Zoroastrians Fight Extinction

VOANews ^ | 12/23/03 | VOANews

[freedom44]

The opening bars of Richard Strauss’ composition “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” became famous as the theme for Stanle Kubrick’s 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” But apart from academics and some 300-thosuand believers, few people know much about ancient Iranian prophet Zarathustra and his teaching.

“Yet only one thousand years ago, millions, millions espoused Zarathustra’s monotheistic percepts in nations which stretched from (the ancient Chinese city of) Sian (western China) to the Eastern China across central Asia, northern India, Iran, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia up Greece in the west and Arabia, north Africa and Ethiopia in the south,” says Adi Davar, a board member of the World Zoroastrian Organization. Mr. Davar spoke at a recent seminar on Zoroastrian religion at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Zoroastrianism is based on the revelations of the Persian prophet Zarathustra, or Zoroaster in Greek. He taught that the world and everything in it was created by a Wise Lord, or Ahura Mazda. Before Zarathustra, Persians believed in multiple deities, as did most nomadic tribes at the time.

Stanley Isler, chairman of Iranian studies at Yale University, says Zarathustra was very impressed with nature and its ability for cyclical renewal. He believed repetition was the basis of knowledge, and people could learn everything from nature.

“Surely, only a being of great power and wisdom was capable of fashioning the element of the cosmos and equally capable of creating the principle of truth that maintain their eternal design and rhythms,” cites Professor Isler.

Internationally renowned conductor Zubin Mehta is a Parsi from Bombay. Creator Ahura Mazda is symbolized by light and fire, nature’s sources of life and energy. That is why Zoroastrians usually pray before a source of light, and an urn containing fire is a prominent feature of their place of worship. The good and wise lord Ahura Mazda is opposed by dark forces of evil. Zoroastrians believe truth is the source of all good and must be pursued in order to fight deceit, the source of evil. Since humans are created by a wise lord, they have an innate ability to discern good from evil. Zarathustra preaches three basic virtues: good thoughts, good words and good deeds. He says: "Happiness unto him who gives happiness unto others.” Thus Zoroastrians value education and philanthropy. Lying, or deceit, represents a violation of basic Zoroastrian beliefs.

Cleanliness of the body as well as of the spirit is also very important. Dead and decaying bodies are considered extremely impure and so they must not contaminate water, air or earth, which are sources of life. Traditionally, Zoroastrians do not bury or burn dead bodies or throw them into water, but expose them to vultures. However, there is less emphasis on religious rites than there is on lifestyle choices.

Marriage is a lifelong commitment, often postponed for the sake of education. Inter-faith marriages and conversions have long been avoided, contributing to the decline in population. The conquest of Persia and spread of Islam, which started in the 7th century, dealt the first serious blow to Zoroastrians.

Relief depicting Persian King Darius, Iran. No one knows exactly when Zarathustra lived, but his origins are traditionally placed in the 6th century B.C. in the area of what is today north-eastern Iran. This would make him a contemporary of the Persians kings Cyrus or Darius. Many scholars think he lived earlier than that. Jehan Bagli, president of the North American Zoroastrian Council, says Zarathustra’s teachings were already widespread by that time.

“Nowhere in these records do we find the mention of prophet Zarathustra,” says Mr. Bagli. “If the prophet was born 569 BCE and lived, as we know from the tradition, a little over 77 years, he would be contemporary with Darius the Great. It is inconceivable that the founder of the first monotheistic faith, who lived during the same time as these renowned monarchs, whose religion was spread across their vast empire and who was a mentor of the father of Darius, be so trivially overlooked.” Mr Bagli adds: “These circumstances certainly invalidate the traditional date.”

Scholars say historic records of Zarathustra’s life may have been destroyed during two major invasions of Persia: one by Alexander the Great in 4th century B.C. and the other by Islamic tribes in the 7th century A.D. On both occasions fire temples and religious texts were burnt and many priests killed.

But there is evidence that the Avesta, the Zoroastrian equivalent of the Bible, contains Zarathustra’s original thoughts. Stanley Isler says the prophet’s hymns to God, or “gathas,” reveal much about his life and time: “He tells us that he was a priest and a master of sacred words, a manthran – someone who has power over the mantras, a word that’s familiar to many. Yet, Zarathustra goes on to say he was rejected from his tribe and his community and driven from his land, forcing him to wander far and wide under great hardship and despair until finally he was accepted by a noble prince named Vishtaspa, who became his patron and ally.”

Professor Isler notes the hymns also explain why the prophet’s own tribe exiled him. It was not only because he preached monotheism: “He bitterly complains that evil rulers attacked just and innocent people, that the rich robbed the poor, that judges produced false decisions in order to aid their benefactors. And Zarathustra goes on to say that fury and violence terrorized the peoples on all fronts and that everywhere deceit and deception seemed to hold the upper hand.”

The holy book also contains Zoroastrian prayers, rules of law and rituals. Until the 9th century AD, the Avesta was probably transmitted orally and modified along the way. Professor Isler says this makes it hard to discern truth from myth about the prophet. The 10th century persecution of Zoroastrians in Persia forced many either to convert or seek another place to live. A significant group settled in north-western India where they became known as Parsis, meaning Persians.

For a while, Parsis were growing in number and power. The city of Bombay became the center of Zoroastrianism, somewhat like Rome in the Catholic Church. But in the second half of the 20th century, the population of the Parsi-Zoroastrians fell by one third, from a peak of 114,000 in 1941 to 76,000 in 1991. In recent decades, Zoroastrians worldwide began forming local and international organizations and events to help fight their extinction. Adi Davar helped form one of these in 1980.

“The World Zoroastrian Organization is an international organization of the global community of some 300-thousand Zoroastrians,” says Mr. Davar and adds: “Some 40-thousand of them live in North America and about a thousand in this metropolitan area.”

Parsi children in Bombay. Zoroastrian organizations prevailed upon UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to proclaim the year 2003 as the 3000th Anniversary of Zoroastrianism. More attention is paid to young people who may be able to pass on their religion and culture to following generations. The Third World Zoroastrian Youth Congress is to take place in Pune, India, from December 27 to December 31.

Conversion, once rejected by the Zoroastrian faith, is now believed to be legitimate and indeed necessary by some adherents, who also approve marriage with members of other faiths.

Scholars have acknowledged the contribution of this ancient Persian faith to the world’s religions. Zoroastrians say their prophet’s teachings are just as relevant today since deceit, violence and oppression are as prevalent as they were thousands of years ago.

[Liberal Classic]

Three Kings bump.

[freedom44]

on or off iran ping.

[Guillermo]

Rohinton Mistry wrote a couple of books which touches upon the Zoroasters in India...interesting reading. "A Fine Balance" is an excellent novel.

[GeronL]

Muslims are scratching their heads.... wait... it was not a Zionist Conspiracy afterall... it was a Zoroastrian Conspiracy!!

[WackyKat]

Zoroastrianism had a tremendous impact on both Judaism and Christianity-especially on Christian ideas about the end of the world.

The Parsis leave the bodies of their dead on the top of towers to be eaten by vultures.

Cool, and very-eco-friendly!

[jocon307]

Great post, thanks! I've always wondered about this religion, I'm glad to hear it isn't completely defunct. Maybe once the Mullahs get tossed in Iran it will have a revival.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Zoroastrians, and Parsis in particular, are a fascinating people. Many of them are not particularly religious... and they tend to be smart as all get-out. This makes them ideal marriage partners for people of other cultures... contributing to the decline problem.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[SedVictaCatoni]

General information: The "Three Wise Men" who journeyed to Bethlehem were of course magi, Zoroastrian priests and scholars.

Our word "magic" comes from magi.

[skinkinthegrass]

Great post

...thanks from here too... :)

[Dionysius]

Isn't Rosicrucianism somehow related?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Who knows how many there were. It could have been two. It could have been dozens. When Daniel and his brethren were in captivity in Persia, they had ample chance to teach their hosts about the Torah, and thus they knew about the Messiah. The predicted star finally shone, and they said let's hop on our camels and get going to worship this Kid.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Who knows how many there were. It could have been two. It could have been dozens.

Well, I think that the New Testament account probably would have mentioned it if dozens of Persian mystics had abruptly showed up. That likely would have been the most startling sight ever to occur in Bethlehem.

[HiTech RedNeck]

In Bethlehem itself, maybe. But on the hillsides out in the country I beg to differ. Not some whizbang hairsplitting Jewish philosopher, but outcast ruffian redneck sheepherders (yeehaw!), those were the ones that God first picked to hear the news. Courtesy of a downright righteous passel of angels.

[DryFly]

Well it was an impressive enough caravan to get Herod's attention, seeing how he then ordered that all male children under two years of age be killed so that his rival would be eliminated.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yeah, a band of three sounds like it would be a mite puny to have such an effect. Were these dudes particularly wealthy? Or would it take a large group to amass enough gold, frankincense, and myrrh to make a worthy gift?

[Post Toasties]

I'm sure the world would be a better place if all Muslims converted to Zoroastrianism. But, aside from that, I suppose I don't have a whole lot to say about this :)

[HiTech RedNeck]

[would it take a large group to amass enough gold, frankincense, and myrrh to make a worthy gift?] (They reached into their "treasures"... doesn't sound quite like Bill Gates hauling out "small change" from his wallet)

[Centurion2000]

He bitterly complains that evil rulers attacked just and innocent people, that the rich robbed the poor, that judges produced false decisions in order to aid their benefactors.

Sounds like he met Clinton and the democratic party.

[tortoise]

Cool article. I always took Zoroasterianism to be a fairly sane religion as such things go, and with many ideas that would be very familiar to most modern monotheistic religions. As the article points out, nobody really knows precisely how old the religion is, but it is one of the older religions currently practiced and easily pre-dating both Christianity and Islam by a wide margin.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Mohammed's "evangelees" (oh those effective Arab swords) were largely Zoroastrian. Too bad they didn't have a kick-**** God to stand up for them like the Jews did.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Or, he had just time traveled to FloriDUH.

[enviros_kill]

Some more background on the Magi and the actual birth date of Christ:

"The Star of Bethlehem," IMPRIMIS, Hillsdale College (Dec 1996): http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/1996/Dec96Imprimis.pdf. A six page article that summarizes important facts supporting Christ's birth date of September 11, 3 B.C. Note that this date was also the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and commonly considered to be the first day of Creation in Genesis ("birthday of the world").

"The Star that Astonished the World," Ernest Martin, Ph.D. http://askelm.com/star/star000.htm and http://askelm.com/books/book003.htm. This book is THE definitive work on what the Star of Bethlehem really was (Jupiter). It describes the numerous conjunctions and massing of planets that announced Christ's birth and pinpoints the exact day and time from astronomical, historical, and Biblical records. This evidence convinced the Magi astronomers (wise men) from Persia (Iran) to journey over 1000 miles to Bethlehem and pay honor to the 15-month old Christ child in December, 2 B.C. The Shockwave video (http://askelm.com/video/v020301.htm) produced by MSNBC is particularly good as it demonstrates the various conjunctions and retrograde planetary motions in a very clear fashion.

September 11th news, http://www.september11news.com/Sept11History.htm. Islamic jihadists killed nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. The author of this site includes Christ's birth in his historical timeline of Sept 11 events. It is not surprising that the evil one of this world would besmirch the birth date of his eventual conqueror.

[enviros_kill]

Some more background on the Magi and the actual birth date of Christ:

"The Star of Bethlehem," IMPRIMIS, Hillsdale College (Dec 1996): http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/1996/Dec96Imprimis.pdf . A six page article that summarizes important facts supporting Christ's birth date of September 11, 3 B.C. Note that this date was also the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and commonly considered to be the first day of Creation in Genesis ("birthday of the world").

"The Star that Astonished the World," Ernest Martin, Ph.D. http://askelm.com/star/star000.htm and http://askelm.com/books/book003.htm . This book is THE definitive work on what the Star of Bethlehem really was (Jupiter). It describes the numerous conjunctions and massing of planets that announced Christ's birth and pinpoints the exact day and time from astronomical, historical, and Biblical records. This evidence convinced the Magi astronomers (wise men) from Persia (Iran) to journey over 1000 miles to Bethlehem and pay honor to the 15-month old Christ child in December, 2 B.C. The Shockwave video (http://askelm.com/video/v020301.htm ) produced by MSNBC is particularly good as it demonstrates the various conjunctions and retrograde planetary motions in a very clear fashion.

September 11th news, http://www.september11news.com/Sept11History.htm . Islamic jihadists killed nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. The author of this site includes Christ's birth in his historical timeline of Sept 11 events. It is not surprising that the evil one of this world would besmirch the birth date of his eventual conqueror.

[tortoise]

Too bad they didn't have a kick-**** God to stand up for them like the Jews did.

Except for all those times the Jews got their asses kicked?

[HiTech RedNeck]

It is not surprising that the evil one of this world would besmirch the birth date of his eventual conqueror.

You mean... you mean... we missed Christmas?!?

[HiTech RedNeck]

For a while, for misbehaving... but they always came back, and back, and back again, against all odds. God didn't promise that they wouldn't have a hard time, but He did promise to bless all who blessed them and curse all who cursed them.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Good one...

I've studied the Parsees for quite a while and have incorporated the Zoroastrian concept of God (YHWH--brought back to to Israel by the Hebrews after the 1st Exile) into my own Christian faith.

This is the 'Old Faith', the Faith of Kings. The first belief in the One God once revealed: It is no wonder that these guys were the first to recognize Christ as the Messiah. I'm actually planning on celebrating The Epiphany this year in honor of this...

Furthermore, some speculate because of the extraordinary age of Zoroastrianism that Judaism is a heretic sect of it.

I'll have you know that I have strict instructions with both my friends and my physician that I wish to be excarnated when I die in the Parsee fashion rather than interred or cremated.

That should be some trick to do in this over-regulated world, but I'm sure they will figure it out....

[Cogadh na Sith]

Heh... Somehow I figured you'd know a bit about these guys. My study of them has been more 'esoteric'....

[HiTech RedNeck]

aggggh, syncretism.

well they may put you on a mountaintop and feed you to eagles, but it won't make a whit of difference to your soul. it will be in heaven if you have trusted in Jesus Christ for your eternal life. it will be in hell otherwise.

[Consort]

[freedom44]

This evidence convinced the Magi astronomers (wise men) from Persia (Iran) to journey over 1000 miles to Bethlehem and pay honor to the 15-month old Christ child in December, 2 B.C. The Shockwave video (http://askelm.com/video/v020301.htm ) produced by MSNBC is particularly good as it demonstrates the various conjunctions and retrograde planetary motions in a very clear fashion.


Thanks for that site..
Merry Christmas.

[wideminded]

Traditionally, Zoroastrians do not bury or burn dead bodies or throw them into water, but expose them to vultures.

A news article a couple of years ago said that there is a problem with this now because a deadly disease which no one understands has decimated the population of vultures that normally carry out this task.

[leadhead]

A news article a couple of years ago said that there is a problem with this now because a deadly disease which no one understands has decimated the population of vultures that normally carry out this task

They ate a liberal

[Cronos]

Also the idea of Angels -- very similar to the Zoroastrian concept of angelic beings, although the Z angels (as depicted on the Persian monuments) have angel wings, men's bearded faces and bull's bodies.

[Cronos]

Though, let this be a lesson -- any culture that's infiltrated byIslam Dies and disappears. THink of the glory of Peria, Parthia, Media -- a civilisation stretching back to the very beginnings of history. The first wine growing culture, close to the first writing culture (Sumer in present day Iraq). The first tolerant Empire which Alexander was lucky enough to come upon when there was a weak King and got an Empire falling in his lap. This noble culture got decimated byIslam, like the Christian cultures of Byzantine, Egypt, Syria, Assyria, etc got decimated.

If we're not careful, the same will happen to us here in the US.

[Cronos]

Another piece of info -- sorry about this I find ancient cultures and religions (intertwined) fascinating.

The Ancient Aryan religion in it's primitive, barbaric form can be found amongst the old Norse legends with two families of Gods -- the Aesir and the Vanir who are more of less equal, though Thor, Odin etc are Aesir.

Indic and Irani cultures are similar -- both Aryan cultures but the religions differed:

In India, the Daeva family was elevated to the status of Gods so that Deva came to mean "God". This family included gods like Indra -- the God of Thunder and lightning -- like Thor -- chief of the gods, Surya the sun god and Agni the god of fire. However, Hinduism also incorporated other Caucasian pre-ARyan gods from the Dravidians -- a Caucasian race that existed in India before hte Aryans (lkind of like how the Sumerians were present before the Amorite, Semitic races) like Shiva or Vishnu
Anyhow, so the Daevas were made the chief gods while the Asuras were made lesser gods and then under the influence of Christianity and maybe Zoroastrianism, into demons, so now Asura means demon.

In Iran, the opposite happened with the Ahuras made Gods (Iranic and Indic differs slightly in pronunciation but otherwise are the main forebears of Indo-European) and Daevas reduced to household deities, minor gods.

Zoroaster choose one God -- Ahura Mazda, the god of light as the main, one of only two gods, the other being some other name I can'#t remember ;-P

Zoroastrianism had the philosophy that man's duty was to fight on the behalf of the God of good and to fight against evil.
The Persian Shahs were a pretty tolerant bunch -- as depicted byt he fact that they let the Judaens return home and by the fact that they didn't face as many problems in their Empire as their precursors the Assyrians and Babylonians had.

Zoroastrianism mixed with Christianity gave rise to religions like Manichaenism (can't remember the spelling) while Mazdaism had been a competitor for followers in the 2nd century in Rome with Christianity.

Then Islam came........

[Cronos]

Not really, the Rose Cross seems a mish-mash of ideas like the Masons -- borrowed ideas from old religions.

[Cronos]

Well, I think that the New Testament account probably would have mentioned it if dozens of Persian mystics had abruptly showed up. That likely would have been the most startling sight ever to occur in Bethlehem.

It might also have caused quite a bit of alarm -- remember that the Romans were fighting against the Parthians then and they never defeated them until Trajan in 100AD of thereabouts.

Trajan is quite extraordinary -- he pushed the Empire down into the Persian Gulf and dreamed, like Alexander before him, of getting to India. Imagine if the Emperors following him had had the gumption to do so, and Roman law, discipline was passed onto lands as far east as India. This would have put a more united front against Islam. Oh,well, there's no sadder words in English than the ones "what if"

[Cronos]

Persians in Roman Territory. Persian priests, high priests, Magi. This could mean somethign big was happening, maybe the Persians were abotu to reclaim their Empire which had once stretched to include Egypt, Canaan, Anatolia. Herod was in power because of Caesar Augustus and he would have reason to worry even if there were only 3

[Cronos]

Actually speaking, Buddhism, or rather pure Buddhism is not polytheistic, rather it doesn't believe in the Gods and it is older than Christianity by 700 years.

[Cronos]

Zoroastrianism that Judaism is a heretic sect of it.

I kind of doubt that. I'd say that Judaism was influenced by Z after the exile, but it's not a branch of Z. EVen Parsees say that it can't be older than 1700 B.C. -- which is about the time of Hammurabi or the Mosaic laws (some scholars contend that the Mosaic laws are around that time, making Hammurabi a contemporary of Moses). Judaism and Z can from a similar region, but from different backgrounds -- judaism is semitic, inherently so while Z has it's roots in Aryan religions as I've stated above. Judaim after the exile may well have blended the two together -- and Z was also influenced.

[RightField]

True story ...

My daughter had to do an oral report on Zoastrianism in her college history class Spring semester, 2002. Her report included a post-sized drawing of Zoaster, and the poster ended up looking quite like Osama bid Laden. She also made posters with Arabic writing on them, and a big diagram/design of some sort.

Now her best friend is the wife of Marine, and they live on the base nearby here. Not thinking that her class report materials might be significant, she put them into her trunk after class and drove to her friend's house later that night. As luck would have it, she was pulled over for a random search by the guards at the gate to the base. They opened her trunk, then she said all of a sudden she was surrounded by about 8 Marines with weapons at the ready, and told to get out of her car now! She was quite frightened until she was able to explain that the materials were NOT terrorist related. Needless to say, that stuff was burned in the fireplace the next day!

[Cronos]

Parsees -- like Freddie MErcury of Queen (or to give him his real name Fourokh Bulsara, escaped from Persia fleeing slammie persecution and landed on the west coast of india. now the Indians on the WEst had had skirmishes with the Persians for millenia, so though they were welcomed as escapees from the barbaric slammie, the Rajah made themj promise to only marry among themselves. So over 14 centuries they did that and bred themselves out of existance.

The Jews were also given refuge in Kerala in AD 70 but no such promises were made!

[Cronos]

It's pretty sad that so much gets mistaken for OBL. The Zoroastrians prided themselves on their beards and so do the Sikhs, yet we mistake them for OBL. Wasn't there some Sikh guy that got killed in 2001 because some nuts thought he was OBL (in the US?!!)

[browsin]

The opening bars of Richard Strauss’ composition “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” became famous as the theme for Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Strauss' Thus Spoke Zarathustra was inspired by the work of the same name by Nietzsche.Nietzsche's Zarathustra was the prototype Superman,the ultimate 'individualist' whose goal was to destroy religion and collectivism and establish a new 'super' race of individualists(Hitler misunderstood and thought of it in biological instead of philosphical terms).The score was applied to 2001:A Space Odyssey because it was a story about the evolution from ape to man to Superman.Quite the opposite of Zoroastrian philosophy,though ofcourse they claimed the name first.

[Cronos]

founder of the first monotheistic faith
well, that is open to debate. There are three contenders for that crown:
a. Moses who one might say 'founded' the Judaic faith and codified it transforming it so that there is only one God, the others are false.
b. Akhenaton who worshipped the sun, the aten,
c. Zoroaster.

I'd venture to say that the first was Abraham and through him, Moses. Some scholars have put the date of the Exodus to before 1700 BC, so the Pharoah in question was NOT Ramsess the Great, but some other dude (can't remember tha name either) and this happened BEFORE the invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos. Actually this is quite valid, as the Israelites battled with the Amalekites who were heading in the opposite direction -- to attack Egypt. just think of it -- you're a middle eastern monarch and you hear that the Pharoah of Egypt, the richest, most powerful land has had all his chariots destroyed and his land weakened considerably by strange plagues. If you were that Monarch and you had a substantial army you'd say, let's rock and roll and conquer Egypt (1720 B.C.). And that's what they did.

So, anyway, the Israelis leave Egypt and after a skirmish with the Amalekites move west. the Mosaic law is codified.

Hammurabi may have heard of this or he may have come up with his own set of laws (no way to prove either), but hammurabi's laws are essentially secular unlike Mosaic.

Akhenaton (1330 B.C.) uses the precepts of established Isarelite tradition to format his own worship of the Sun.
Zoroaster, ah, now that is difficult -- did he do it on his own or was he influenced? Do note that Buddhism and Jainism also flourished around the accepted time of Zoroaster's birth -- the 7ths to the 5th century BC.

[TheMole]

There is an "official" Zoroastrian website:

The World Zoroastrian Organisation

[F14 Pilot]

Bump!

[Beck_isright]

If you're a history nut, read up on this subject. You'll find the basis for Christianity and Islam within the writings of this religion.