Cultures full of tradition

Similarities and differences

There are number of different population groups which all have their own culture.

The Lenca

The Lencas,are the largest group of native Hondurans. They mainly populate the West and Southwest of Honduras. Currently there are about 80000 Lencas.  Unfortunately most of the Lencas have lost the knowledge of there own dialect over the last centuries.

But they kept their original roots.

In honour of the patron saint they have traditional “Guancasco” dances every January which take part in the course of a festival. This special dance wants to symbolise the peace between the different people and villages.

Traditionally, Lencas grow sweet corn and beans. Today potatoes and vegetables provide their food basis which only have been grown for a few centuries.

The Lencas are known in Honduras for their pottery crafts. Therefore it is not a big surprise that those crafts (all handmade) are sold countrywide.  

The Garifuna

The Garifuna are, unlike the other presented tribes, not “real” native Hondurans as they only arrived in 1796 from St. Vincent Island.For further information about the arrival of Garifunas at Honduras and there language please check out the article on our homepage Honduras - The People.

There are about 200 000 Garifunas at Central America. With more than 100 000 of them living in Honduras this population group has a large influence on this country.

The Gariunas kept their traditions and language. You will recognise the strong African and Indian influence which the Garifunas always had. For example they still use lances and there bare hands for hunting but this hunting is accompanied by dancing, singing and religious rituals.

The food made by Garifunas enjoys the great reputation of being one of the best in the whole country. One of the main ingredients is coconut. They make coconut oil, coconut bread, coconut sweets and much much more out of it. Fried fish, Platano chips (a kind of chips made of plantain, a banana which you can cook) and a bean mixture are fried with coconut oil for example.

The music of the Garifunas (Punta) is ubiquitous in Honduras as soon as there is a party or a younger person lives in the house. Even the UNESCO acknowleged it in 2001 as a ”masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity”. Very often those are traditional songs but more and more pop songs are modified to Punta versions. Boy bands like Backstreet Boys or female singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are particularly popular for Punta cover versions.  

The word Garifuna by the way comes from ”Cassava eating people”. Cassava is a thin, crusty bread on the basis of manioc and yucca.

The Pech

The Pech, wich are often also called Payas, are about 2000 tribal members which are based at the Moskitia, Olancho and Silin close to Trujillo.

They are the smallest and least known native tribe in Honduras, as the area where they are settled down is very isolated.

They have little contact with the “outside world” mainland Honduras and Bay Islands and as a result of this, their language and culture is still completely intact. There are now some Pechs who are willing to work as tour guides to give tourists a better understanding of their tribe.

By no means should you try to explore the territory of the Pech without a guide as very often Pechs have never seen a white skinned person and don’t speak English or Spanish. Therefore it is impossible for yourself to face the culture with the needed respect and there is also the danger that you get lost in the jungle. The Pechs themselves are very peaceable and friendly if you arrive with a guide who can overcome the communication problems.

The Miskitos

The Miskitos live, as you maybe have already guessed by there name, in the Moskitia. But they outnumber the Pechs with 60 000 Miskitos by far. Their territory includes about 30000 square miles (about 48 280 square kilometres) of swampland, savannah and rainforests. However, they build mainly smaller towns like Puerto Lempira which even has regular ship and plane connections. The tribe is much less isolated because of this than the Pechs.

The Miskitos were the biggest enemy of the Pechs during the colonial time as they were supported with weapons by the Spanish to drive the Pechs out. Today, however, there are no major tensions between both tribes and the shared area called Moskitia has been subdivided by themselves into parts for each tribe.

The Chorti Maya

Descendants of the Maya, live in the area around Copan and near the Guatemalan border. Like the major part of the Guatemalan population, physical similarities to their ancestors are evident at a glance; beautiful shiny brown skin, equine noses and stark, high cheekbones.

The traditional Maya clothing is now almost only worn for special occasions and the language is only spoken by older Chorti but besides that they have maintained their cultural heritage. Most of the Chorti earn a living by producing typical Honduran arts and pottery or as farmers on the field where they mainly produce corn.

Like their ancestors, the Chorti grow and use tobacco for mysterious reasons, such as predicting the future, driving out evil spirits, and praying for rains for their crops. For all this they have special rituals and dances. The Chorti ancestral diet is based on corn and beans, which are prepared in different ways to produce food and drinks. Examples are corn tortillas, corn tamales or chichi, a fermented corn beverage.

The Tawahka

The Tawahka are,as the Pechs, with 2000 people the smallest tribe by numbers. They live almost exclusively in the Tawahka Asangni Biosphere Reserve which is located in the south of the Moskitia. Most of them are farmers, hunters or fishermen. The Tawahka, unlike the Pechs, have a bilingual school system established so that they are taught the native language of the Tawahka and also Spanish. According to Tawahka legend, the Tawahka fathers Mai-Sahana and Yapti-Misri were born out of a big stone in the Patuca River and formed the Miskitos and Tawahkas.

The Xicaque

The Xicaque,also called Tolupanes, are a tribe of 20 000 people which lives in a total of 26 villages within the region Yoro and 2 villages on the mountain de la Flor. Only the inhabitants of the mountain villages have kept their native language. As by linguists, this language is related to the one from the Hokan-Sioux tribe. They grow a lot of different fruits but tobacco as well. The traditional role pattern takes place as men usually hunt and grow plants and the women take care of the household and children. Quit often however, the women contribute an extra income by making baskets which are for sale.