a cultivated, polished and peculiar people who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations; reached their golden age and perished, entirely unknown, until now. "

The Maya

There are about six million Mayan people today, mostly in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize, making them the largest single block of indigenous people north of Peru.
Of the many pre-Spanish conquest civilizations, the Maya the first and only that developed a writing and had a written history. They had a developed mathematics and astronomy.
The Maya were never united under one governing body, like the Aztecs, instead they created many city-states that shared ethnicity and beliefs. The culture began in the Yucatan region of Mexico as an offshoot of the Olmecs approx. 2,500 B.C., and gained superiority by 250 A.D. They had highly structured city kingdoms during 250-900 A.D, and then mysteriously quit their cities, like Palenque in Chiapas.
The Maya believed the earth to be flat and four-cornered. The sky was multi-layered and was supported at the corners with four gods of great strength. Earth in it's flat shape was thought to be the back of a giant crocodile, resting in a pond of water lilies.
Some Mayan histories talk of a single supreme deity called Itzamna, inventor of writing, arts and sciences. His wife was Ix Chel, goddess of weaving, medicine and childbirth, and goddess of the moon.
The role of the priests were connected to the calendar and astronomy. They controlled education, rituals and calculating time and festivals. They were not celibate, and sons succeeded fathers in the role.
Maya thought that when people died, they entered the underworld through a cave. Common people were buried beneath floors of their homes, mouths filled with food and with objects that they used regularly in life. Graves of priests were buried with books.
Today, there is quite a variation in the religious mix of old Mayan ideas, animism and Catholicism. Rural Mayans still think that their village is the ceremonial center of the world, supported at the corners by gods, and when one of them shifts their burden it causes an earthquake.
The sky is ruled by the sun, moon and stars. Now, the sun is associated with the Judeo-Christian, God the Father of Jesus Christ, and the moon with the Virgen Mary.

The Maya in Chiapas, Mex.
The state of Chiapas has a population of 4 million, with about 1 million indigenous people, mostly Mayan. There are 9 langauges spoken,along with Spanish: Chol,Chuj,Lacandon,Mam,Tojolobal,Tzeltal,Tzotzil,Zoque..all derived from Mayan.
The largest group is about 300,000 Tzotziles, centered in the highlands of Chiapas around the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas. They mostly farm small plots of land of beans, squash and maize, and raise turkeys, sheep and chickens. They do not eat lamb, because of a tradition of respecting and honoring sheep for supplying the wool that supplies so much for their woven textiles.
Officials of the Mexican government are in some of the communities, but the real authority is in the two branches of Tzotzil community government: civil and religious. Civil cabinets have at least 40 men with specific duties. They see to the 'moral health' of the pueblo. They have strong authority and they settle family and social arguements, but refer the more serious crimes to the Mexican authorities. Religious cabinet members are responsible for the pueblos spiritual health. They maintain the churches and produce festivals.
Every male of the pueblo is expected to hold a post at least once in his life. While serving a year term, a man leaves his wife and lives at the cabinets headquarters and attends every meeting.
In many ways, the women are the real support of the pueblo when the men are gone. They work the fields with children and in-laws, and sell whatever they don't need, care for the livestock, and continually weave clothing and goods for the market.
Tzotzil marriage is contracted after a long and ritualistic, very public courtship. Respected members of the pueblo act as go-betweens for the couple's parents.The ritual begins with the padrinos (godparents) of the groom, visting the bride's parents and bragging about the young man's great quality and virtues.
Once the deal is accepted, the young man starts a series of gift-bearing visits to the girl's family. Acceptable gifts are fruit, corn, and candy for the kids...wool for the future mother-in-laws weaving loom.
After 18 months of this, the father presents his daughter to the young man. The couple are married first in a civil ceremony to statisfy Mex. law, and then the big Tzotzil wedding, the largest event in a person's life. An elder expert in pueblo law and ritual supervises the whole process, and the roles of husband and wife are clearly set out. Infidelity is prohibited and rare, because to tradition, the male offenders lose a part of their souls, and the women risk being killed by Vinikton, a ghost with the body of a mule.

Origin of Sadness: Mayan legend

One day, all the animals gathered close to a Mayan Man and said to him, "We do not like to see you so sad. Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it."
The Man said, "I want to be happy."
The owl responded, "Who knows what happiness is? Ask for something more specific."
"Well then," said the Man, "I want to have good sight."
The vulture replied, "You shall have my sight."
The Man said, "Now I want to be strong."
The jaguar said, "You shall be strong like me."
The Man said, "I wish to be able to walk without tiring."
The deer said, "I will give you my legs."
The Man said, "And I also want more, I want to be smart."
So the fox said, "I shall teach you all that I know."
The Man said, "I want to be able to reconize medicinal plants."
And the snake said, "Ah, this is my domain, I will mark them for you in the fields and forests."
Hearing the words of the animals, the Man left. Then the owl said, "Now the Man knows much more, seems very proud, and is able to do many things. But he will forever be sad."

The End

Chiapas

Katy and I will, for some time, feast on the experiences and images and sounds of the state of Chiapas. When we are hungry and ready to hear again...we would be pleased to return again.

Two Mayan refrains:

Jungle becomes melody, woods singing with a women's voice.

My sweet beloved homeland.
Your voice and my song joined
today in exile, wound me like
a dagger in my soul.

Chiapas/Guatemala: Mayan legend

MAYAN LEGEND...Man's Soul





A long time ago, there was a man who was so poor that he was always in a bad mood. And he never passed up the chance to mistreat his old dog. The spirit of Evil, Kakasbel, who is everywhere, saw that he could possibly benefit by playing on the dog's anger. And this was in his mind as he approached the dog.
-Oh, poor thing,why so sad? Tell me what is the matter.
-How can I not be sad, when my master beats me all the time.
-I know he is an ornery man; why don't you leave him?
-He is my master and I am loyal, I would not leave him for anything.
-But your master is incapable of appreciating your loyalty.
-That does not matter, he is my master. I will remain loyal.
But Kakasbel wouldn't quit. He harassed the dog until ...just to get rid of him the dog finally said: OK, you have convinced me. Tell me, Kakasbel, what to do.
-Give me your soul!
-And what do I get in return?
-Anything you ask for.
-I want a bone for every hair on my body.
-I agree.
With that, Kakasbel began to count the dog's hair. But just as he was about to finish, at the dog's tail, the dog thought of the loyalty due his master and gave a twitch and a jerk, causing Kakasbel to lose his place counting.
-Why did you move? I lost my count!
-It's those darn fleas that plaque me night and day. Just start again.
A hundred times Kakasbel began his count, and a hundred times he lost his count when the dog jumped.
-I give up! I will count no more. Oh, dog, you have deceived me, but in doing so taught me a great lesson. It is harder to buy the soul of a dog than it is to buy the soul of a man!

The End.

Traditional Mayans believe that everything in the world, object or alive, has CHULEL or soul. The souls of people is something that can be lost or stolen. And when this happens, the person becomes sick and runs the risk of death. It is said that if a person treats their family badly, damages the forest, or forgets their religious duty, they will lost part of their soul and become depressed and have bad moods.
Equilibrium is a big concept in the Mayan world. Every person is born with an animal double that lives in the deities territory. If a person misbehaves, it's animal double is disgraced and loses divine protection. Then it is left vulnerable to injury and the hunt in the real world. This then seems to have serious consequence for the human.
Diagnosis and treatment of the soul can be helped by the village healer.Prayers, offerings of flowers, placing candles in church or in front of natural springs, are remedies for the damaged soul. Healers can council people on their daily life with the family and nature in order to keep the soul intact.

Stay together, be nice to animals...Adios, Senor Bruce

Que Un Milagro!

Images of saints in a Guatemalan church,
dressed in local garb.







Juan, our driver, crossed himself and said a prayer, “Gracias Dios, y nos permite un buen viaje.” (Thank you God, and permit us a good trip.) And that is EXACTLY what happened!

We had spent two nights in the small pueblo of Todos Santos, Guatemala. It was 4 hours over the border as one travels by local transportation, ‘chicken buses‘ - or as in our case- ‘duck buses‘. Although we couldn’t see the birds we could hear their occasional “quacks” from somewhere in the front of the bus. We were in Guatemala because we had to leave Mexico for 2 days in order to renew our visas. The regulations limit tourists to a maximum of 180 days, hence our trip to Guatemala. As much as we enjoyed this out-of-the-way pueblo we were looking forward to getting back to Mexico and exploring parts of the state of Chiapas on our way back to Oaxaca, where we live. So based on the recommendations of several locals we rose when it was still dark on Sat. morning to catch the 6:00 bus out of town. This early start would get us back to San Cristobal, Chiapas by the end of the day.

But the 6:00 bus was late. Buses were supposed to be leaving every 30 minutes. By 7:00 we were getting a bit worried, several buses had come into town but none seemed to be leaving. If only one person had told us about the times and place to catch buses I might have doubted our understanding but we had asked several different people and compared responses. They were all the same; the buses start at 4:30 in the morning; they leave every 30 minutes until 7:00a.m.

Bruce began walking around and asking a few people why we weren’t seeing any buses leave town. Uh-oh! It was New Year’s Eve; there would be NO buses out of town- for two days! We were stuck! Stuck in a strange town, in a foreign country, with limited Spanish ability, on a Saturday with the bank closed and only a small amount of quetzals in our pockets. When we heard “no buses out of town for two days” we both just froze and looked at one another for an answer, but there were no answers. Then I became aware of a very new and strange feeling: calm. This is not my normal response to circumstances out of my control. But then again, we were not in our normal surroundings either; we were in Todos Santos- All Saints. Perhaps that had something to do with this unusual but refreshing feeling. We looked around for one of these ‘saints’ who could help us. Bruce saw a man getting into a large van that looked like a collectivo (a group taxi). He went over to talk to him. It turned out the driver was driving to Huehuetenango, our first destination two hours away. And he offered to drive us, but for a price! $700 quetzals! (about $90 dollars) That was way more than we had! This was definitely not the ‘saint’ we were expecting.

I had gone to the bank the day before and cashed $40 dollars in traveler’s checks (our emergency money, which worked out great, since the bank did not have an ATM as were told it would). I had intended on purchasing some textiles that I had seen when we first came into town two nights earlier. The Senora told me her shop would be open the next day. I had gone by her shop 3 different times checking but she was never there and the store remained closed all day. I went to bed very disappointed; I knew we were leaving early the next morning and I would not be able to get what I had set my mind on. Now I was thankful that the shop had been closed and we still had a few quetzals in our pockets. Que un milagro!

After talking to more people and getting further confirmation that there would be no buses out of town, we decided to start walking! At the other end of town the two main roads merged, perhaps we would find a collectivo there or we could offer to pay someone going that direction. As we started to walk away, I heard a “ppppsst, pppssst” (this is the polite way to get someone’s attention). A young man had overheard our dilemma. He had a pick-up and he could drive us one hour to Tres Caminos where 3 major roads converge, from there we could get a bus into Huehuetenango. His price was only $300 quetzals! Que un milagro, that was the amount I had gotten for my $40 dollars the day before at the bank. This price was 10 times more than that of a bus ticket but being that there were no buses, it seemed fair- fair for gringos.

Bruce helped Juan unload the sugar cane he and his friend had brought to sell at the market. Juan worked very quickly as if this “catch” might get away. The price he was getting for chauffeur services was far more than he would make on his sugar cane. The three of us squeezed into his small Toyota pick-up and started out of town just as market day was beginning. Juan picked up a few locals who rode in the back of the truck as we drove along the winding dirt road, up and out of Todos Santos. The price he negotiated with them was a price that was fair for locals- it was nothing near our price, but then we were gringos on a vacation. “Vacations” are a foreign concept to many of these hard working people.

Once at Tres Caminos, we, and the others in the back of the truck, got out, paid up, said our goodbyes and waited for the next bus to come by. Within 5 minutes one came, que un milagro. We flagged it down and paid our 6 quetzals each for the second half of our trip to Huehuetenango. The bus was a large, comfortable transportation van which would comfortably seat about 18 people (although we squeezed close to 30 on board). We pulled into the bus station in Huehuetenango close to the time we had originally anticipated. Immediately, we saw our next bus which would get us to the border. As we climbed on board I remembered Juan’s prayer, “Gracias Dios, y nos permite un buen viaje.” It was that!
Que Un Milagro!

Chicken Bus: Into Guatemala

And this was really the way my whole road experience began, and the things that were to come are too fantastic not to tell.

Jack Kerouac, On The Road

Just over the border from Mexico into Guatemala, from the small town of La Mesilla, full of stores selling pots and pans, toys, chickens, radios, vegetables, pirated c.d.'s, rooms for rents, shoes.....we roared, literally roared in a packed bus down the dark green, banana tree, steep canyons for two hours to Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
This was a Blue Bird bus made in the U.S. complete with the English placard above the driver saying, " The safety of your child is our primary concern. " These vehicles are affectionately and disparingly called ' chicken buses ', because they are usually loaded with the wares and poultry of the masses that use public transportation more than I have ever seen.
The quiet passengers were pacified with brass polkas and accordion waltzes blaring on the speakers. And then on a lonely stop on the road, a salesman boarded the bus, and we were given a serious and theatrical performance that would be the envy of any Toastmaster or public speaking organization. This balding, sun-glassed traveling salesman came aboard with just a small satchel and a frayed laminated picture diagram with one side showing ' Cerebro Humano ' ( human brain) and the other displaying the entire nervous/spinal system connected to the head of a guy in obvious pain.
With a clearly spoken introduction and quite professional tone, he expertly delivered a laymen's medical sermon on the causes and effects of headaches and how the nervous system is involved. All of us were rolling side-to-side while the driver talked on his cell phone to his lover and occasionally hitting the c.d. player to skip to the next song while negotiating completely unreasonable but terrifically execueted passings of other slow moving cars and burros.
The salesman confidently held on to the nearby seat railings, while alternating with punctuating hand gestures to his diagram and to his audience of Mexicans, Guatemalans, and two gringos.
Within ten minutes the master-storyteller-medical-circus-huckster came to a very convincing conclusion, and offered out of his bag to the crowd ...The Pills. The Pills that will forever banish headaches and mysteriously repair spinal cord irregularities until the day you died. And only then would the sweet comfort of death take over where the... The Pills... left off.
None of the traditonally-dressed Indigeneous people flinched or parted with their money. but then, these are the undereducated and underemployed villagers from the mountains. Only three neatly hair-styled men in commercial clothing and shiny leather shoes bought a few bottles.
The salesman seemed to know every canyon curve, and to have timed his salespitch perfectly. Because as soon as his clients were parted of their money...we banked hard to right and ' slingslotted' out of the turn to a small village where the bus skidded to a stop, and the salesman quickly stepped off the bus and the next generation/shift of young boys boarded with pineapple and mango sticks, gum and soda. They tried their best, but I think only a few of these apprentices will ever make the Big Leagues of Bus Salesmanship. Only a few of the proud and accomplished survive at this level.
After some grinded gears, we started off again. I held on and crained my neck enough to see out the window and through the puff of diesel smoke to see the Hall of Fame and No Shame salesman cross to the other side of the road and catch another bus going back the way we came.
Like a tireless, veteran baseball pitcher taking the mound with solid confidence...inning after inning...until the game is called because of light.
An hour or so later, we slid into homebase with the bus at the terminal in Huehuetenango. We knew that the next two days in Guatemala would be a double-header of surprises and thrills of a lifetime.
Que un milagro!

Mayan Legend: Guatemala/Chiapas

Once there was a He, of the night. Shadow of shadows, solitary steps, He walked many nights to find Her.
Once there was a She, of the day. Twinkle of maize, dance of light, she walked many days to find him.
They were always looking for each other, He and She. The night was always pursuing the day. They both knew, She and He, the quest for what can never be found. It seemed as if it would never happen. It seemed impossible, it seemed never ever.
And then the dawn came for Him and for Her. Always, forever.

Mayan legend

New Year !

TO LEARN TO READ IS TO LIGHT A FIRE; EVERY SYLLABLE THAT IS SPELLED-OUT IS A SPARK.

Victor Hugo

Mixtec New Year:
In the rural mountains of the Mixteca area of the state of Oaxaca, there is a custom at the start of each new year, of passing fire out to all homes. It is a beginning for the world, a new light, a new time for learning. The world is renewed.
For Katy and I, every Saturday of our involvement in the rural literacy project in the pueblos will be a highlight and privilege for us in 2006.
A new year, and a new time of learning. We are proud and blessed, to be a part of the spark in this fire. It warms all of us.
Prospero Ano Nuevo a todos. Que un milagro!

A Whirlwind of activities!

We have quite a bit of BLOGGING to catch up on!

Dec 23- Night of the Radishes
Dec 24- Noche Buena, Posadas (parades) in the Zocalo
Dec 25 - CHRISTMAS DAY
Quiet morning, Fiesta at church
Dec 26- Operation Christmas Box give away in Lachigolo, Oaxaca
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/MP_Article.asp?ArticleID=63
Dec 27- all night bus to San Cristobal, Chiapas
http://www.turismochiapas.gob.mx/ingles/index2.htm
Dec 28- stretch legs and walk around San Cristobal
Dec 29- leave for Guatemala
Dec 30- spend the day in Todos Santos, Guatemala
http://www.gonomad.com/destinations/0012/koch_todos_santos.html
Dec 31- re-enter Mexico
Jan 1- Zapatista Rally in San Cristobal, Chiapas
http://www.zapatistas.org/Links/links.html
Jan 2- Meet Jo Ellen Reaves in San Cristobal-
Jan 3- Tour San Juan Chamula and Na Bolom
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n6_v114/ai_19174192
http://www.i-escape.com/casanabolom.php
Jan 4- Bus to Palenque Ruins
http://www.jaguar-sun.com/temple.html
Jan 5- tour Agua Azul
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/mexico/aguaazul/aguaazul.html
Jan 6- return to San Cristobal, take the night bus back to Oaxaca
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/rferguson/rfbus.html
Jan 7- HOME!