The Mayan Rain God Chahk Ceramics

Chaac spelled variously chac chaak or chaakh.

The mayan rain god chahk ceramics. The rain deity is a patron of agriculture. The 155 ceramic braziers and incense burners found by the experts bear the likeness of tlaloc the rain god of central mexico. The maya also had their own rain god chaac and may have imported. At cara blanca rests the remains of two structures a platform near a deep pool and a sweatbath complex.

It contains one of the finest extant deity portraits from the classic maya corpus. Chahk the god of rain and lightning was one of the most venerated and popular gods for the maya believed to see in him the cause of the rains hence the water essential for the crops. These two structures a platform teetering on the edge of a 60 meter deep pool and a sweatbath compound were part of a ritual pilgrimage circuit traversed by the ancient maya to pay tribute to the rain god chahk during the extended droughts. As with many mesoamerican cultures that based their living on rain dependent agriculture the ancient maya felt a particular devotion for the deities controlling rain.

Karl taube 3 points out that the god chahk is already present at the beginning of the classic mayan religion 3 17 and stone and zender consider that its. This cylindrical drinking cup is the magnum opus of the maya vase painter known as the metropolitan master. He s very good like that even teaching the. Chac is a reptilian critter with fangs and a rather droopy snout.

He s also one of the alphabet gods known as god b. During these trying times pilgrims visited both buildings to honor the rain god chahk. The young rain god named chahk poses mid stride lifting off his left foot and extending the right leg in front of him gracefully pointing his toes. B is for bursting clouds.

Both were built around ad 800 900 when the region was choked by droughts. The best example of this scene is known from a vase in the museum s collection 1978 412 206. Rain gods or rain related deities were worshiped beginning in very ancient times and. His hair is a permanently knotted tangle of confusion which we find quite endearing.

Very important for harvests and growing chac sends rain into the world by weeping from his large benevolent eyes. Chaak the ancient maya rain god wields a large axe marked with the hieroglyphic symbol for shiny objects in his left hand and an animate stone object in the shape of a skull in his right 7th 8th century. A well known myth in which the chaacs or related rain and lightning deities have an.