Zoroaster

Since Zarathustra/Zoroaster meets us at every step, we want to report a little more about this religion. A working Zoroastrian temple can be found in Yazd, where we stop for one night.

The Zoroastrian, whose Prophet was Zoroaster, believe in four holy elements: fire, water, earth and air. Their highest God, Ahura Mazda, is manifested in the eternal fire and light. There are still well over 20'000 Zoroastrians living in the Islamic Republic of Iran and they are mostly found around Yazd. They still speak their own language and have preserved an ancient alphabet and script.

The Zoroastrians practice a special type of funeral (at least until 1970): the dead bodies are brought into a tower (tower of the silence), where vultures await their meals happily under the Auspices of a priest. If the vulture hacked the left eye first, the soul found the way into heaven. If the vulture ate the right eye first, the corps was sure end up in hell. Of course, there were separate towers for men and women. This method of burial, according to the Zoroastrian faith, avoided that the dead body spoilt the holy earth and soil. However, in 1970, this practice was forbidden for hygienic reasons, since inhabitants of the city complained about falling pieces from the sky. In Yazd, there are such towers of silence in the outskirts of the town. However there are no more vultures, as these species likewise became extinct for lack of food after 1970.