ABOUT THE ORIGINAL COLLECTION

These unique limestone carvings are part of a sixty-piece Mayan art collection privately commissioned by Chato Morales of Chiapas, Mexico.  Extremely accurate hand-carved reproductions of monumental-sized reliefs found in Maya temples of the Highland rain-forest area, these unique timeless works of art were created by modern Maya who live near Palenque--where the Maya's most famous king, Pacal, was laid to rest deep within the Temple of Inscriptions.

Due to rainforest weathering over the past 1300 years many of the details contained in the original temple carvings have mostly eroded away rendering the colossal images and glyphs virtually undecipherable.  As a result no accurate reproductions of these ancient, groundbreaking works of art have been available outside of the Highland Rainforest region since their discovery 200 years ago.

This all changed with the acclaimed, ground-breaking work of archeologist Linda Schele whose many years of work at the Palenque site rescued the meaning of these priceless treasures from obscurity that have now been translated into Tierra Maya's reproductions of the complete, original glyphs and images.   Using sophisticated cameras, creating rubbings of the hard-to-see details of these unique, monumental works Schele worked with other archeologists and local experts for many years to document and then decipher these unique inscriptions which have been faithfully reproduced by talented Maya carvers.

Recognizing the importance of Schele's work Chiapas, Mexico resident Chato Morales commissioned local carvers to integrate this new archaeological understanding into the first (and only) series of reproductions capturing this new knowledge.  These reproductions have been carved into limestone from material obtained from the same sources utilized by the Maya to create the original works-of-art over 1300 years ago. The result of many years of research, these painstakingly carved reproductions (many taking many weeks of dedicated labor to achieve) were created by the world's most accomplished living carvers.   No electricity or machinery was used to render these masterpieces--only native limestone, a simple carving tool filed to a point and natural sunlight.

Rivaling any bas-relief's in the western world, affordable, exclusive Tierra Maya reproductions of these priceless works-of-art are now available to anyone captivated by the mystery and artistry of the ancient Maya.