Dakhma

The term Dachma (Persian دخمه, DMG Dahme ) means in Persian grave (times), but refers, in particular buildings, which are also called towers of silence and serve the Zoroastrians as places for sky burials.

The parsing and other Zoroastrians, it is still customary to place corpses in round towers, where flesh and soft parts of birds, such as vultures and ravens, are eaten.

Originally the bodies were stored individually as the "sun burial " of water and plant -free, raised spots on rocks that were surrounded with small walls. This Ummauerungen should prevent the dead were eaten by land predators, because only the desired consumption was caused by birds.

The round tower - Dachma serving entire communities is occupied only since the Islamic period. In mountain Dachmas is Ummauerungen of rock domes without further embellishments. The excavated by the birds, but also wind and weather bones were then collected in rock pits or in stone boxes, called Astodanen.

Dachmas can be found today in Iran and India. For example, in Mumbai on Malabar Hill ( 18 ° 57 ' 34 "N, 72 ° 48' 18" O18.95954572.805023 ) there are several Dachmas.

Many authors this burial method is explained by the fact that the parsing in addition to air and water and earth and fire are sacred, so must not be contaminated by the impure body, so that prohibit natural gas and cremation. If no Dachme available, the Parsis prefer cremation. In contrast, the Persian followers of Zarathustra leave, since a ban makes in the seventies them the use of their towers of silence about in the area of Yazd impossible not to contaminate the earth, buried in concrete coffins.

It now seems also possible that the Zoroastrians have retained only a very old tradition of burial here. In one of the oldest found so far larger settlement sites in the world, Çatalhöyük, were found namely wall drawings that represent the funeral by exposing the dead bodies as food for the birds. The gnawed bones were buried in the interior of the houses in the clay.

Klaus Schmidt, head of the excavation of the oldest stone hitherto discovered temple of humanity on the Gobekli Tepe, considers it possible that this was also used as Dachma.

The feeding of corpses to birds was common among the Mongols and is practiced by some Tibetans to this day.