Go West ... (14) Taos and Taos Pueblo

      The wonderful town of Taos, New Mexico is situated in the North Central portion of the state. It is, as towns go, a relatively new town, having only been incorporated about 79 years, as of this writing. It is also "home" if you will to Taos Ski Valley, a favorite winter destination for those who like to slide down the side of mountains on ski's.
     The wikipedia link to Toas information follows; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taos,_New_Mexico
Here are a few other links to information about the town of Taos, NM.
http://taoswebb.com/
http://www.taosgov.com/
http://www.city-data.com/city/Taos-New-Mexico.html

Below is a link to images from Taos as I only shot one picture there, the reason why will be told below.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=taos+new+mexico&qpvt=taos+new+mexico&FORM=IGRE


     However, it was not the town itself we wanted to see, but the Taos Pueblo, the home of the Taos tribe from which the town takes its name. The pueblo is considered to be oldest continuously habited community in what is now the United States, considered to be 1000 or so years old. I first visited there after I came out of the US Army, and was on a camping trip to "decompress" if you will.

     Upon entering Toas we drove around just a bit and found an area marked "Parking for Pueblo Visitors". We parked, paid the $ whatever it was at 6 1/2 years ago, but I seem to remember $5.00, and started walking, following the signs that said "Taos Pueblo". After walking about 15 or so minutes we came upon a sign that clearly stated "Taos Pueblo - 2 miles". I can't state here what my utterance was but it came out something like this; "What X*!@^#!$%|:>", just use your imagination.
      Since it was late in the afternoon and we knew the "place" closed to the public at 5 PM or so, we hurried back to the car, but did stop to take just one photograph of an entrance to someones yard or patio - a very nice entrance as you can see from the photo below.


The best looking patio I have ever seen, wish I could duplicate it here in Houston

      We "trotted" back to the car, and drove the distance to the Pueblo and paid, once again, to enter and park and walked around this most ancient of habited places. One of the images that come to mind is Middle Eastern towns of  millennia ago, one suddenly gains a new understanding of the "upper room", of how people protected themselves, not only from raiders, but from wild animals.


Part of the Pueblo with the mountains in the background.

Norma in front of one of the houses- notice the ladder going to the 2nd floor?

(For those of you in other parts of the world, notice the ladder going to the 1st floor?)

 

      Obviously one does forget a thing or two over the years, but somehow I seem to remember these buildings, made out of adobe (mud and straw) as having been painted, but perhaps not. I do not remember there being doors on the ground level, but again I may be wrong. Other things seemed out of place as well, there were cars parked by some of the houses and there were propane storage cylinders by some of the houses and satelite TV disc sticking out of the roof tops at a couple of places.

 

     Here are a few links to information about the Pueblo itself and  this should be of interest for those of you who may be interested in Native American Culture, and the culture of the Southwest in particular.

http://www.taospueblo.com/

http://www.indianpueblo.org/19pueblos/taos.html

http://www.taosnews.com/news/article_a454d780-60ec-11e2-96df-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.taospueblo.com/?portfolio=taos-pueblo-community

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/492

Ansel Adams even co-authored a book about the Pueblo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taos_Pueblo_(book)

Below is a link to more images from Taos.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=toas+pueblo&qpvt=toas+pueblo&FORM=IGRE

 

      We got on to a tour guided by a most capable young woman, a resident of the Pueblo, and one of the stories that fascinated me personally was the story about the cemetery.

 

 

 

      You will notice that some of the graves are marked with wooden crosses and others are marked with crosses made of stone - linking this to traditional beliefs creates a serious problem for the souls of those laid to rest under the stone crosses. I may not state this exactly correctly, but if not, please make a comment with the proper correction, when you read this post.

     The Native American believe that his / her final resting place is with the Great Spirit in the Sky, but the soul can only escape the grave if is not held or weighed down from above. In this case, the wooden crosses will eventually rot and fall over, freeing the soul to rise, but the stone crosses and markers, being heavier, are "eternal" and have thus "captured" the soul in the earth for a very long time.

 

 

Norma in front of the Toas Pueblo Church

Yours truly in front of the said same church

     

 The history of the church is actually rather violent and the church now is not the original church, which was built by natives under instructions given by Franciscan priests, in the early 1600's. Attached here are some links to more information about the history of the church.

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-church-of-taos-pueblo-a-violent-past

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-taospueblo.html

 

        In the past and now for that matter, the source of water for this community is important, and was very well guarded in the "olden days", surely things have changed. A stream flows through the Pueblo, and it used to be the one and only water source.

 



That most ancient water source for the Pueblo in years past

Norma almost looks like a native

 

 

      Should you ever have the opportunity to visit New Mexico, Taos Pueblo is most certainly one the "must" stops, and allow plenty of time to research the history before arriving and allow more than adequate time to look around and ask questions.