This award-winning museum on the northern edge of town introduces the system of traditional medicine used by many indigenous people in the Chiapas highlands. Exhibits include displays of a ritual scene inside a church and a midwife assisting at a birth, a dated video about the work of traditional midwives and a new display about the issue of native plants and corporate biopiracy.
The museum is run by Organización de Médicos Indígenas del Estado de Chíapas (Omiech), a group of 600 indigenous healers, midwives, herbalists and prayer specialists. Traditional Maya medicine is a matter of praying to the spirit of the earth, listening to the voice of the blood and expelling bad spirits from the soul, with the aid of candles, bones, pine needles, herbs and the occasional chicken sacrifice. Information is available in English, Spanish, French and German. Also onsite is a medicinal plant garden, a herbal pharmacy and a casa de curación , where treatments are done. It’s a 20-minute walk north from Real de Guadalupe or M$25 by taxi.
