Mayan Architecture: Quick Facts

Mayan Architecture: Quick Facts

by Linda Patterson

Until now, the religion of the Maya is not known , simply because the conquistadors of Spain eliminated as much of the "heathen" culture as they can prior to trying to win over the folks to Catholicism. Then again, much has actually been discovered their faith as archeologists find out about things including age old books, pottery with text or paintings on them, mural paintings, carvings, and also other various treasures which are left untouched.

With these artifacts, we presently know a little with what these folks believed, who they worshiped, and how they practiced their religious ceremonies.

The Mayan Religion

The religion of the Maya is remarkably complicated, with a spider web of beliefs, worshiped beings as well as ceremonies. The majority of cities furthermore worshiped their own specific heroes, deities, as well as forefathers, not unlike the European Catholics as well as their saints. The priests are made as instruments in carrying out their spiritual rites and communicating to spirits and deities. With a huge belief in nature, mythology, and also the afterlife, the Mayan belief system is certainly among the most complicated religions in both ancient as well as present times.

The Gods and priests

The Mayans worshiped a lot of groups of figures: the forefathers, heroes (a special group in the ancestors and forefathers that done outstanding deeds during their life), deities, animal persons (animals which take action as humans and also serve the deities), spooks (ghosts), demons, bush spirits, goblins (considered to be made by the priests to aid the farmers), dwarfs, and also hunchbacks. Every single group was worshiped and also taken care of by means of rituals, retelling of tales, sacrifices, as well as other religious ceremonies. For the Mayas, it is very common to link deities and ancestors to mountains, caves and rivers as well as other natural features. Other diverse forms of worship contained purification (bloodletting, confession and fasting), prayer, pilgrimages, and also spectacular performances.

The structure of the Priesthood was wide-ranging, yet is not well recognized. Nearly all of what is identified was figured out by the one-sided perspective of the Spanish which conquered them. We do understand that lots of the different deities had their own priesthood, and that each level of the hierarchy had their own duties and also responsibilities. Many even held a title, like oracle, astrologer, or being in control of sacrificing humans. Priests were also research workers, professionals of arithmetic and astronomy. They were the people for the most part in charge of studying the heavens and also writing the charts. This led the right way to astrology and all the other sciences of fortune reading.

Their Sacrifices As Well As Offerings

Both offerings and sacrifices portrayed a tremendous role to keep the deities and several other worldly creatures content. There are various forms of offering, nonetheless they were also accurate, with highly accurate numbers, quantity, quality, preparations, and also arrangement of things. Nearly all ceremonial rites entail the sprinking of blookd, which, on the other hand, means sacrifices. Turkeys were specifically used, but in certain instances, many other animals, such as fish, deer and dogs were also used, while exceptional occasions required a human. Bloodletting by the priests along with royal family seemed to be fairly common. Though fantasized in horror films, cannibalism during these rituals was exceedingly rare.

There is so considerably more to educate oneself about pertaining to their religion, and yet, archeologists are still exposing new facts. It could be that we will never know to what extent their beliefs reach. What's known is that all of their lives centered around what they believed and even who they worshiped.



The original article is from <a href="http://www.onejungle.com/travel-resources/articles/mayan-history/item/330-the-architectural-gifts-of-the-maya">The Architectural Gifts of the Maya</a>. Read more on <a href="http://www.onejungle.com/travel-resources/articles/mayan-history">Mayan History</a>.

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