The West has no structures or legal precedent for corpses to decay in the open air. For those wishing to follow traditions, funerals are a compromise.
Zoroastrian priests pray for the religious leader of the Iranian Zoroastrian community Dastur Rostam Dinyar Shahzadi during his funeral in Tehran on March 15, 2000 at the Zoroastrian Qasr-e-Firoozeh cemetery.(HENGHAMEH FAHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)
Article by Nevin Kallepalli | Juggernaut
“They took her body and entered the Tower of Silence,” said Arzan Sam Wadia of his mother, who passed away five years ago. “That was the last memory I was left with.” His family watched four pallbearers, called nāsālārs, carry his mother’s body through a 300-year-old gate amid lush foliage in a neighborhood of Mumbai, India, isolated from the city’s bustle.
The ritual details of Zoroastrian funeral rituals are complex but have remained consistent for millennia. On the grounds of Malabar Hill, where the Tower of Silence stands, are large chambers called bunglis, where priests, called mobed in Farsi, transferred, washed, dressed, and laid the corpse on marble slabs. During the public rites, the mobed traced the perimeter of her body three times with an iron nail to demarcate a zone of impurity. A dog, which is highly revered, gazed upon her face to confirm that she was truly dead. After the pallbearers took her body, Wadia returned to the bungli with his family to continue prayers. He spent four days at the Tower of Silence from beginning to end.
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