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Zoroastrian: Zoroastrian Community
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One of the most ancient - and unusual - elements of the Zoroastrian faith is their treatment of the dead. Traditionally, Zoroastrians did not bury their dead in the conventional sense but left the bodies exposed to the elements - and vultures - in pits in open-topped towers. The old tower in Kerman dates back many hundreds of years and the bones of the dead can still be seen in the pit. These days, the community bury their dead underground in a nearby cemetery.
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The Zoroastrian community in Iran was estimated to number 32,000 individuals at the beginning of the 1980s but reports suggest that their number has halved since the 1979 Iranian revolution established an Islamic Republic. However, conservative Iranian papers have denounced that in the past few years an increasing number of Iranians, especially youths, have converted from Islam to the Evangelical Church and Zoroastrism, claiming the phenomenon is growing and becoming "extremely worrying."
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Yasna is the most important of the Zoroastrian ceremonies. It is celebrated daily, but only in Iranian and Indian fire temples and only by qualified priests. Yasna is an "inner" ceremony, which only Zoroastrians may attend and is often specially commissioned by community members. Ritual materials used include haoma with pomegranate twigs, goat's milk, dron with ghee, water, and a presanctified mixture known as parahom. The water signifies health and wellbeing, while the milk represents the presence of Vohu Manah, the protector of the animal kingdom. The haoma twigs and pomegranate leaves are pounded with consecrated water and milk is added to the mixture, some of which is then poured out into a well from whence it will flow out to strengthen the whole of creation.
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Most information about prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra, Zardosht), son of Pourushaspa, of the Spitaman family comes from the Gathas, 17 hymns which were composed by the prophet and were preserved over the centuries by the Zoroastrian community. Gathas are inspired passionate utterances many addressed directly to God and their poetic form is the most ancient in Iranian literary works. The language is traced back to Indo-European times through Norse parallels. His teachings were handed down orally from generation to generation. They might have been written down since Parthian period but all that is left is from the Sassanian times, in Middle Persian... called Pahlavi.
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