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Topic: Towers of Silence

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	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Towers of Silence
		Towers of Silence are circular raised structures used by Zoroastrians for exposure of the dead.
		The term "Tower of Silence" is a neologism attributed to one Robert Murphy, who in 1832 was a translator of the British colonial government in India.
		The towers, which are fairly uniform in their construction, have an almost flat roof, with the perimeter being slightly higher than the center.
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Towers_of_Silence (1071 words)

	Towers of Silence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		A late 19th century engraving of a Zoroastrian Tower of Silence in Mumbai.
		The Towers of Silence (also dakhma or dokhma or doongerwadi) are circular raised structures used by Zoroastrians for exposure of the dead.
		The right to use the Towers of Silence is a much debated issue among the Parsi community (see Parsi for details).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Towers_of_Silence (685 words)

	Indian History Sourcebook: Sir Monier Monier-Williams: The Towers of Silence, 1870
		Towers they scarcely deserve to be called; for the height of each is quite out of proportion to its diameter.
		I was informed by the Secretary that the largest of the five Towers was constructed at an outlay of three lakhs (300,000) of rupees.
		Each Tower is consecrated with solemn religious ceremonies, and after its consecration no one, except the corpse-bearers, ----not even a high-priest,---is allowed to enter, or to approach within thirty feet of the immediate precincts.
	www.fordham.edu /halsall/india/1870-monier-parsees.html (2894 words)

	Towers of Silence - Education - Information - Educational Resources - Encyclopedia - Music
		The Towers of Silence (also dakhma or dokhma) are Zoroastrian funerary towers, the majority of which are located in Mumbai, India, belonging to Parsi Zoroastrians, and in Yazd and Kerman, Iran, belonging to the Iranian Zoroastrians.
		Corpses are therefore are placed atop the Towers of Silence for their flesh to be consumed by vultures.
		In the Iranian Zoroastrian tradition, the Towers of Silence were built atop hills or low mountains in desert locations distant from population centers.
	www.music.us /education/T/Towers-of-Silence.htm (490 words)

	Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase & Fable. Towers of Silence.
		Towers in Persia and India, some sixty feet in height, on the top of which Parsees place the dead to be eaten by vultures.
		They carry their dead on a bier to the Tower of Silence.
		At the entrance they look their last on the dead, and the corpse-bearers carry the dead body within the precincts and lay it down to be devoured by vultures which crowd the tower.
	www.bartleby.com /81/16682.html (182 words)

	Babar Khan Essay 8
		After a Zoroastrian dies, instead of being buried in the ground, his or her body is left naked and, exposed atop the "Towers of Silence".
		Furthermore, vegetation and numerous trees around the Tower complex also facilitated in maintaining the presence of crows, vultures, and other birds of prey, which were so essential in process of disposing.
		The ‘Towers of Silence’ were tall cylindrical structures rising out of the ground.
	www.gpc.edu /~heritage/BabarKhanTowersofSilence.htm (1847 words)

	What are the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence? - Answerbag.com
		The Towers of Silence (also dakhma or dokhma) are Zoroastrian funerary towers, the majority of which are located in Mumbai, India, belonging to Parsi Zoroastrians, and in Yazd and Kerman, Iran, belonging to the Iranian Zoroastrians.
		Towers of Silence - where the Parsis 'bury' their dead by offering their ritually minced bodies to the vultures at a place in the heart of Bombay, a hilltop park refuge guarded and walled off in the heart of Malabar Hill.
		The Towers are really just circular concrete buildings with a platform around the inside edge of their squat top and a deep fl well plunging into darkness in their center (presumably that is where the cleaned bones go).
	www.answerbag.com /q_view.php/12519 (550 words)

	Bombay, India, Iran Embassy, Visa, Parsi, Zoroastrian, Towers of Silence, Bene Israel, Indian Jews
		Towers of Silence — where the Parsis ‘bury’ their dead by offering their ritually minced bodies to the vultures at a place in the heart of Bombay, a hilltop park refuge guarded and walled off in the heart of Malabar Hill.
		I got an illicit look down upon the Towers by bluffing my way into an adjacent building and cluelessly charging into the private penthouse terrace where workmen were fixing things up.
		The Towers are really just circular concrete buildings with a platform around the inside edge of their squat top and a deep fl well plunging into darkness in their center (I guess that is where the cleaned bones go).
	www.gorustic.com /bombay_interlude.htm (560 words)

	Science & Theology News - Traditional death rituals up in the air for Parsis (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Traditionally, the dead are left in the Towers of Silence, or dakhmas, for the elements of nature — the sun and wind — and birds of prey to dispose of.
		“I would opt to be consigned to the Tower of Silence — which has solar panels that work efficiently — provided my husband and children are permitted to participate in my last rites,” she said.
		In Mumbai, the towers that were once outside the city limits are now in the midst of a teeming metropolis.
	www.stnews.org /News-661.htm (844 words)

	As vultures die off, Parsee death rite in peril
		Last update: January 05, 2007 – 6:12 AM MUMBAI, India — When her mother died last year, Dhun Baria followed the religious practices of most Parsees, leaving the body in the Towers of Silence to be disposed of by vultures.
		Then, unsolicited pictures from inside the towers — off-limits to all but a few Parsees — started arriving at the apartment where Baria had lived with her mother for 56 years.
		Ader Gandi, 49, who runs several Parsee Internet sites, said he still wants his body to be taken to the Towers of Silence, despite seeing the pictures, which he likened to "images of a concentration camp." After looking at the photos, Gandi said they did not appear to be doctored.
	www.startribune.com /722/v-print/story/917255.html (849 words)

	10/03/00 -- India's Disappearing Vultures Cause for Grave Concern (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Ancient tradition dictates that the Parsis leave their dead on hilltops known as towers of silence for vultures to eat.
		In recent years, India's vulture population is estimated to have declined by as much as 90 percent, which has affected the rituals surrounding the mortal remains at the towers of silence.
		It is common for the Parsis to travel long distances to bring the dead to the five towers of silence in Mumbai.
	forests.org /archive/asia/indisavu.htm (624 words)

	12/28/01 -- India Vulture Die-Off Spurs Carcass Crisis
		For the past 400 years Parsis in and around Bombay have taken their dead to an area of secluded parkland, a 57-acre (23-hectare) hill that was originally on the outskirts of the city but is now surrounded by urban sprawl.
		Until the 1990s the Towers of Silence had proved an efficient way to deal with dead bodies with hundreds of birds perching on the towers.
		But when Parry-Jones visited the towers in 1999 no vultures were seen at the towers, leaving the Parsis community with the rather urgent issue of how to deal with the mounting numbers of dead bodies.
	forests.org /archive/asia/invuldie.htm (1933 words)

	Religion: Parsis: Ruffled Feathers
		I heard the harsh cry of the vultures and knew that in a matter of minutes they would strip the flesh from the bones.
		The Parsi Towers Of Silence stand on Malabar Hill shrouded by a thick, beautiful forest where buzzards co-exist with peacocks, right next to some of the swankiest skyscrapers in town.
		His verdict: "The community must move ahead by basing its future on its past." Going by the crowded register at Mumbai's Towers Of Silence, most Parsis still seem to agree.
	www.india-today.com /itoday/20000731/religion2.html (672 words)

	Viridian Note
		The desert ritual which originated along with their faith in Persia over 3,000 years ago dictates that the dead be left to vultures on hilltops known as Towers of Silence.
		"The fl stone towers, around 50ft high, are like three- tiered, open-air arenas where the men are placed in the outer circle, women in the middle and children in the innermost for the vultures to feed upon.
		However, with an average of three Parsees dying every day, the six-odd vultures at the towers are overfed and unable to cope.
	www.viridiandesign.org /notes/251-300/00259_solar_vultures.html (620 words)

	TIME.com: The Towers of Silence -- Apr. 1, 1974 -- Page 1
		Residents of Bombay know them as dokhmas—the "towers of silence." It is to these structures that the city's powerful community of Parsis bring the bodies of their dead, exposing them to the air so that scavenger birds can pick the corpses clean.
		Because the earth is also sacred (as is water), they choose to bury only the bones of their dead—after the flesh has been stripped away in the towers of silence.
		Now both the tower ritual and the Parsi community itself seem to be on the decline.
	www.time.com /time/magazine/article/0,9171,904059,00.html (719 words)

	Guardian \| Silence for Twin Towers dead
		Although officials at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the government office leading the plans for the anniversary, said that there would 'obviously be no compulsion' about observing the silence, it is expected that all government departments, the police, hospitals, schools and most companies will respect the call.
		A fourth plane, thought to be heading for the White House, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers attacked the hijackers in the cockpit.
		The silence will be the centrepiece of a national day of memorial.
	www.guardian.co.uk /print/0,,4492433-110243,00.html (1004 words)

	The Towers of Silence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Towers of Silence is the 1971 novel by Paul Scott that continues his Raj Quartet.
		It gets its title from the Parsi Towers of Silence where the bodies of the dead are left to be picked clean by vultures.
		Her view is of the Parsees' towers of silence of the title.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/The_Towers_of_Silence (4160 words)

	BBC News \| SOUTH ASIA \| Parsis turn to solar power
		The Towers of Silence are closed to outsiders
		These large cylindrical towers built out of rock with a pit in the centre are closed to all outsiders.
		The $30,000 machine has been installed in one of the Towers of Silence and is showing good results.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/world/south_asia/1443789.stm (502 words)

	Livius Picture Archive: Yazd
		Until it was forbidden in 1970, one of the customs of the Zoroastrians was that they exposed their dead to the birds in "towers of silence" (Dakhmeh).
		The custom (but not the towers) is described by the Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and also by Onesicritus, who says that the dead were exposed in "areas surrounded by walls".
		What we do know, however, is that the towers of silence are mentioned in the late Sassanid age, and that the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote in the fifth century BCE that the bodies of the
	www.livius.org /a/iran/yazd/yazd.html (312 words)

	Vanishing Vulture Linked to Rise in Human Anthrax
		The Parsi religion dictates that the dead should be left on hilltops, known as towers of silence.
		And in the towers of silence, the dead bodies are mounting.
		The Parsis unique religion is marked by its tradition regarding death, which calls for bodies to be left to vultures on hilltops known as towers of silence.
	www.ens-newswire.com /ens/feb2001/2001-02-12-10.asp (861 words)

	City - Towers of Silence to get solar panels
		Solar panels to dispose of the dead of the Parsi-Zoroastrian community will be installed by March at all towers of the Towers of Silence, Malabar Hill.
		In Mumbai, for over 200 years, the community has relied on vultures and other birds of prey to dispose of dead bodies consigned to the Towers of Silence, also called Doongerwadi.
		Solar concentrators to be used at the Towers of Silence are made in Baroda by Ronnie Sabawalla, a solar energy specialist.
	www.mid-day.com /News/City/2002/September/32122.htm (467 words)

	Tower of silence (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Studying the conditional reflexes Pavlov came to the necessity to isolate completely the experimental dog from any exterior influences during the experiment.
		For this purpose he made a project of a very special construction, named "Tower of Silence", with 8 experimental sound-proof cameras, separated by spiral staircases and passages with noiseless covering.
		With the help of Prince Oldenburgsky and Ledenzov charitable company this project was realized in 1913-1917.
	www.iemrams.spb.ru:8101 /english/pav-tower.htm (287 words)

	Mario's Cyberspace Station: Towers of silence
		"The towers will be the last fortifications to go down.We'd lose bases first," a senior army source said.
		The heavily defended British Army barracks in Newtonhamilton, South Armagh, a region with a history of IRA terrorism. In one such incident, In 1975, four Protestants were killed and seven injured when two masked men entered the local Orange hall and fired at random into the crowd.
		In Londonderry, one observation tower, perched above the city's historic walls at Bishop Street, was given a coat of stone cladding, like a suburban house, in a vain effort to make it blend into the Williamite fortifications.
	mprofaca.cro.net /towers.html (401 words)

	Wired News: Innovation in the Dead Zone
		Parsis place their dead in a dakhma, a consecrated Tower of Silence, to await the vultures.
		In Bombay, there are five Towers of Silence -- concrete amphitheaters, 88 feet in diameter, set on pillars within the 55-acre doongerwadi, a lush garden cemetery that has stood atop Malabar Hill, the city's wealthiest neighborhood, since 1673.
		They recently installed four solar panels on their Towers of Silence, using modern technology to complement one of mankind's oldest funereal rites.
	www.wired.com /news/culture/0,1284,57610,00.html (779 words)

	Authors on the Web - Books That Changed After 9/11
		The book was originally entitled Towers of Silence and the artwork that had been finalized a day earlier showed the Twin Towers with vultures circling around it.
		Whilst the name of the book was partially intended to evoke the skyscraper landscape of Manhattan, the "Towers of Silence" actually refer to the funeral precinct in Bombay where members of the Parsi religion lay out their dead.
		There was no hesitation on the part of myself and my publishers in the US and UK that the title and the cover had to change.
	www.authorsontheweb.com /features/0209-911/911-q3.asp (1744 words)

	A Photographic Journey - Parsis - The Zoroastrians of India by Sooni Taraporevala \| Chapter Eight
		A resident peacock camouflaged by the surroundings at Doongerwadi, the Towers of Silence.
		The Towers of Silence (Doongerwadi) have existed in Bombay since 1673.
		The development of Malabar Hill did not affect the Parsis until the seventies, when a block of skyscrapers were built on land adjoining Doongerwadi.
	www.parsijourney.com /chapters/eight/cheight.html (784 words)

	In The Towers Of Silence, An Ancient Ritual Of Death Comes Under Threat
		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.
		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 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.
	www.freerepublic.com /focus/f-news/1699782/posts (2764 words)

	Vulture Decline Affects Ancient Ritual -- Beliefnet.com
		BOMBAY, Sept. 12 -- India's small Zoroastrian community is shaken as the country's falling population of vultures threatens its ancient ritual for disposing of the dead.
		The community, known as Parsis, leaves its dead in the Towers of Silence where the bodies are consumed by vultures.
		The ritual calls for the bodies to be placed in Towers of Silence where they should be picked clean by vultures.
	www.beliefnet.com /story/199/story_19953_1.html (244 words)

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