Last Updated on: 6th October 2023, 03:03 pm
Stepping inside, it was immediately clear that this was no ordinary church. The floor was completely covered in pine needles, and everywhere I looked, local healers waved around live chicken as incense smoke filled the air. When it comes to Mexico travel, there’s nothing quite like visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula and witnessing its traditional healing rituals.
Most visits to Chamula are combined with the nearby indigenous town of Zinacantán. Mainly known for its textiles, it too has a similar syncretic church which blends Catholicism with the ancient folk practices of the Tzotzil Maya.
At the end of the article, you can learn more about the practicalities of visiting both towns – either with a tour or independently – from San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula
Chamula is an indigenous town of around 80,000 people, largely comprised of Tzotzil Mayans. Situated 10 km from San Cristóbal de las Casas, the most common way to visit Chamula and Zinacantán is with a tour.
As I tend to avoid tours to places I can easily visit on my own, I opted to visit both towns independently. Many who take the tour, however, highly recommend it because otherwise, most outside visitors would have no idea of what’s going on.
Not having tried a tour, I can’t compare the two experiences. But before visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula, I made sure to check out the Museum of Mayan Medicine in San Cristóbal, which provides a lot of great info about the unique ritual and its symbolism.
Arriving in Chamula and approaching the church, you’ll notice a large green cross in the center of the spacious courtyard. As you travel throughout Mexico’s Mayan region, you’ll often encounter green crosses like this one in small towns. But why green?
The green cross simultaneously represents a typical Christian cross and the ceiba tree, considered by the Mayans to be the ‘Tree of Life.’ Not only did the ceiba tree serve as the axis mundi of this world, but it also linked our everyday realm with the lower and upper realms.
During the Spanish colonial period, green crosses were a clever way for the Mayans to maintain some of their traditional rituals without raising the suspicion of the Spanish.
The Templo de San Juan Chamula was constructed sometime in the 16th century by the Dominicans, who tried long and hard to convert the local Mayan population to Christianity. But as evidenced by what goes on inside to this day, they only partly succeeded.
While the exterior largely resembles a traditional church, the arches around the door have been painted green and are filled in with four and eight-pointed crosses, representative of the Mayan view of the cosmos.
Tourists are welcome to visit the church, though at the time of writing, tickets must be purchased for $30 MXN. You can buy them at a booth over to the left side.
The number one rule of visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula is that photography is strictly prohibited inside. There are all kinds of stories online about visitors breaking the rule and getting driven out of town! But who knows what’s really true.
Aside from the risk of getting caught, it would simply be terribly disrespectful to the local community to not follow their rules, as you are witnessing the ceremony as a guest.
Given the restriction, I obviously can’t show you what I saw. But I’ll be filling in the gaps with some relevant photos from the Mayan Medicine Museum in San Cristóbal.
As soon as you walk inside, it’s obvious that this is not your standard Catholic church. The spacious, dimly-lit interior is void of benches or any other furniture. Instead, the floor is covered in pine needles, a traditional sacred plant to the Mayans.
You’ll find the air filled with smoke from copal incense made from tree resin. Incense is considered food for the spirits, and so are candles. Accordingly, you’ll see countless candles along the floor of varying colors.
Different colors of candles are used for different purposes. Yellow and orange candles, for example, help get rid of bad energy. Green helps cure certain illnesses, while red sends back negative energy to those who have done you wrong. White, meanwhile, simply represents mother earth and purity.
When visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula at any hour of the day or night, you’re bound to find it buzzing with activity. Patients typically enter with their families and sit before a curandero, or traditional healer, which could be male or female.
As there seem to be at least a dozen or so curanderos working at any given time, you’ll see multiple rituals taking place simultaneously wherever you look.
In addition to the candles, incense, and pine needles mentioned above, you’ll also notice bottles of alcohol and even Mexico’s favorite beverage, Coca-Cola.
The alcohol is known as pox and is made from sugarcane. Said to help drive away bad spirits, the state of drunkenness may also help the patient connect with the good ones who will aid in the healing process.
As for the Coke, it’s also considered to be a spiritual cleansing agent, believe it or not. The main idea is to get the patient to belch, which is believed to be another way to expel bad spirits.
But the most shocking thing to outsiders will surely be the chickens. The Mayans are not alone when it comes to using live animals to absorb a person’s illnesses (or in some cases, sins). I recall seeing a similar ritual in South America involving a guinea pig, for example.
When visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula, expect to see curanderos all throughout the church waving live chickens in front of each patient. And after enough bad energy has been absorbed? They kill the chicken by breaking its neck.
I witnessed more chicken deaths than I could count, and it should go without saying that visiting the Templo de San Juan Chamula is not for the squeamish.
Taking a break from the action, I walked up to the main altar, home to a myriad of images of Jesus, various saints and the Virgin Mary.
Don’t expect to see a single stone idol of a Mayan god or any other imagery in the traditional Mesoamerican style. But despite their traditional Catholic appearance, the saint sculptures are said to double as local gods.
After spending half an hour or so inside the church, I walked around town to look for a place to eat. Ascending an uphill road, I reached Restaurant El Mirador, which provides great views of the church (its back, at least) and Chamula as a whole.
As I ate my enchiladas and looked out at the views, I couldn’t help but recall scenes from the book The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence. Set a hundred years ago in Jalisco, the fascinating novel suggests what a full-on revival of the traditional Mesoamerican religion might look like.
'[T]he old gods are minded to come back to you … I have come from out of the lake to tell you the gods are coming back to Mexico, they are ready to return to their own home.'
– The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence
Visiting Zinacantán
As mentioned, most trips to Chamula are combined with a visit to nearby Zinacantán, just 7 km away. No public transport exists between the two, though you could theoretically return to San Cristóbal and transfer there.
The most convenient option is to hire a private taxi from the main square outside of the Templo de San Juan. The standard price seems to be about $100 MXN for the one-way journey.
Zinacantán features its own syncretic church. Known as the Iglesia de San Lorenzo, it too features a colorful and elaborate main altar, complete with statues of saints, various flowers and candles of many colors.
Completely missing at the time of my visit, however, were any curanderos, not to mention chickens. Nor were there any pine needles covering the floor. It was rather quiet with only several local visitors present.
For a few moments, it almost felt like I was in an ordinary church. But soon a local family approached the altar and began performing a quiet prayer and ritual that seemed more indigenous than Catholic in origin.
But what else is there to do in Zinacantán? Frankly speaking, not much, unless you plan on purchasing some local textiles as souvenirs.
Tours will typically take visitors to textile workshops at which you can observe the weaving process, followed by the chance to purchase some if you wish.
I happened to walk into one of these workshops while a tour was in a back room, and didn’t encounter a single staff member. But I did get to see some beautiful traditional garments hanging along the walls.
As seen by the churches mentioned above, numerous Mayan folk traditions have survived from pre-Hispanic times to this day. But many of them now take on more of a syncretic appearance.
The art of producing textiles, on the other hand, is one of the few ancient traditions that has largely survived throughout the colonial period completely intact.
For those not visiting Zinacantán, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see Zinacantán textiles at places like the Textile Museum and Casa Na Bolom in San Cristóbal.
Additional Info
Getting There Independently
For those coming independently from San Cristóbal, you can find colectivos (shared minivans) to both Chamula and Zinacantán from within the main market.
There is no direct transport between Chamula and Zinacantán, however, so a taxi is a must. The standard fee they charge foreign visitors seems to be $100 MXN. If you don’t want to pay that and have plenty of time, you could also return to San Cristóbal and then hop on a colectivo to the other town.
The market is a pretty hectic area, but walk around enough and you should eventually encounter a Chamula-bound van. Having passed by one during my earlier explorations of the area, I later returned to the same spot. But there was no colectivo in sight.
And so I wandered around the market toward some other departure points listed on the Maps.me app. But there were no colectivos there either. Finally, I returned to the original spot on the main road of the market. Sure enough, a Chamula-bound van had appeared.
Coming from Zinacantán to San Cristóbal, I simply stepped in a colectivo that had been waiting by the town’s main square.
Taking a Tour
San Cristóbal de Las Casas is a pretty touristy town, and you’ll find tourism agencies all throughout the historical center. And many of them advertise tours to Chamula and Zinacantán. Alternatively, you could also book a highly-rated tour online in advance like this one.
As a town of only 180,000 people, San Cristóbal is not especially large, and most of the accommodations are located somewhere in the town center. This allows you to reach most of the main landmarks on foot.
Some of the most popular higher-end hotels in or near the center include Sombra del Agua, Hotel Mansion Del Valle and Casa Carmen.
High-rated budget friendly options, meanwhile, include La Abuelita, Hotel Ocho Barrios and Hotel Pepe Pancho.
I stayed at an Airbnb about a 10-minute walk south of the bus station. This made it easy to take a day trip to the Sumidero Canyon, while I could get to the town center in around twenty minutes on foot.
While not many tourists stay in this southern area, I found it to be a safe and convenient neighborhood which maintains an authentic local atmosphere.
Generally speaking, though, staying anywhere in the historical center should be fine, and you’ll find accommodation for a wide variety of budgets.
Personally, however, I would avoid staying right by the main market, which is known to be unsafe at times.
The nearest airport to San Cristóbal is located in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez, about an hour drive away. You should be able to find direct domestic flights from all around the country.
For those coming by bus, direct night buses connect the city with Oaxaca to the west (around 12 hours). You can also come from Palenque, which also requires a night bus that takes around 11 hours.
Despite being in the same state, the reason the bus from Palenque takes so long is because all coach buses now use a longer route via Villahermosa, Tabasco.
This is due to regular blockades and occasional armed robberies on the road between San Cristóbal and Ocosingo, the town about halfway to Palenque.
If you’re willing to take the risk for a shorter journey, you can get to/from Palenque via two colectivos with a transfer in Ocosingo. I’ve met people who’ve done this without any problems, but you never know.
In any case, Villahermosa, Tabasco is well worth a couple of days in order to see the Olmec heads at Parque Museo La Venta along with the Mayan ruins of Comalcalco.
You can also easily get to San Cristóbal from Comitán, which is further south in Chiapas and nearby the El Chiflon Waterfall and the Montebello Lakes.
You may also be able to reach San Cristóbal direct from Guatemala, but it’s best to ask for details on the ground.