Posted on 07/15/2004 10:58:24 PM PDT by freedom44
CHAK CHAK, Iran (Reuters) - Zoroastrians say the sacred spring at Chak Chak, a shrine perched beneath a towering cliff face in the searing desert of central Iran, has lost none of its miraculous healing powers.
"A 32-year-old Muslim came here as a last resort when he was dying from leukemia. I was not sure we should let a Muslim in but he insisted and spent the night here," said Goshtasb Belivani, a priest of Iran's ancient pre-Islamic religion.
"During the night he was visited by a beautiful woman dressed in green who gave him sherbet to drink," he continued.
For the last three months, since being given the all clear from his doctor, the young man has been a regular visitor to the shrine.
The beautiful woman was the ghost of Nikbanou, a 7th century Persian princess who fled to the mountain refuge, escaping Arab horsemen who thundered across the border and planted the green pennants of Islam in Iranian soil.
Islam spread quickly in a society where the priestly and royal elite had alienated most classes beneath them.
Now there are only 30,000 followers of the ancient religion among the Islamic Republic's 66 million people, down from 60,000 at the time of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Zoroastrians see life as an eternal conflict between their good God Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, the embodiment of evil.
Followers of the prophet Zoroaster, who died in the 6th century B.C., say the central tenets of their faith are: "Good thoughts, good words, good deeds."
In early summer, Zoroastrians from across the world meet at the shrine where Nikbanou sought refuge. During the scorching daylight hours they doze on rugs, have picnics and attend prayers in the cool grotto shrine around the flame focal to their worship.
Toward evening, the atmosphere gets far more convivial. Young Zoroastrian men in cowboy hats jive away as one of their friends plays catchy tunes on his Yamaha keyboard.
Girls with free-flowing hair, wearing bright dresses, play catch and giggle while prayers in Avestan, the ancient religious language of the Zoroastrians, are read out over a loud-speaker system.
The Islamic Republic's strict rules on dress and wine are relaxed in the private spaces of the religious minorities.
STAY OR EMIGRATE?
Iran's Shi'ite Muslims are generally tolerant of the ancient religion.
"We get on fine, we use each other's shops and chat every day," said Mohammad Ali Karimi, who teaches Islamic history and religion in a primary school in the nearby city of Yazd, 250 miles southeast of Tehran.
"But many of them are emigrating or becoming Muslims," he added.
The Towers of Silence, the two outcrops where Yazd's Zoroastrians used to leave their dead for the vultures, are now a picnic spot.
Many Zoroastrians at Chak Chak said whole families would convert to Islam if someone married outside the community so they would not be denied inheritance payments under Iranian law.
Zoroastrians have their own member of parliament and hold high positions in bodies such as the Oil Ministry. They say their communities are more vibrant in Canada and Australia.
In India, where they are known as Parsis, the community is more than 60,000 strong.
"Many reckon they will do better as doctors and engineers abroad. If I had a second chance, I would probably emigrate," said priest Esfandiar Dastour, 73.
Former parliamentarian Khosro Dabestani insisted problems for Zoroastrians were the same as those for most Iranians but many disagreed.
Some said friends and family had been denied jobs teaching in universities because they were Zoroastrians. Another mentioned being booted out of a chess team just before reaching national level.
"One Muslim elder confiscated our land in a village I know saying 'This is an Islamic country, the land belongs to us'," said one woman.
Another woman, Golchehreh, protested about dress codes.
"I am not a Muslim, why should I have to wear these headscarves?," she complained.
But gray-bearded Zoroastrian pilgrim Iraj thought they had all missed the point.
"There are no mosques, churches and synagogues. They are all in your own heart," he said.
"This shrine is a sham. You need to be out there alone with your God under the sun in the wilderness," he said, pointing into the shimmering whiteness of the desert.
Good people. Quite a few are in Los Angeles area.
Yes, very. How sad the historical story. Once the religion of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the Persian Empire.. now only 30,000 inside the country, and probably less than 130,000 worldwide.
"Yes, very. How sad the historical story. Once the religion of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the Persian Empire.. now only 30,000 inside the country, and probably less than 130,000 worldwide."
I made friends with a man of this faith. He was from Bombay, held a Masters in Languages, and was a Chartered Accountant.
The Shah invited these Persian people to return, which is what my friend did. He worked for a major US construction firm in Tehran. He met a woman (of their faith) in Tehran, and married.
He was taken out of Iran, during the mullah takeover, the same as Americans, Brits, other westerners.
As a citizen of the British Commonwealth, he would be able to reside in Britain or Canada, for sure. However he got a Green Card, and has become a US citizen.
They are shrinking in number, because they marry only within the faith.
When islam took over Persia, they fled to India/Pakistan (and a few apparently remained, hence the article).
Back in 1980, he stated nobody was safe, under islam, in Iran. Since then, I have met Iranian Christians, Jews and Bahai that always confirmed that view.
Just as an aside, the primary reason for the collapse of the religion was a 20-year long religious war between Zoarastrian Persia and Christian Byzantium. This was all going on while Mohammad was creating his religion and unifying the Arab penninsula under his rule.
The war between Byzantium and Persia was quite devastating and both Empires suffered body and soul during it - Persian armies made it to the gates of Constantinople, and also siezed Jerusalem, descrating many Christian shrines; in return, and in winning the war, the Byzantines invaded the Persian heartland and destroyed the central shrine of Zoaraster. Its hard to keep your religion going at a time like that - and when an exhausted Byzantium and Persia shortly had to face a rising Islam, they just couldn't do it...
Byzantium lost Syria, Israel, Egypt and Libya, while Persia was conquered in its entirety. Given the nature of Islamic conquest and given the physical and spiritual exhaustion of Persian society, they rather rapidly converted to Islam after the conquest...in fact, such supposedly Moslem things as secluded women and wearing a Burka were originally Persian social constructs which Islam took on after the conquest of Persia...Mohammad's wives went out in public unescorted and did not wear a Burka.
Yep. Zoarastrians were killing off Romans back in ancient times, too, in the name of their religion. Although a compassionate religion, it wasn't exactly a peaceful religion when its leaders saw it as a unifying tool to incite their populations to war.
Actually the Veil was worn by Christians in Byzantines as a sign of status and wealth and that's where it originated, Zoroastrians didn't wear it - at least not on Ancient Sculptures in Persepolis.
Also Armenians. Ever hear the story of St. Vartan?
http://www.armenianchurch.org/heritage/history/vartan/avarayr.html
Cool reading. Thanks!
'Followers of the prophet Zoroaster, who died in the 6th century B.C., say the central tenets of their faith are: "Good thoughts, good words, good deeds." '
vs. the "murderous thoughts, murderous words, murderous deeds" of Islam.
True, in the longer scheme...but that 20 years war right at the end was pretty big...
My understanding, though, is that Persian society, having been heavily influenced earlier on by Hellenic culture, pretty much sequestered their women away - just as Arab society does today, but back in Mohammad's time, it didn't.
Let's not be naive. The Persian Empire controlled various parts of Hellanic culture for hundreds of years, so more than likely a large majority of philosphical and political advancements came from the Persians and not from the Greeks. In fact, this is something that virtually every single one of my Greek friends admits to, as did Aristotle, and Alexander the Great.
Uh, no....
Persia got into control of the Ionian Greeks, who then fell out of the mainstream of Greek culture...that part of Greece we think of when we think of "ancient Greece" was never under the control of the Persians...perhaps you're thinking of the fact that the Greeks got a lot of their basic math and astronomy from the Babylonians...
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"Yep. Zoarastrians were killing off Romans back in ancient times, too,.."
A lot of that going around back then.
Romans would systematically crucify tens of thousands of the defeated armies...to crush the spirit of a conquered land.
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