Na Bolom is a Mexican based non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1951 by the Danish Archaeologist and explorer Frans Blom and the Swiss conservationist and photographer Gertrude Duby.
"We achieved our dream to live in San Cristóbal in 1950 when we bought this house. The main building was built in 1891.aside from its poor state, it was ideal for our plans. We wanted to give the house a name and then remembered Frans' first visit with the Lacandones in which they transformed his name to "Balum" which sounds similar to "Jaguar". In Tzotzil, the Maya language of the highlands, "Blom" converts to "Bolom" which practically sounds like Frans' last name. It was from this that we decided to name the house "Na Bolom" which means "the house of the jaguar". (Gertrude Duby)

 

 

Frans Blom was born in Copenhagen in 1893. His work as a contractor for the Pierce Oil Corporation brought Frans to Mexico in 1920. Historian, anthropologist, explorer, and art history teacher, Frans later completed his masters in archaeology at Harvard University at the chance of obtaining resources to conduct new excursions to the Lacandona Jungle as promised to him by Silvanus Morley. It was in Chiapas , México that he found his home and vocation: he dedicated his life to archaeological and anthropological research.

In 1950, he founded the Na Bolom Center of Scientific Studies, from which he made connections with the University of Tulane , Harvard, Chicago , Stanford and Berkeley . His numerous articles and books show this same interest: the history of the conquest and the colonial period, the archaeology of the Maya zone, astronomy, anthropology, ecology, sociology, and architecture and art, among other disciplines. He described himself as: " Denmark born, Chiapanecan and Mexican at heart".

 

 

Gertrude Duby Blom was born in the Swiss countryside, near Berna, in 1901. There she passed her childhood devoted to mountain climbing, horticulture and country life. When she completed her studies in sociology in Zurich , she went on to pursue a career in journalism with the hope to one day return to the mountains and the rural life again. Inspired by Jacques Soustelle's work with the Lacandones, she fulfilled her wish in 1942 when she arrived in Chiapas to conduct a report on the Lacandones. When she met Frans, she left her job as a journalist and with him she dedicated herself to anthropology and photography. At the time of Frans' death and the deterioration of the Lacandona Jungle, she became motivated to become the main defender of all the natural and historical riches once known to the Lacandona Jungle. At her death in 1993 she bestowed the Na Bolom Cultural Association, Civil Association, to the service of San Cristóbal and the Lacandón community with the difficult task of continuing her visionary work there.

Na Bolom is an interactive complex that houses a museum, cultural centre, guest house, restaurant, artisan centre and research facilities all housed in an historic monument originally built to house a religious seminary in 1898. The centre operates with a multinational staff of 35 people and an international volunteer program.