Puylum
Puylum | |
|---|---|
City | |
 The port of Puylom | |
| Yajawil | Xukaj |
| Kuchkabal | Chiakal |
| Batabil | Puylom |
| Established | 800 CE |
| Government | |
| • Batab | Saylak Witzom |
| Area | |
| • City | 192 km2 (74 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 475 km2 (183 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 4,610 km2 (1,780 sq mi) |
| Population (2018) | |
| • City | 720,000 |
| • Density | 3,800/km2 (9,700/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 949,750 |
| • Urban density | 2,000/km2 (5,200/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 1,899,500 |
| • Metro density | 410/km2 (1,100/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Puyum |
Puylum (also sometime spelled "Puylom") is the capital of the Yajawil of Xukaj and the third largest city of the Mutul, although its urban and metropolitan areas are smaller than those of the fourth' largest city: Puh.
The city was founded in 800 CE by the Kayamuca Empire who established a military fort at the mouth of the Kuwajuwa River and giving them control over Kajka-Ika, the homeland of the U'wa people and which covered the north of today' Yajawil of Xukaj. The fort grew quickly, becoming a warehouse-port known as Yakuma where the Kayamucans stockpiled all the ressources extracted from the hinterland before redistributing them to the rest of their Empire.
The Ilok'tab Dynasty conquered the area in the early 14th century. The K'iche used Yakuma as their main base of operation in the "Eastern Regions" and left a Viceroy in place once the K'uhul Ajaw and his armies returned to K'alak Muul, their capital. The K'iche managed to gain the support and ultimately the submission of the U'wa people, creating a strong base from which to expand south and eastward.
The name of the city was changed to Puylum and continue to expand through the influx of Chʼortiʼ people from the Mutul and Chibcha people from the newly integrated territories. Puylum was an important trade port with the East and remain a major naval base for the Mutul with its naval base.
History
Purity 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.
Sajal War
At the start of the civil war, Puylum was one of the two main power bases of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale, alongside Yu. The local aristocracy notably wished to modernize the country, rationalize its administration, liberalize the economy, end the downward spiral in which the Mutul had been for the past seventy years, and finally takeover the Yu and other west-coast port cities in term of economic and political power. In that they had the support of the Ch'olti, Ch'orti, and Dule people, all of whom saw in the Noble Republic' program a way to return to proeminence after centuries of relative impoverishment.