The Popol Vuh or "Council Book" gathers
part
of the wisdom and
traditions of
the Mayan
culture established primarily
in the Quiche
region of Guatemala. It
is a conjunction of religion, mythology,
history,
astrology, customs
and legends that describes the origin of the
world,
civilization and
the various phenomena that occur in
nature.
To the
Quiche, the
Popol Vuh is like the Bible for
Christians in that its
teachings marked their behavior and
customs. The
meaning of
the terms that
make up the name are: "Popol",
the Mayan word
for reunion; community; common
house or meeting, and the word "Vuh",
meaning book; paper, or the
tree from
whose bark they
made paper. Thus,
this book can
be understood to mean the
"Book of the
Community”.
Still much is
unknown about
the Maya and, contrary to what was believed
for some time, this culture reached
an amazing level
of development.
The Maya’s social and political organization was established and ordered
by laws and
codes; they
were impressively knowledgeable in the areas of
astronomy, mathematics,
medicine, herbal
medicine and
agriculture.
They
had an extremely
accurate calendar
divided into three accounts: the sacred or
"Tzolkin",
the civil or "Haab",
and the
"long
count".
They also had a
huge collection
of literary
and artistic works, all documented
in codices,
monuments and paintings. Unfortunately, most
of these documents
were destroyed by
the Spanish
during the
conquest, mainly by Christian
missionaries
determined
to get the
Indians to
rejected their beliefs, and
so impose the
Catholic religion upon them.
As happened with
the library of Alexandria, the Spanish,
in one single flash, put an end to
invaluable
ancient knowledge as
well as an entire culture that would
today be on
par with the Egyptian, Roman or Greek. Ironically,
years later
missionaries gave
themselves to the
task of rescuing
some of the indigenous traditions
and
documents about
the literature
and art
of those cultures, as
was the case with the Popol Vuh.
In the
eighteenth century, Padre Fray Francisco Ximenez, of
the Dominican Order, came
to the village of Chichicastenango,
Guatemala, where the
ancient tradition of the Quiche
Maya still prevailed. Thanks to his kind
and understanding spirit, the priest
won the esteem
of the
population and in
gratitude; he was
allowed to become acquainted with a book that was written
in
the Quiche language.
Fray Francisco became
very intrigued with the discovery and once
he realized the greatness of its
contents; gave
himself over to the task of transcribing and
translating it into Castilian,
in order to share such a
beautiful work. The
translations were never very clear,
so that
it underwent
several versions until years
later,
one of
them fell into
the hands of Charles Etienne Brasseur,
who translated it
into
French and
gave it the
name of "Popol Vuh”.
Later there
were other
interpretations attempting to clarify
its content for
the reader, while
respecting the
most important data.
The Popol Vuh is
divided into three essential
parts:
-The first
is a
description of
the creation
of the
world and
the origin
of man, who, after several failed
attempts; was made from corn,
the food
that was the basis of
their diet.
"In the beginning
of creation it
is
told how
everything was
quiet,
silent, dark–
void of life and color; there
was only the
sky and a
tranquil sea.
It was then that the gods decided
to create man ... In
their first attempt, they
created men of
clay,
but the effort failed. Then they
tried with wooden
dummies, but they
had no knowledge or recollection of
their creators, so
they were destroyed in a
great flood.. ...
The
gods insisted on continuing and created four men
and four women of corn, but
these had an
extraordinary vision and unparalleled
wisdom. Then
the gods
decided to diminish their
vision and
intelligence. From
these men and women created in corn came
the families that
would populate the
earth”.
The second part
centers on the narrative of
the adventures of
the twins Hunahpu and Ixbalanque:
the
young gods that
defeat the evil forces
of Xibalba,
or hell. "Legend has
it that these twins were given birth
on a mountain
... Hunahpu and Ixbalanque
grew,
learned many
arts and had great physical
and spiritual power; they harmed
no one.
They had extraordinary
adventures, and
performed wonderful miracles ... The
boys followed the
instructions given
them
to destroy the lords
of hell, but were
no longer resurrected; that's
how Ixbalanque
and Hunahpu defeated the lords of
Xibalba and
thus avenged the death
of their father.
They then went up
to heaven:
one was
placed as the Sun and the
other as the Moon”.
- The
third part is a detailed
history relating to the
origin of the
indigenous peoples of Guatemala, their
migrations, distribution within
the territory,
war and
the dominance of the Quiche
race over
the others until
shortly before the
Spanish conquest.
The richness of
these accounts,
the symbolism
of the
characters and
the implied meaning in
the stories have made
this book a classic on
par with the Iliad,
the Odyssey, the Ramayana or
even the Bible
itself, but
above all, for being one of the few reliable examples of
one of the world’s most enigmatic and mysterious civilizations.
