Mayan Religion

Ancient Maya pyramids, now encompassed by the forest or explored by tourists, have long been viewed as mysterious places of sacrifice and bloodletting rituals. Though the religious significance of Maya pyramids has long been recognized, the casual traveler may pass right by other, less-imposing but no less important, places of religious meaning to the Maya. The small, community churches constructed during colonial times were central to religious activity in the cah. The milpa field, where corn was grown with the kol and kash cycles of slash and burn agriculture, was also a focal point of religious ceremonies performed by the humble Maya farmer. The Classical pyramid, the community church, and the milpa field were all places of religious significance for the Maya. Despite the differences in form, these were all places where the Maya could commune with or venerate higher powers, with or without the aid of an intermediary. The degree of individual involvement varied, but the basic ceremonial components of offering food or sacrifice to and communicating with deities remained the same.

For the ancient Maya, the world was alive and full of sacred spaces such as caves and mountains, and “The architecture of ritual space replicated the features of sacred geography – the forest, the mountain, and the cave” (Schele and Freidel 72). Classical Maya kings invested a great deal of resources into pyramid construction, and the form of these buildings was carefully calculated. The shape of the pyramid emulated that of a mountain. The external layout, a series of landings and plazas of increasing size, enforced the social hierarchy by controlling the number of people in attendance and their proximity to the sacred spaces (Schele and Frei...

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The Classical pyramid, colonial church, and milpa field were all places where the Maya practiced their religion. Though this religion changed with the collapse of the Classical kings and the arrival of the Spanish with Catholicism, the places and methods of worship remained surprisingly similar. The colonial church replaced the Classical pyramid as the place of communal worship. Despite the imposition of monotheism, the Maya continued to venerate the saints as they had the idols in precolonial times, and the Maya continued to make offerings to the saints, though the offerings no longer included human blood. The milpa remained a place of individual communion where the reciprocal nature of humans’ relationship with corn was celebrated. These religious places demonstrate amazing continuities of Maya culture over the period of almost two thousand years.