(), roughly translated as "place of fright",
is the name of the
underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
(in ) in
Maya mythology
Maya mythology or Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The legends of the era have to be ...
, ruled by the
Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century
Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of
Cobán
Cobán (), fully Santo Domingo de Cobán, is the capital of the department of Alta Verapaz in central Guatemala. It also serves as the administrative center for the surrounding Cobán municipality. It is located 219 km from Guatemala City.
A ...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
. Cave systems in nearby
Belize
Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...
have also been referred to as the entrance to Xibalba. In some Maya areas, the
Milky Way
The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
is viewed as the road to Xibalba.
Inhabitants
Xibalba is described in the ''
Popol Vuh
''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, ...
'' as a court below the surface of the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
associated with death and with twelve gods or powerful rulers known as the Lords of Xibalba. The first among the
Maya death gods ruling Xibalba were Hun-Came ("One Death") and Vucub-Came ("Seven Death"), though Hun-Came is the senior of the two.
The remaining ten Lords are often referred to as demons and are given commission and domain over various forms of human suffering: to cause sickness,
starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...
, fear, destitution, pain, and ultimately death.
These Lords all work in pairs: Xiquiripat ("Flying Scab") and Cuchumaquic ("Gathered Blood"), who sicken people's blood; Ahalpuh ("Pus Demon") and Ahalgana ("Jaundice Demon"), who cause people's bodies to swell up; Chamiabac ("Bone Staff") and Chamiaholom ("Skull Staff"), who turn dead bodies into skeletons; Ahalmez ("Sweepings Demon") and Ahaltocob ("Stabbing Demon"), who hide in the unswept areas of people's houses and stab them to death; and Xic ("Wing") and Patan ("Packstrap"), who cause people to die coughing up blood while out walking on a road.
[Christenson, Allen J. (trans.) (2007) ''Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. The Great Classic of Central American Spirituality, Translated from the Original Maya Text''][Recinos, Adrian; Goetz, Delia; Morley, S.G. (trans.) (1991) ''Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiche Maya (Civilization of American Indian)''
] The remaining residents of Xibalba are thought to have fallen under the dominion of one of these Lords, going about the face of the Earth to carry out their listed duties.
Structure
Xibalba was a large palace and a number of individual structures or locations within Xibalba are described or mentioned in the ''Popol Vuh''. Chief among these was the council place of the Lords, the five or six houses that served as the first tests of Xibalba, and the Xibalban
ballcourt. Also mentioned are the homes of the Lords, gardens, and other structures indicating that Xibalba was at least a great city.
Xibalba seems to be rife with tests, trials, and traps for anyone who came into the city. Even the roads to Xibalba were filled with obstacles: first a river filled with
scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...
s, a river filled with blood, and then a river filled with
pus
Pus is an exudate, typically white-yellow, yellow, or yellow-brown, formed at the site of inflammation during infections, regardless of cause. An accumulation of pus in an enclosed tissue space is known as an abscess, whereas a visible collect ...
.
Beyond these was a crossroads where travellers had to choose from among four roads that spoke in an attempt to confuse and beguile. Upon passing these obstacles, one would come upon the Xibalba council place, where it was expected visitors would greet the seated Lords. Realistic
mannequin
A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...
s were seated near the Lords to confuse and humiliate people who greeted them, and the confused would then be invited to sit upon a bench, which was actually a hot cooking surface. The Lords of Xibalba would entertain themselves by humiliating people in this fashion before sending them into one of Xibalba's deadly tests.
The city was home to at least six deadly houses filled with trials for visitors. The first was Dark House, a house that was completely dark inside. The second was Rattling House or Cold House, full of bone-chilling cold and rattling hail. The third was Jaguar House, filled with hungry jaguars. The fourth was Bat House, filled with dangerous shrieking bats, and the fifth was Razor House, filled with blades and razors that moved about of their own accord. In another part of the ''Popol Vuh'', a sixth test, Hot House, filled with fires and heat, is identified. The purpose of these tests was to either kill or humiliate people placed into them if they could not outwit the test.
Downfall of Xibalba
Xibalba was home of a famous ballcourt in which the heroes of the ''Popol Vuh'' succumbed to the trickery of the demons in the form of a deadly, bladed ball, as well as the site in which the
Maya Hero Twins
The Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial Kʼicheʼ document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Kʼ ...
outwitted the gods and brought about their downfall.
According to the ''Popol Vuh'', the denizens of Xibalba at one point enjoyed the worship of the people on the surface of the Earth who offered human sacrifice to the gods of death. Over the span of time covered in the ''Popol Vuh'', the gods of Xibalba are tricked and finally humiliated into accepting lesser offerings from above by the Maya Twins, who got superpowers after they were burnt and their ashes thrown into a magical river.
Anthropologist
Dennis Tedlock has speculated that this version of history may be a
Kʼicheʼ slander on earlier Mayan forms of worship.
[ Tedlock, Dennis (1996) ''Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings.'' Touchstone Books. .]
The role of Xibalba and its inhabitants after their great defeat at the hands of the Hero Twins is unclear, although it seems to have continued its existence as a dark place of the underworld long after.
See also
*
Diyu
''Diyu'' () is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology. It is loosely based on a combination of the Buddhist concept of Naraka (Buddhism), Naraka, traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife, and a variety of popular expansion ...
*
Mictlān
*
Patala
In Indian religions, Patala ( Sanskrit: पाताल, IAST: pātāla, lit. ''that which is below the feet''), denotes the subterranean realms of the universe – which are located under the earthly dimension. Patala is often translated as u ...
References
External links
Maya Caves and Xibalbá
{{K'iche' mythology
Places in Maya mythology
Underworld