San Juan Chamula

I finally made the trip to San Juan Chamula. I have been meaning to go since before I knew what or where it is. Allow me to explain. There are two churches that I had seen pictures of and have wanted to go see, but I hadn't known where they were located. *

The church with the spectacular door is actually not a Catholic church. It is a hybrid of the the pagan beliefs and of Catholicism resulting in a bizarre ritualistic church that is unique to this area. I wanted to go in but apparently tourists have to buy tickets from a tourist office and I never saw it. I was also a little intimidated as I know that they are very sensitive to tourists and I do not want to offend anyone. I also have heard so much about this church, that I also didn't feel ready to go in.

Not many churches these days openly slaughter chickens as part of their rituals, not to mention drinking coke and/or beer as part of the process of releasing evil spirits. I did not spend enough time or even go in, therefore, I do not feel qualified to describe the scene I witnessed. For a much better description of San Juan Chamula and it's rituals:, cut and paste this URL into your browser's address bar:

http://www.philipcoppens.com/chamula.html

San Sebastian was a church but it is now ruins. I heard that about a century ago the Tzotzil people killed the Christians and buried them in the churchyard. I have yet to confirm this story, but you know what they say, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." I will go back and when I have some time (summer?), I will try to research the history.

* If you are one of my three faithful readers, you may recall that I posted a picture of the door of the church in Chamula. The picture was 'borrowed' from Flickr as I didn't have a camera yet.