The Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas
January 3rd, 2008 by Barbara Soldi
Many of our Eco-tours in Chiapas take people to the Lacandon jungle, but few visitors know the story of the biggest rainforest in the country, and of its inhabitants, the Lacandon Mayas.
We always suggest travellers to visit the Na Bolom Museum in San Cristobal before heading to the jungle, to get some information about the region they are going to visit. However, if you do not have the chance to go to the museum, you can read a brief excerpt of the jungle’s history below.
Since the end of the 18th Century, the Lacandon Maya have lived in the Lacandon rain forest. Until the 1920’s the forest was virtually impenetrable, allowing their culture, whose very heart and spiritual life is based on the rain forest and everything that exists within it, to develop in near isolation.
But today the rain forest is changing and so are the Lacandones - at times because they have to, at times because they want to.
In the 1950’s the Mexican government realized that the Lacandon rain forest offered many valuable natural resources, and in order to establish better political and social control, they began building roads into the forest. For example, the road to the ruins of Bonampak was just completed in 1997.
Roads have made the rain forest more accessible to tourists, the military, anthropologists, journalists and missionaries, who bring with them new ideas and ideologies. These views affect the traditional social, economic, and religious structures of the Lacandones.
From the 1950’s the government opened the forest to colonization as a solution to land scarcity in the highlands of Chiapas and as a result other indigenous groups (Choles, Tzeltales and Tzotziles) have settled there with more and more arriving each day.
To support their families they farm using methods which are not suited to rain forest soil and some are working the land which by government decree belongs to the Lacandones. This has created tension between the various indigenous groups.
With intensive logging, slash and burn farming and cattle ranching, over 80% of the Lacandon forest has been destroyed. In efforts to preserve what remains, the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve - in which the community of Lacanja-Chansayab is located - was established in 1978.
Today also the people of Naha are exploring the possibility of developing an ecological reserve.
For the Lacandones the repercussions of deforestation are very serious, as the basis of their existence, culture and spirituality lies in the forest. Their spiritual leader - Chan Kin Viejo from Naha - died in 1996. He was the keeper of the Lacandon ancient traditions, a vital part of which was lost upon his death. Some of his sons remember the stories told by their father, and continue practicing some of the traditions.
All these changes have led the Lacandones to think of ways to balance their ancient traditions with the influences from outside. Change is within any culture and we ourselves are a product of change. We accept and reject change on a daily basis. The same is true for the Lacandones. Where the changes will lead them is uncertain, but the richness of their culture is not lost.
