What Is The Significance Of The Vulture In The Zoroastrian Religion?
It is against the Zoroastrian faith to bury, cremate or submerge their dead. Instead after death the body is taken to the Tower of Silence and left there to be consumed by vultures that are birds of prey. This may seem to be a very barbaric act to the more formal Western culture. However in the Zoroastrian faith earth, fire and water are considered to be very scared. And death is seen as an act of the devil not of God. Thus using any of the elements of nature like earth, water and fire to dispose of the bodies of the dead is committing sacrilege. The Tower of Silence is a cylindrical shaped tower built out of rock and has a pit in the centre. This tower is enclosed form all sides and outsiders are not allowed to enter. The bodies which are stripped of all clothing are kept on the tower in open view of the vultures. An aid is assigned the job of pushing the picked bones to the pit; he does this with the help of a pair of tongs. Class and status do not matter; hence this form of disposin
