Fascinating stuff, Howard. I have always wondered about these people and other great "lost" pre-Colombian civilizations.

I'd also be interested in your ideas about their connection to Asian culture. Many years ago I noted a carving of Buddha on the side of a wall near a pyramid in the Yucatan, but the guide sort of brushed me off.

When was that image placed there? By whom?

Thanks for a great post!

Thank you for the compliment, Victor. The Asian connection is fascinating. Obviously the first "native Americans" came over the land bridge of the Bering Straits as we learned in school. Recently they have identified either two distinct migrations at 12,000 and 50,000 years ago -- unless it was a long, sporadic migration. Buddha, of course, only dates from more recent times (3 or 6000 BC, I forget) but the Asian look of the indigenous people is astounding. Manuel Alvarez Bravo, the great Mexican photographer who died a few years ago at past 100 made a wonderful shot of a young woman in Chiapas, Maria de Bonampack who could be a Chinese maiden or Mongolian with no effort.

Also the velador or guard of a house near ours who is pure Mayan reminds me so much of a Buddha that the Yucatan figure you saw might have just been a picture of one of the locals. He is short, dark, round faced, perhaps wise and quite round in general.

I will add one or more photos to my Mayan World photoblog of contemporary Mayan palapas which have also changed little since they were painted or sculpted on many temples and ruins. Sadly they are now being replaced with cement homes of more substance but less interest.

Howard, great post. I have a question for you. In your own researches, have you noticed carvings of bearded people (who look somewhat like Semites) being held prisoner, or something of the sort?

Ruvy,your compliment is much appreciated. Thank you.

Actually I have not seen any of our ancestors from the lost tribes who made it to the Yucatan; but, they were a resourceful lot and might well have gotten here. Someone, non-mesoamerican did or the prophesy of the bearded man coming from the sea would not have helped the Spanish take a continent with a few hundred men.

In an old post of mine, The Conquest of Mexico by a Conquistador Diaz writes,

These Caciques also told us that they had learnt from their forefathers that one of their Idols, to which they paid the greatest devotion, had told them that men would come from distant lands in the direction of the rising sun to subjugate them and govern them, and that if we were those men, they were rejoiced at it...