Posted on 09/11/2006 8:20:59 PM PDT by blam
In the Towers of Silence, an ancient ritual of death comes under threat
By Peter Foster in New Delhi
(Filed: 12/09/2006)
The viability of the centuries-old Zoroastrian custom of allowing vultures to consume the corpses of its devotees has been called into question after a relative of one of the dead discovered piles of rotting bodies lying almost untouched by the birds.
Dhun Baria, a member of Bombay's Zoroastrian community, known as Parsis, was shocked to be told that the body of her mother had lain untouched for nine months after she was laid to rest at the Towers of Silence, a stone well in Bombay where the dead are laid out for the vultures.
The Parsi community has been facing mounting difficulties over how to cope with their dead — about 1,000 a year — since India's vulture population suffered a catastrophic decline in the 1990s.
Graphic new photographs from inside the Towers — which according to strict rules only Khandiyas, or pall bearers, are allowed to enter — has led to liberal Parsis questioning whether the community should now cremate or bury its dead.
The pictures show piles of rotting corpses, some with the eyes gouged out by crows and other scavengers.
According to the tenets of the religion founded in ancient Persia by the prophet Zarathustra in the 7th century BC, the bodies should be picked clean in four days in order to release the spirit of the deceased.
Mrs Baria, a 65-year-old social worker, has been branded a blasphemer by orthodox Parsis for distributing the pictures in leaflets given to worshippers entering Zoroastrian fire temples in Bombay.
"The pall bearers told me that my mother's body was still inside, nothing had changed. They said she was going to be there for years," she said.
"If your wife, who you sleep with, or your son who you have lived with, were to die tomorrow, would you be able to bear it if they were in that state?"
The introduction of solar panels to speed up the desiccation and decomposition of the bodies has only partially solved the problem, as during the long monsoon months there is insufficient sunshine for them to be effective.
The fall in vulture numbers has been linked to the widespread use of a bovine painkiller, diclofenac, which poisons the birds when they feed on the carcasses of fallen livestock.
Despite the furore caused by Mrs Baria's pictures and other campaigns, traditionalists have firmly rejected calls for a change to the burial rites.
"We Parsis are a conservative lot," said Minoo Shroff, the chairman of the Parsi Panchayat, or governing council, in Bombay. "In spite of our education and eminence in public life, we cannot accept change in our customs so quickly. It must take time."
But the deteriorating situation — and what some argue to be a growing health risk — has caused some reformist Parsis to call for changes that reflect modern realities.
"The system has failed miserably and people are getting upset," said Jehangir Patel, the editor of Parsiana magazine. "More people are asking questions about bodies lying and rotting and left there."
Homi Mehta, a 32-year-old Parsi architect, said his faith in the funeral rites has been shaken by the dispute.
"If someone I loved died during the monsoon, I wouldn't want them to be left hanging there," he said.
And just what makes this "savage"? No cruelty, torture, or violence takes place. The idea is that the spirit has discarded it bodily host and the nourishment form the body should go back to nature. Some Christians refuse cremation and are buried instead. Not very practical or sanitary in comparison. Savage folks?
The problem in India is the lack of vultures. In the sparsely settled areas of Tibet, there doesn't seem to be a problem except the opinions of outsiders. The idea of the uninvited photographing someone's funeral seems impolite, to say the least.
"In other words, the Tibetans don't want the world to know of their savage rituals.
"
Interesting choice of words, there. What is savage about this ritual? The person is dead, and cannot be harmed any further. Allowing the natural scavengers of this planet to perform their natural function seems to me to be a reasonable way to dispose of the dead.
For myself, my instructions are that I be cremated. My wife or other survivor will dispose of my ashes by dumping them in the Mississippi river from the Saint Paul, MN bridge leading to my favorite fishing spot. I figure that some portion of my ashes may even eventually reach the mouth of the Mississippi.
I can think of some people that would gag a vulture, can't you? (But please, no Helen Thomas pictures!)
"In other words, the Tibetans don't want the world to know of their savage rituals."
I don't think it is any more savage than letting a body rot or body burned to ashes. If you put a camera inside a casket and broadcast the footage, I'm sure the slow rot and maggots forming all over it would be seen by people as savage and disrespecting. Cremation wouldn't be any eye pleasing either with body fluids boiling, flesh burning and skull popping.
Death is savage, so is body decomposition. Personally, I would want to be cremated. Don't want nobody excavating my skulls or bones in the future, or parts of my body become bird dinner.
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Dead Parsees are carried on a simple bier to a ceremonial gate into the private jungle park of banyan and casarina trees in the city's posh Malabar Hill district, wich surrounds the five Towers of Silence... However, with an average of three Parsees dying every day, the six-odd vultures at the towers are overfed and unable to cope, although kites and other birds help out.
All consuming faith: To keep an ancient custom, India's Parsees need to protect their vulturesParsees are the religious descendants of the Zoroastrians of ancient Persia. They believe that earth, water and fire are sacred and must not be defiled by corpses. So they put their dead in funerary sites where hundreds of griffon vultures perform the disposal job. The funerary site of the prosperous Parsees of Bombay is known as the Towers of Silence, a well-known landmark in the city next to the Hanging Gardens Park on upmarket Malabar Hill.
by Debora MacKenzie
New Scientist
5 August 2000
But vultures from the griffon genus have all but disappeared across much of India over the past few years (see p 32). Poisoning with the insecticide DDT, widely used in India, was initially suspected. But that would be unlikely to affect only one genus of vulture, or to cause such an abrupt and widespread die-off, says Andrew Cunningham, a veterinary pathologist with London's Zoological Society. A more likely culprit is infectious disease, and last spring Cunningham found signs of viral infection in some vulture carcasses.
Who are you to judge?
Every culture is different.
There are some things that are wrong across all cultures.
Method of burial is not. Why don't you object to burning bodies?
I agree.
The person is dead. They aren't doing this to be cruel. It is part of their beliefs about how to FREE the dead person.
It isn't savage at all.
"Tibetans believe that the corpse is nothing more than an empty vessel."
So do Christians. The life is in the soul and spirit - not the body.
I don't know...I think garlic powder with a bit of salt and pepper works better than lime. Lime is just too light of a flavor...
Not to worry.
Once the Muslims take over, as in they did in Iran, all Zoroastrians will be forced to become Muslims or die - along with all Hindus, etc. (Sarcasm)
LOL You're soooo bad!
They could import vultures, that would solve the problem, maybe.
"Every culture is different.
True. And, Western Christian culture is overall much superior to the others.
Thanx for the info.That's pretty involved.
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