Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing, sewing notions, toys - cluster at the north end of the square and in the Centro Comer-
cial Santo Tomás off the north side, whose upper deck offers irresistible photo opportunit-
ies of the business conducted below.
CHURCH
Iglesia de Santo Tomás
The church on the plaza's east side dates from 1540 and is often the scene of rituals that
are more distinctly Maya than Catholic. Inside, the floor of the church may be dotted with
offerings of maize, flowers and bottles of liquor wrapped in corn husks; candles are ar-
ranged in specific patterns along low stone platforms.
The front steps serve much the same purpose as did the great flights of stairs leading up
to Maya pyramids. For much of the day (especially Sunday), they smolder with incense of
copal resin, while indigenous prayer leaders called
chuchkajaues
(mother- fathers) swing
censers (usually tin cans poked with holes) and chant magic words marking the days of
the ancient Maya calendar and honoring ancestors. The candles and offerings inside recall
those ancestors, many of whom are buried beneath the floor just as Maya kings were bur-
ied beneath pyra- mids. Note that photography is not permitted in this church.
On the west side of the plaza is another whitewashed church, the
Capilla del Calvario
OFFLINE MAP
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, similar in form and function to Santo Tomás, but smaller.
Museo Arqueológico Regional
(5a Av 4-47; admission Q5; 8am-12:30pm & 2-4:30pm Tue-Sat, 8am-2pm Sun)
Chichi's archaeology mu-
seum holds the collection of Hugo Rossbach, a German who served as Chichi's Catholic
priest until his death in 1944. It includes some beautiful jade necklaces and figurines,
along with ceremonial masks, obsidian spearheads, incense burners, figurines and
metates
(grindstones for maize).
MUSEUM
Pascual Abaj
On a hilltop south of town, Pascual Abaj (Sacrifice Stone) is a shrine to the Maya earth
god Huyup Tak'ah (Mountain Plain). A stone-faced idol stands amid a circle of squat
stone crosses in a clearing. Said to be hundreds - perhaps thousands - of years old, it has
suffered numerous indignities at the hands of outsiders, but local people still revere it.
SHRINE
