Yajawil of Xukaj

Yajawil of Xukaj
Flag Dule Blason
Motto: United Voices
Anthem: Hymn for the Communion
Location of Xukaj in the Mutul
Capital and	Puylum
Official languages	Mutli
Recognised national languages	Ch'orti Chibchan languages
Ethnic groups (2020)	Ch'olti Ch'orti  Dule  U'wa Guane Ngäbe Ette Ennaka Bribri
Demonym(s)	Xukajeses
Government	Absolute monarchy
Legislature	Chika Holpop
• Upper house	Chika Sajal Ch'ob
• Lower house	Chika Mam Ch'ob
Province of the Mutul
Area
•	138,512 km2 (53,480 sq mi) (2nd)

The Yajawil of Xukaj is one of the two easternmost provinces of the Mutul. Centered around the lower beds of the Kuwajuwa and Chetzaj rivers, its capital Puylum is located at the mouth of the former on the Kayamuca Sea' coast. It shares a land border with the kingdom of Orun Redisus to the east as well as with the other Mutuleses provinces of Nokaj to the south-east, Yajumel to the south-west, and Jalchi to the west. It is the second largest Viceroyalty of the Mutul, right behind its neighbor Yarumel (162,016 km²).

The original inhabitants of the Province were speakers of various Chibchan languages of which Dule and U'wa peoples are modern representatives. The region is known as an important agricultural and industrial center for the Divine Kingdom with strong commercial relations with its neighbor, other countries in the Kayamuca Sea, and Sante Reze.

It is a very ethnically diverse region where the dominant Ch'olti culture only arrived during the 14th century and wouldn't become the norm until the 1800s. This leave the region as home to different White Path denomination and temples, many of which find their roots in the antique Chibchas religious practices which put the emphasis on the Voice, generally through religious songs and oral traditions.

Geography

The region features two of the longest rivers in the Mutul, the Kuwajuwa and Chetzaj rivers, on the shores of which humans have settled since prehistoric times. The natural vegetation of the region has for the most part dissapeared and survive mostly in the more mountaineous area. In the rest of the country, the dominant form of agriculture allowed by irrigation canals fed by water from the two rivers has heavily altered the environment of the province.

Climate

Most of the Viceroyalty has a Tropical monsoon climate, a tropical climate with a short dry season and heavy rainfall for the majority of the year. In the Köppen climate classification, it is classified under the letters Am. Tropical rainforest is the natural vegetation, and also provides the other climate type located in the state.

History

Purity Quarrel

The Temple of Wijya was one of the main hotspot of U'wa resistance during the Quarrel

In 1328, Tecuman II the Wise' religious scholars finished the Bitzk'uh, a religious document separated in four books and considered to be the unified sums of knowledge gathered by the different religious orders of the kingdom. The U'wa people, who had their own district in Puylum, while they continued to accept the Divine Nature of the K'uhul Ajaw refused to adopt the Bitzk'uh as their main religious text. Instead, they maintained their own Oral Corpus of complex religious hymns and songs, with their own practices far removed from those in the rest of the Mutul. Their perception of non-U'wa as "impure" and their many purification rites when in contact with foreigners casted major doubts on the U'wa' loyalties.

In 1366, the U'wa were pushed out of Puylum by the local Viceroy who wanted to force them to recognize once for all the authority of the Bitzk'uh, accusing the U'wa of practicing sorcery and shamanism and of conspiring against the Divine Lord. These episode of forced convertion led to the uprising of the U'wa clans against the Mutul, an event known as the Purity Quarrel. Led by their Werjayás (Elders) and Karekas (Shamans), they continued their guerilla warfare for 15 years before the reinforcements from K'alak Muul with the support of local Dule allies secured the region. In 1382, a treaty was signed between the Mutul and the eight U'wa tribes. The latter repeated their submission to the K'uhul Ajaw and their attachement to certain White Path principles such as the plurality of Creator Deities and the rejection of Monotheism. In exchange, they were allowed to preserve their oral traditions and religious customs as their own Sakbeist denomination: Karekaism.

Yao Wars

Copy of a stelae depicting Viceroy Kohbalam capture of Upaj

The U'wa were not the only people unwilling to accept the new orthodoxy imposed on them by K'alak Muul. In the south of Xukaj, the Ette Ennaka, nominally under the tutelage of the Viceroy in Puylum, had their own state and their own monotheist religion. The demands of the Mutul to recognize the divine nature of the K'uhul Ajaw, to accept the existence of multiple creator gods, and to adopt the Bitzk'uh as part of their religious litterature were not well received by the Ette Ennaka. Aj K'inob and Aj Menob from Puylum were banished from their territory and the Ette Ennaka refused to pay tribute to the Viceroy any longer. Chimichagua was elected war leader of the Ette Ennaka in 1359. The fiction of Mutulese control over the Ette Ennaka was lost when Chimichagua's troops defeated the columns sent by Puylum to suppress the revolt.

The Purity Quarrel (1366 - 1382) also prevented the Mutul from dealing with the Ette Ennaka, who were free to develop their state in the meanwhile, becoming the dominant force not only in southern Xukaj but also taking over the majority of modern Nokaj. But as the Mutulese threat lost priority and Chimichagua launched himself in expansionists endeavors, dissenters appeared who contested Chimichagua' abuse of powers and who wanted to maintain the traditional tribal social structure,something Chimichagua increasingly autocratic rule threatened.

In reaction to the rebellion, the K'iche built a new Sak B'e going from Kʼumakah to the south-west border of Xukaj. A decade long monumental work through hundreds of kilometers that allowed the Ilok'tab to reassert their control over the southern reaches of the Mutul. With the end of the Purity Quarrel in 1382, Chimichagua' coalition found itself forced to fight a two-front wars against the K'iche. The latter notably targeted the Ette Ennaka' plantations, freeing the slaves and promising them their ancient masters' lands as communal holdings. In 1385 Chimichagua and his lieutenants took their own lives to avoid being captured and the last holdouts of the rebellion surrendered.

The Ette Ennaka were forced to recognize the K'uhul Ajaw as a deity, to accept Yao as an Avatar of Itzamna the main Creator God of the Mutulese pantheon but only one of thirteen, and to respect the Slave Code among other laws of the Mutul, further destabilising their caste-based society. The liberation of all slaves who had supported the K'iche, the redistribution of lands, the deportation of war prisoners, and the division of the Ette Ennaka' kingdom in half between the Viceroyalties of Xukaj and Nohkaj, aggravated the triple social, economic and religious crisis of the defeat for the Ette Ennaka.

A new Yaoist rebellion would be led a generation later by a new religious warchief, Upaj, who rejected the multiplicity the Divine and wanted to re-establish a Ette Ennaka state. It would last from 1415 to 1422 and end once again with the defeat of the Yaoists, the deportation of war prisoners, but also with the destruction of the main temple to Yao and its reconstruction as the modern Solar Temple of Tamaja. The cult of Itzamna-Yao, or "Narayajana", became especially popular among the freed slaves and the new colonists, who adopted parts of the Ette Ennaka rituals and theology in the broader framework of the White Path. Tamaja is thus today the heart of the province' religious life.

Mother Chi Movement

Mama Chi' ascetics in meditation

In 1969, a Ngäbe woman, named Besikö, had visions of Ix Chel and Itzamna. The gods revealed to her how far humanity had deviated from the initial message of the First Priest and that they needed to correct their ways of life. Besikö began preaching their message and encourage everyone to abandon alcohol, private properties and wordly possessions, to disengage from market society, and to become strictly non-violent to the point of Veganism. The movement developed quickly in the Xukaj and even exported to other provinces of the Mutul due to the context of the decade: the Seventies had been marked by the "Rejuvenation" of 1965 in which traditionalists religious movements had been purged from official positions and the strictly Occidentalist government was pushing for a new social and economic model based on Meritocracy and Technocracy. "Mother Chi" message thus crystalized the conflicts of her time by encouraging her followers to simply "disengage" from society.

The repression of the movement began almost immediately and resulted in non-violent protests in Puylum and K'alak Muul. The violence displayed against the white-clas, innamovible, protesters was highly publicized with ex-Onyists figures re-appearing to support Mother Chi. Most religious sects however kept their distances, suspicious of the movement.

In 1973, a report presented to the K'uhul Ajaw found "no evidence" that Mother Chi' cult was "heretical in nature". Nonetheless, subtle criticism and attacks against the cult appeared in various medias with the encouragement of the Occidentalists. Non-violent protests resulted from this negative coverage, as well as call for the K'uhul Ajaw intervention. But while Jasaw Chan K'awiil IV seemed lenient to Mother Chi, he nonetheless had any politician or public figure that had supported her message, publicly or not, arrested on false or irrelevant charges. Acts of proselytism by cult members also began to be prosecuted. In 1975, a new report this time denounced Mother Chi teachings as "anti-materialistic" and "a threat to the spiritual and physical improvement of the Faithfuls". The publication of books about the cult was forbidden by the Central Library. Non-violent protests continued, but were met with police brutality. In 1976, the K'uhul Ajaw was present at the dedication ceremony of an "Holy Ground" for the cult' ascetics, a widely publicized affair. But behind the seemingly sudden warming up of relations between the state and the cult, this event was the public face of an unsaid agreement: while Mama Chi and her disciples were allowed to continued their activities in Xukaj, their proselytism, disruption of the workforce, and open attacks against the economic system of the Mutul would no longer be tolerated.

While Mama Chi and her partisans were contained and their political supporters ended up under arrests, the public opinion of the Occidentalists was greatly deteriorated by the affair, opening the way for their replacement by the Rezeists.

Politics

The seventeen Kuchkabalob of Xukaj

Puylum is the capital of the Province and serve as the seat of its Viceroy. The province is divided in seventeen Kuchkabalob. Xukaj possess a number of Customary laws dictating its administration independently from the Viceroy. For example, the Kuchkabal of Yala is unique in that its Halak Winik only serve for one year and is elected by the annual gathering of the Onmaked Nega, also known as the "Congress", which is also a recognized clerical order and a sect within the White Path. In the three U'wa Kuchkabalob of Kubawuraj, Tekja, and Taibaka, the Batabob are known as the Werjayás. Otherwise, their administration is fairly similar to that of the rest of the Mutul but only members of the Karekaist sect can seat at their Annual Congress or serve as Halak Winik, a custom dating back to the Sajal War.

Meanwhile, the Halak Winik of Mai-Orka is an hereditary position given to the clan Salwak and passed down from maternal uncles to nephews. in Kaniktu and Buwabti, its the Leadership of the Holpop that is hereditary, led by lineages who trace their origin back to the civil war leader Ujakan. The Halak Winikob are otherwise appointed and dismissed by the Viceroy directly and the Holpop maintain an advisory role.

Economy

Agriculture

Aerial view of an irrigation canal

Xukaj is rich in water, with its two major rivers feeding many rivers, reservoirs, and wetlands, but poor in quality soils. As a result, most of the production is done through a system of Raised fields. Beside producing electricity and securing access to freshwater for the region, the artificial lakes created by Hydroelectric dams are also the reservoirs feeding a complex system of canals used both for the transport of goods and for the irrigation of the Raised Fields. Those canals are also used since pre-classic times for pisciculture where the Eutrophication of the water is avoided by using the fish wastes, muds, and other sediments accumulating within the canals as fertilizer for the fields.

Raised fields are privately owned and exploited intensively and industrialy with one field corresponding to one agricultural product (although which one may vary from year to year). Xukaj is a net exporters of products such as Maize, cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, and pineapple. Fish farms also produce cichlids but also introduced species such as shrimps, Grass carps, and so on.

The Xukaj face many challenges due to its model of production, including the threat of Pesticides and chemical Fertilizers on water quality, human health, and fishing. Population growth has also led to a reduction in farmlands, the raised fields being instead "fortified" with concrete and used as foundation for new urban agglomerations, a movement accompanied with the growth of the road network of the region which further aggravate the problem soil artificialisation and place threats not only on food production and human health, but also on the populations' resilience to natural disasters such as hurricanes or floods.

Energy production

The Lakam Yaxha Dam, the third largest dam of the Mutul

Mut-Ek'taha, the state-owned oil company of the Mutul, is present in Xukaj where it is involved in various operation. It has financed multiple Biofuel production ventures in the Viceroyalties, investing in research and development of Biogasoline, Algae fuel, Ethanol fuel and other "alternative" sources of gasoline. After the discovery of off-shore oil reserves in the neighboring Orun Redisus' national waters, Mut-Ek'taha had begun its own program of exploration in the area, with little success. Most of the oil produced by the Mutul is still extracted from the Gulf of Ochk'ak'n'ab, on the other side of the country.

Hydroelectricity is the main source of energy for the Viceroyalty, overing around sixty percents, which is around the Mutul' national average but less than its southern neighbor of Nohkaj (81%). Electric production is done both by run-of-the-river and Reservoirs dams. Another 10 percents of the electric production come from solar farms and another 10% from Biomass and agricultural residues. As a result, Xukaj is almost autonomous, energy-wise, from the rest of the Mutul importing only 20% of its electricity needs in the form of oil products, coal, and natural gaz from the rest of the country (15%) and the rest from miscellaneous import from Orun Redisus and other countries.

Manufacturing

The traditional main industry of Xukaj is the Textile industry, notably with the production of Mola clothes, a textile specific to the Viceroyalty and associated mainly with the Dule. The region is also a producer of natural and chemical dyes, cotton (from Cultivation to Weaving and Finishing), and artificial fibers. It is the second largest employment generating sector in Xukaj, behind agriculture. The Dule and Ch'olti merchant-nobility of the region was the first part of the Mutulese' Elite to have truly embraced the industrial revolution, with the first Cotton mill opening in the region at the beginning of the 19th century, even before the Sajal War and the Itzamnaaj Reforms of the 1840s.

The other major industries of Xukaj include shipbuilding, Pharmaceutical industry, electronics, and leather goods manufacturing. A significant part of the Viceroyalty' economy is aimed at providing manufactured goods to the neighboring countries of Orun Redisus and Sante Reze, with enterprises from these countries delocalising their factories to the Mutul to take profit from the cheaper production costs. Both Pantra A.E and Aldmerta Automotive, the main automotive producers of Orun Redisus, have the majority of their assembly plants in Xukaj.

Culture

Religion

The Naa Ukuryaa is a Dule symbol that became synonymous with the Viceroyalty

Xukaj is home to a wide variety of White Path denominations or sects. These are generally the survivance of pre-Mutul cults or religions, and show different level of integration to the larger White Path corpus of practices and texts. The most famous of these denomination is Karekaism, the sect of the U'wa people. Named after their religious figures (the Karekas), this odd denomination of the White Path put the emphasis on purity. They use the ritual calendar to determine the most auspicious dates for purifications ceremonies which include bathing, sweatlodges, confessions, and bloodletting. They notably consider any non-U'wa person, even other White Pilgrim, to be "impure" and food prepared by them to be "unclean". While adoptions and convertion to Karekaism are not impossible, they are especially difficult and framed as purification ceremonies as well.

Singing play an especially important role in Karekaism. All Karekas will meet once-a-year, with as many U'wa pilgrims as possible alongside them, at the foot of Mount Achekwa, their holiest site. There, they are to "sing the world into being" so as to maintain the balance between the five layers of the physical world (earth, water, oil, mountains, and sky) and the three layers of the universe (13 Heavens, 5 Earths, 9 Underworlds). There is thus an extensive and original musical tradition that emerged from the U'wa and they represent one of the most original communities of the Mutul.

The Onmaked Nega is another religious sect native to Xukaj. It is an Order of priests known as Saila who often serve as both the religious leaders and Batabob of the Dule people. The Dule' Kuchkabal is thus a very special affair as it is presided by the Onmaked Nega, the "Congress", which gather once a year in a large-scale religious festival during which the Saila priests will sing songs to the pilgrims and expose the history of the Dule, while also conducting political activities such as the presentation by the Halak Winik of the bilan of his Cabinet and the election of a new Halak Winik by the Congress.

A Bribri pagoda

Another important aspect of Xukaj' religious life is the School of Masirgutia, a cult especially popular among the Ette Ennaka in the south of the region. They follow the teachings and lessons of Masirguta, an immortal that was occulted from the mortal and an avatar of Itzamna which they call Narayajana or Yao. The Nawiob of Tamaja and Puylum are handled by priests of Masirgutia and Narayajana, with their own canon texts and commentaries of the Bitzk'uh. The Awapa Sibu is another popular cult native to the region. Its priests, or Awapa, are from specific lineages of Bribri clans who pass down their knowledge from the uncle to the nephews. They are considered a school of Aj Menob, or traditional doctors, by the religious authorities with a specific method of healing based on special songs and hymns to connect to the spirits of the plant, the disease and the patient. Once this connection is established the awa converses with all these spirits until the identity of all three are revealed and the medication (the plant) given. The Awapa Order is famous for using Pagodas instead of pyramids as their main religious monuments. Bribri pagodas can be three, four, or thirteen floors high and are always supported by eight pillars.

Finally, Xukaj was also the birthplace of the youngest oracular brotherhood in the Mutul: the Brotherhood of Chilan Chi or "Mother Chi". Established in the 1970s around the figure of Besikö, a Ngäbe woman, who had visions of Ix Chel and Itzamna and began preaching their new message which included the Abolition of alcohol, of fences and private property, disengagement from market society, and strict non-violence including adopting a vegetarian diet. Members of the Brotherhood thus isolate themselves in the mountain west of Xukaj and practice contemplation and meditation while living a communal lifestyle.