Towers of Silence

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A late 19th century engraving of a Zoroastrian Tower of Silence in Mumbai.

The Towers of Silence (also dakhma or dokhma or doongerwadi) are circular raised structures used by Zoroastrians for exposure of the dead.

1 Introduction
2 In Greater Iran
3 In India
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 Further reading

[edit] Introduction

Zoroastrians consider a dead body - as also cut hair and nail-parings - to be nasu, unclean. According to tradition, the purpose of exposure is to preclude the pollution of earth or fire (see Zam and Atar respectively). Corpses are therefore placed atop a tower and so exposed to the sun and to birds of prey. Bodies are arranged in three rings: men around the outside, women in the second circle, and children in the innermost ring. The ritual precinct may only be entered by a special class of pallbearers. Once the bones have been bleached by the sun and wind, which can take as long as a year, they are collected in an ossuary pit at the center of the tower and/or are eventually washed out to sea.

This form of ritual exposure was very likely inherited from the Magi,^[1]^[2] following the arrival of Zoroastrianism in Western Iran, but probably did not become common practice until the present era. In Zoroastrian doctrine, the practice is only attested in the Vendidad, a Magi^[1]^[2] (or Magi-influenced) composition of the Parthian (248 BCE-224 CE) and Sassanid (224-651 CE) dynastic eras. Because the Vendidad is structured as a question-and-answer session between Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda,^[3] it is frequently supposed that the injunctions of the Vendidad reflects Zoroaster's own philosophies. In practice however, the funerary traditions of the ancient Zoroastrians is unknown, but as has been judged from burial mounds^[4] and from the tombs of the emperors such as those at Naqsh-e Rustam, it is likely that they were interred. According to legend (incorporated by Ferdowsi in the Shahnameh), Zoroaster is himself interred in a tomb at Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan).

[edit] In Greater Iran

Dakhmeh in Yazd.

In the Iranian Zoroastrian tradition, the towers were built atop hills or low mountains in desert locations distant from population centers. In the early twentieth century, the Iranian Zoroastrians gradually discontinued their use and began to favor burial or cremation.

The decision to change the system was accelerated by three considerations: The first problem arose with the establishment of the Dar ul-Funun medical school. Since Islam did not permit dissection of corpses there were none to be had officially, and the dakhmas were repeatedly broken into, much to the dismay and humiliation of the community. Secondly, while the towers had originally been built away from population centers, the growth of the towns led to the towers now being within city limits. Finally, many of the Zoroastrians themselves found the system outdated. Following extended negotiations between the anjuman societies of Yazd, Kerman and Tehran, the latter gained a majority and substituted the dakhma with a cemetery some 10 km from Tehran at Ghassr-e Firouzeh (Firouzeh's Palace) . The graves were lined with rocks, and plastered with cement to prevent direct contact with the earth. In Yazd and Kerman, in addition to cemeteries, orthodox Zoroastrians continued to maintain a dakhma until the 1970's when the dakhmas were shutdown by law.

[edit] In India

Following the rapid expansion of the Indian cities, the squat buildings are today in or near population centers, but separated from the metropolitan bustle by forest gardens. In Parsi Zoroastrian tradition, exposure of the dead is additionally considered to be an individual's final act of charity, providing the birds with what would otherwise be destroyed.

In the past several decades, the population of birds of prey on the Indian subcontinent has greatly declined, in equal parts due to a) increasing pollution, b) growth of the cities such that the natural habitat of the birds was destroyed, and c) diclofenac poisoning of the birds following the introduction of that drug in humans & for livestock in the 1990s^[5] (diclofenac for cattle was banned by the Indian government in 2006). The few surviving birds are often unable to fully consume the bodies.^[6] Parsi communities in India are currently evaluating captive breeding of vultures and the use of "solar concentrators" (which are essentially large mirrors) to accelerate decomposition.^[7]

The right to use the Towers of Silence is a much debated issue among the Parsi community (see Parsi for details). The facilities are usually managed by the anjumans, the predominantly conservative (usually having five priests on a nine-member board) local Zoroastrian associations. In accordance with Indian statutes, these associations have the domestic authority over trust properties and have the right to grant or restrict entry and use, with the result that the anjumans frequently prohibit the use by the offspring of a "mixed marriage", that is where one parent is a Parsi and the other is not.

[edit] See also

Sky burial

[edit] Bibliography

* Boyce, Mary (1979). Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-23903-6.

^ ^a ^b Zaehner, Richard Charles (1956). The Teachings of the Magi:A Compendium of Zoroastrian Beliefs. London/New York: George Allen & Unwin/MacMillan.
^ ^a ^b Zaehner, Richard Charles (1961). The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. New York: Putnam.
Portions of the book are available online.
^ Darmesteter, James (trans.). Zend-Avesta, Vol. 1 of 3. In Müller, Friedrich Max (ed.) (1880). SBE. Oxford: OUP.
^ Falk, Harry (1989). "Soma I and II". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (BSOAS) 52 (1).
^ Adam, David. "Cattle drug blamed as India's vultures near extinction", Guardian Unlimited, 31 January, 2006.
^ Swan, Gerry et al. (2006). "Removing the threat of diclofenac to critically endangered Asian vultures". PLoS Biology 4 (3): e66.
^ Srivastava, Sanjeev. "Parsis turn to solar power", BBC News South Asia, 18 July, 2001.