Parsi Sky Burials

Surely you know the word “incarnation,” but did you know that “excarnation” is a word, too?

Read on!

Also, see that pink building? There’s an interesting reason why so many birds are soaring nearby.

In 1931, Mumbai’s Parsi population, Iranian immigrants who practice the Zoroastrian religion, erected that pink building. It’s called a “Dakhma,” meaning “Tower of Silence.”

Inside the Tower of Silence, there is a chute leading to a private beach. The Parsi people send their dead down that chute so that scavenging birds can eat the bodies at this excarnation site.

For many decades, there were plenty of vultures to complete this task. Sadly, since the late 1990s, the birds are extinct in this region.

As always, there’s some debate as to why the vultures are gone. A likely reason is that the birds died from painkillers in the corpses which are toxic to them. The pain killers came on the market just as the vultures began to decline.

Our guide, who is with the official Mumbai tourist office, didn’t want to talk much about it, so I didn’t press her, but I’ve read about the issue before our trip.

These days, there are ravens and kites still swarming over the Tower of Silence, but they are not as efficient as vultures.

It can now take a couple months for the bodies to fully decompose here, alas. These remains are not easily visible, though, and only Parsis are allowed to visit the excarnation site.

To make up for the lack of vultures, solar panels have been added to the area. They add heat to the decaying bodies, which hastens the excarnation process.

So why do the Parsis prefer these “sky burials” over traditional burials?

To Parsi people, the earth and its waterways are sacred. Letting vultures dispose of their dead keeps them from polluting the earth with a corpse.

It’s an interesting practice, isn’t it? If it weren’t for the vulture/painkiller conundrum, it seems like a good idea for those who want a green burial.Read more