Tower of Silence(dakhma)/SIVA TIME

            TOWER OF SILENCE

                 DAKHMA

A dakhma, also known as the Tower of Silence, is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation–that is, the exposure of human cadavers to the elements for decay in order to avert contamination of the soil with the corpses.

Locally called the doongerwadi, the tower’s raised circular structure has three rows—the outer row is for the men, the central row for the women, and the innermost for children. The premises also contain small structures called bunglis, where prayers are recited before the body is carried to the dakhma by the special caretakers, called khandias.Once the bones have been bleached by the sun and wind, which can take as long as a year, they are collected in an ossuary pit at the centre of the tower, where–assisted by lime–they gradually disintegrate, and the remaining material–along with run-off rainwater–runs through multiple coal and sand filters before being eventually washed out to sea.During contamination bad smell travel through the air for 20 kilometers.

Carrion birds, usually vultures and other scavengers, would typically consume the flesh and the skeletal remains would have been left in the pit.

The use of towers is first documented in the early 9th century CE.

The doctrinal rationale for exposure is to avoid contact with Earth, Water, or Fire, all three of which are considered sacred in the Zoroastrian religion.

technical term that appears in the 9th/10th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition (the so-called "Pahlavi books") is dakhmag, for any place for the dead.

                         

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