Parsis look for new path to spiritual world…

Date

October 13, 2005

Post by

arZan

Category

Issues

Sydney Morning Herald

… To dispose of the dead a group of Parsis, the ethnic group that practices Zoroastrianism, are using solar panels and lenses like a magnifying glass to …


It is one of the most poignant images in India – mourners wrapped in muslin carrying the dead up a leafy hill to a temple, conducting an ancient ceremony in modern Mumbai.

They reach the Towers of Silence and the bodies are laid on slabs of marble to be devoured by vultures and bleached by the heat of the sun. For Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest mass religions in the world, bodies left in this manner will see their soul join the spiritual world.

The trouble is Mumbai’s vultures are dying out. Their numbers have been decimated by cattle carcasses contaminated with an anti-inflammatory drug widely used in southern Asia.

To dispose of the dead a group of Parsis, the ethnic group that practices Zoroastrianism, are using solar panels and lenses like a magnifying glass to penetrate bodies and aid decomposition. Burial, burning or disposal at sea are not permitted because the bodies would contaminate the sacred elements of earth, fire and water.
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Many say the solar panels have failed before. “They are built to be used in the Sahara. We don’t have the temperatures in Mumbai, so the bodies just start to rot,” said Vispy Wadia of the Association for the Revival of Zoroastrianism.

Founded by the Bronze Age Persian prophet Zarathustra, Zoroastrianism flourished for 2000 years until Arabs invaded Persia in 651.

There are only 60,000 Parsis in India, but they are remarkably successful. The religion has produced some of India’s top businessmen, among them the billionaire Tata family. The Indian Parsi diaspora includes the conductor Zubin Mehta, the writer Rohinton Mistry and the late Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen.

4 Comments

  1. Byram Sidhwa

    Elementary common sense is required to assess if in this cloudy whether Solar Panels can be effective. One does not require a Vispy Wadia or Dordi or Unwalla, or Bastani or Kyani to draw our attention to this fact.
    Actually our Religion prescribes that we should not pollute Natural Elements but our self designated Scholars want the laity to shut their eyes and stop thinking the fact that rain water, gift of nature, is being defiled when the showers touch the rotting corpses.
    Those who speak out facts are called irreligious reformists(?)and branded as ignoramuses incapable of understanding something called ‘batein’ side.Such ‘religious’ (?)persons think that others too should commit sin of polluting nature.

  2. Byram Sidhwa

    Elementary common sense is required to assess if in this cloudy whether Solar Panels can be effective. One does not require a Vispy Wadia or Dordi or Unwalla, or Bastani or Kyani to draw our attention to this fact.
    Actually our Religion prescribes that we should not pollute Natural Elements but our self designated Scholars want the laity to shut their eyes and stop thinking the fact that rain water, gift of nature, is being defiled when the showers touch the rotting corpses.
    Those who speak out facts are called irreligious reformists(?)and branded as ignoramuses incapable of understanding something called ‘batein’ side.Such ‘religious’ (?)persons think that others too should commit sin of polluting nature.

  3. Dorab.

    Byram,

    Though you say that you do not require persons like me to speak out, nevertheless I totally concur with your observation.
    The community has allowed itself to be misled by a handful of salesmen like characters who are now forcing their obscurantist ‘philosophy’.
    It is time to stand up and make others aware of true facts.

  4. Dorab.

    Byram,

    Though you say that you do not require persons like me to speak out, nevertheless I totally concur with your observation.
    The community has allowed itself to be misled by a handful of salesmen like characters who are now forcing their obscurantist ‘philosophy’.
    It is time to stand up and make others aware of true facts.