Bonampak - Surroundings

The Río Lacan-há countryside in the vicinity of the ruins is home to the only surviving groups of Lacandón Maya (Yucatecan Maya: "Ah acantun" 5 "those who erect the stones") who, until recently, were the last descendants of the Maya to remain largely untouched by civilisation. Historians can only speculate about their origins. The now fast disappearing tribe, once numbering thousands, are believed to be remnants of a Mayan people who migrated here from southern Yucatán in the early 18th c., somehow contriving to avoid contact with the Spaniards. They lived a mainly nomadic existence in the rain forest named after them (the Selva Lacandona), engaging in only rudimentary forms of agriculture around their temporary encampments. The Lacandones, of whom at most 400 are alive today, call themselves Caribs, their settlements being known consequently as "caribals". Most are found in Na-há ("big water") and Santo Domingo, with a few in Lacan-há (Maya: "on snake river") and Mensäbäk ("powder maker"). They wear their hair to the shoulder and dress traditionally in a calf-length, white, sack-like garment. Not very long ago these isolated forest Indians still lived by the bow and arrow, celebrating their ancient rituals in the decaying ruins of the temples built by their forefathers. In recent years they have been overwhelmed by a spate of missionaries, ethnologists and tourists, forfeiting much of their self-sufficiency and independence in the process.