The Longest Reigning King of Human Sacrifice

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Savage Beginnings

Behind and beneath one of Mesoamerica’s most famous structures, K'inich Janaab Pakal I; better known as Pakal the Great or Sun Shield, was a king deified after his death who maintained rule over a spiritually brutal culture for a span of 68 years. (Guenter, 2005) An accomplished builder for his time, many of the buildings, including The Temple of Inscriptions, a tomb he crafted in view of his impending mortality stand in the modern era, untouched. Pakal’s rule stands out for its exceeding duration and his otherwise quiet and peaceful demise as an elderly person, an oddity in the violent history of Mayan rulers who were famed for their acts of human sacrifice.
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The years leading up to Pakal’s birth were a turbulent time in the city of Palenque, four years prior the neighbouring city of Calakmul successfully attacked and captured a member of the Palenque royal lineage.This unnamed royalty was undoubtedly sacrificed, through one of the various sacrifices that was typical of the Mayan times. (Drew, 1999) Beheadings, blood lettings, ripping out still beating hearts from living humans, these were the forms of Mayan appeasement to the gods. (Munson, Amati, Collard and Macri, 2014)  
Pakal’s own early years were coloured by the norms of the Mayan civilization. At the age of 7, a different city, Panoma attacked Palenque once more. An ally of Calakmul, Panoma armed men with axes and penetrated deeply into the heart of the city. As he fled the city with his mother, overlooking these axe wielding men slaughtering his people, he would feel a mix of fear and anger that would fuel him in the years to come.

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Cursed and Blessed

Pakal ascended to the throne at the age of 12. Contemporary cultures would find no wrong in his claim, as son to the matron and former chieftain it would appear that he had a direct lineage to the throne. However, Mayan culture dictated that ruling power should pass from father to son. (Skidmore, 2010) Due to his father's early demise Pakal would find his claim to the throne continuingly challenged by the very nobility he sought to control. With enemies both internally and externally Pakal seemed like he had the odds stacked against him.
Still it seemed as though he had the strength of the gods on his side. A human spiritual funnel for the Mayan rain god GI-Chaank, Pakal was described to have taken on GI-Chaank’s form and sacrificed the death god’s heart in his name, thereby overcoming death. (Guenter, 2005) No doubt this would have sounded less impressive to the captured enemy from a neighbouring city whose heart was used to represent the aforementioned death god. In history, there were ruthless rulers who got others to do their dirty work, refusing to get their hands dirty, and then there was Pakal.

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A Savage Coalition

With an alliance made with a the neighbouring exiled king of Tikal, Pacal would eventually take upon his dreaded childhood enemy in the city of Panoma. A successful attack would bring home 6 prisoners, (Drew 1999) who were promptly sacrificed to the gods. Both kings would be present at the “celebrations” represented as allies side by side, a formality in slaughter. The two would go on to have a lasting relationship when the exiled king reclaimed his former homeland. (Drew, 1999)
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Through luck or his devout spirituality through human sacrifice, Pakal was blessed by the patron god of Maize. His people would lead prosperous lives under his rule and Pakal would leverage this prosperity to consolidate his power in a 68 year long rule and radiate it outward through the use of construction projects that have stood tall over a millenia. As for Pakal's tomb, the Temple of Inscriptions, it would remain untouched, sealing in it several human sacrifices, art, and a multitude of treasures.

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References

Primary Source:

Guenter, Stanley. (2005) The Tomb of K’inich Janaab Pakal: The Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. Southern Methodist University. Retrieved from http://www.mesoweb.com/articles/guenter/TI.pdf

Secondary Source:

Drew, David. (1999). The lost chronicles of the Maya kings. Berkeley (Calif): University of California Press.

Munson, J., Amati, V., Collard, M. and Macri, M. (2014). Classic Maya Bloodletting and the Cultural Evolution of Religious Rituals: Quantifying Patterns of Variation in Hieroglyphic Texts. PLoS ONE, 9(9), p.e107982.

Skidmore, Joel. (2010). The Rulers of Palenque. Fifth edition. Mesoweb: www.mesoweb.com/palenque/ resources/rulers/PalenqueRulers-05.pdf.

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