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The Popol Vuh, in Maya Quiche language " the Council Book" or "the Dawn of Life " , combines the story of creation with the history of the Maya people. Its origins go back to the Classical Maya , but what has come down to us was dictated to a scribe by a group of Quiche nobles in 1563 who wrote it down Latin script in the town of Quiche. Recording their ancient religious beliefs must have been a difficult and delicate task, and they stressed that the work was done : " amid the preaching of God, in Christendom now. " The manuscript seems to have been forgotten in the church archives until it was discovered in 1701 by Francisco Ximenez.in the church of Chui La, or the" town above the nettles", known today as Chichicastenango. The manuscript is now in the Newberry Library of Chicago University.
Although not many of the Maya of Chichicastenango have read it, the existence of the manuscript is a source of great pride to them. The Academia de Arte y Cultura Maya has therefore made the Popol Vuh a focus for its teaching of art and culture to both children and adults. In March of 2002 we had the joyful experience of working with the children and teachers to enact scenes from the Popol Vuh in some of the sacred Maya sites . The process itself was the message: young Maya children and their families created imaginative costumes, kites, masks, and drawings of ancient as well as newly made Maya objects to express their feelings . The performances themselves extended over several days and actors and audience were often the same people.
The beginning of Popol Vuh describes the world in the process of creation, a world of total darkness before man had been formed. The first part describes the creation of animals and explains the origin of certain animals and their characteristics. This was acted out by the children wearing masks and dancing to the sounds of traditional Maya music at a mountain site called Pascual Abaj amid blazing sacrificial fires and candles. It then recounts the fall of a prideful being Seven Macaw, a kind of super bird which thought itself to be sun and moon until brought low by two young hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque At the Academia the construction of the bird became a challenge for the entire Cortez family, including the twin brother artists Juan and Miguel Leon who are the teachers. They were ably assisted by a Gini Wade, a children's book illustrator and volunteer from Wales. The Cortez family also built two 3meter wide kites which became the killer bat and the owl, servants of the Lord of Death.
After descending to Xibalbaj the watery underworld of the Maya, the hero twins seek to revenged the death of their father who had been defeated by the lords of Xibalbaj and whose head had been suspended on a tree where it turned into a fruit. That fruit seduced the young daughter of the Lord of Death who was acted beautifully by one of the Cortez sisters. The Popol Vuh reports the final defeat of the Lords of Death in Xibalbaj by Hunahpuh and Xbalanque two young Gods, in a marvelous line that provides an insight into some of the values of Maya Culture:" The boys accomplished it only through wonders, only through self-transformation.
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When one brother is asked by the lords of Death to sacrifice his twin, they oblige, and the twin is quickly brought back to life again. Only when the Lord of Death is foolish enough to ask them to sacrifice him, do they leave him dead.
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POPOL VUH FILM
We captured the children , their art and activities on video together with teachers and the old men of the community trying to convey the message of their culture, and with their attempt to maintain their oral and artistic traditions. We hope to share this video with others children in other cultures to inspire them to work with their own heritage |
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