After a very busy morning seeing Teotihuacán and the Zócalo followed by a much-needed lunch, we headed off to the National Museum of Archeology. It is in Chapultepec Park between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street. Mention of that name caught my attention. We got off the bus and made our way to the museum entrance.
We passed the gigantic Monolith of Tlaloc, the Aztec Rain God. In Nahuatl (the language spoken by the Aztecs and other natives of Central America), it means: “He who makes things sprout”, a fitting description of the God of rain. It was brought here from Coatlinchen where it was unearthed, on a specially designed tractor-trailer that traveled very, very slowly over the distance of 29 miles carrying the 168-ton, 25 feet high stone statue. We were told that on the day the monolith arrived at that very spot, the skies opened up with a spectacular thunderstorm during an especially dry, winter season. it poured for days. Some thought it was a supernatural event—Tlaloc’s blessings raining down (pun intended). Others interpreted the storm as Tlaloc expressing anger at being moved. Who knows! It is hard to divine ‘Divine Intentions’.
Continue reading
Ranjan's Writings 