Towers of Silence - 99% Invisible
You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.
Submit Search
YouTube
TikTok
Threads
Discord
Bluesky
99% Invisible Newsletter
100% Fascinating
Email Address
Yes Please! By submitting this form, you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, that you understand them, and that you agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to be bound by the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, you may not use the 99% Invisible website and services.
see recent newsletter
Close
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Leave a Comment
Situated right near downtown Mumbai, India is an area of about 55 acres of dense, overgrown forest. In one of the most populous cities in the world, this is a place where peacocks roam freely — a space out of time. This forest is protected by a religious community. It has survived in a relatively undeveloped state in the middle of this gargantuan city. Importantly, it’s also home to an ancient tradition that’s in crisis — one that is central to the lives (and deaths) of a particular population.
There’s a certain point in this forest beyond which almost no one can step — only special caretakers of these grounds can go any further. They go by many names: khandia, nassassalar, pallbearer, corpse bearer. Their work here is holy. They carry dead bodies to their final resting place – atop stone structures that stand gray against the lush green. These buildings are called Towers of Silence.
The Towers of Silence are part of a death ritual carried out by Parsis, a small but prosperous community in India. Parsis practice Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic religion originally from Iran. Zoroastrians in Iran were persecuted in the 7th century during the rise of the Islamic Empire, and Muslim armies gave surviving Zoroastrians a choice: conversion or exile. Eventually, a small group of Zoroastrians fled Iran for the shores of Western India, bringing with them any surviving fragments of tradition.
Zoroastrians who settled all over India came to be known as Parsis. Eventually, in the 1600s, Mumbai became their epicenter. This was back when this city was still a collection of swampy, mosquito-infested islands, seemingly far enough away from the civilized world. A few wealthy Parsis bought a vast expanse of land here, and they gave it to the community for one specific purpose.
The Towers of Silence are where Parsis place their dead. And, despite its imposing gothic-era name that’s used by Parsis and non-Parsis alike, Towers of Silence aren’t actually all that towering at all. These structures got that name by the British who wanted an English term to describe them. And in doing so, they made them sound perhaps a bit more grandiose than they actually are.
These Towers, also known simply as dakhmas, are built of stone, usually up to 50 feet tall and up to about 100 feet wide. Imagine something more like an open-aired amphitheater; each Tower is circular and roofless. There are markers indicating where bodies should be placed. And in the very center, there’s a deep well – storage for the bones of Parsi bodies. Wherever large clusters of Parsis settled, they would cultivate forests, or Doongerwadis, and build dakhmas inside them. Five dakhmas were built here in Mumbai which in total are able to handle over a thousand corpses a year.
Zoroastrians have practiced this ritual of sky burial in Mumbai for centuries. According to the faith, as soon as we die, our bodies become contaminated with evil. And this evil must not, under any circumstance, make contact with the sacred elements of fire, water, and earth. Instead, the corpse bearers will place the body atop one of these Towers. Then, they will wait for the vultures to come.
Circling Overhead
According to some estimates there were once at least around 40 million vultures throughout India. But no one will ever really know an exact number. They were so plentiful, in fact, that no scientific efforts were ever made to do a population count. India’s civil aviation department would even hire people to shoot vultures around airports because they posed such a hazard to air traffic. In the sky, vultures loom large, casting shadows with 8-foot wingspans. And on the ground, sometimes you can only see their bodies, their bald heads often buried deep inside a fresh carcass.
And yet for centuries, a very specific symbiosis played out here in Mumbai, between these vultures, this forest, and the Parsis. Time passed, wars came and went, cities grew, trees fell. But this practice survived. In Mumbai, approximately three new bodies were carried up every day. It was an efficient send-off, one in which your body became your final offering to the natural world. Most of all, it was tradition.
But this tradition would begin to unravel.
A Seamless Cycle for Centuries
Parsis practiced this system of placing deceased...