Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class

8 February, 2012 — yazdi

North American Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class  -

Sunday January 22 11 AM (SST)      Ervad Soli P. Dastur
A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on January 22nd by Ervad Soli P. Dastur from his home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida. About 40+ people joined in by calling a Tele-meeting phone number. The people were from both Canada and USA, from NY to Dallas and even LA, Montreal to Miami. The class material was a PowerPoint Presentation on The Zoroastrian Ceremonies. We followed Dr. J. J. Modi’s famous book:

  The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees which is now available on Internet at: http://www.avesta.org/ritual/rcc.htm

Thanks to my very good friend Joseph Peterson. We also introduced the two Gujarati Pav Mahel books used by all Mobeds all over the world.

The Greek historian Herodotus famous book: Histories was also introduces as a rich source of the belief and social customs of the Persian during the Hakhaminian Dynasty of Darius, Xerxes, etc. The two NAMC books on Jashan and Obsequies by our own Mobeds Jehan Bagli and Adi Unwalla were also introduced.

A very broad brush summary of all 30+ ceremonies were given with actual photos of the ceremonies. The ceremonies cover Socio-Religious, Purification, Initiation, Consecration and Inner andOuter Liturgical Ceremonies. It also put special emphasis to those ceremonies that are possible to perform in North American context. Finally, as it is becoming our custom, the permanent question: “We do not understand what we are praying in our daily prayers” was answered by suggesting some alternatives. The final prayer in English, from Dr. Dhalla’s book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda: “Orthodoxy, courts puerilities (immaturities, childishness, foolishness) of dogmatic theology, casuistry (deceptive, fallacious, dishonest) and irrational formalism”,was recited by all together ending with our signature Zoroastrian greeting of: “Hamaa Zor, Hamaa Asho Bade” (May we be united in righteousness) performed by all attending the Class, a cyber Hamaa Zor all over North America!

Before the Cyber Hum Bandagi, we showed a part of the Bui Ceremony video performed by our own Mobed Kobad Jamshed in the beautiful San Jose Dar-e-Meher in his beautiful sonorous voice! The peals of the bell brought a magic environment to all listeners!

The PowerPoint Presentation slides and 1 explanatory file for the daily prayers were sent out to all participants ahead of time. In most homes, families gathered in front of their computers following slides of this presentation as I spoke about them from my home. These files are attached to this message.

We also request all of you to suggest what topics we should cover in the next Tele Classes.

Many of the interested Humdins all over the Hafta Keshwar Zamin wanted us to place this one hour class as an Internet video. So, we have uploaded the whole Tele Class on YouTube in 10 segments so as to be within 10 minute restriction in YouTube.

All 10 segments can be viewed underneath this message :
Thank you all for your participation and interest in these Tele Classes.
Please note that the next Tele Class will be on Sunday March 11th and we will present the details of the ceremonies of Navjote, Sedreh Pushi and Parsi and Irani Z weddings. Hope you all can join us in this Tele Class.

May the Flame of Fellowship, Love, Charity and Tolerance burn ever eternal in our hearts so we can do HIS work with humility, diligence and eternal enthusiasm!

Atha Jamyaat, Yatha Aafrinaami! (May it be so as I wish!)

Love and Tandoorasti, Soli

Click Here to download the Powerpoint Presentation to go with the videos

20120122 NA Tele Class Ceremonies 001

Tele Class 6th Prayer Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda background

Posted in Galleries, Religion, Rituals and practices. Leave a Comment »

A peek inside Delhi’s fire temple

2 February, 2012 — yazdi

One of my Parsi friends standing next to me whispered, “You are going to be part of our history! It is the first time that the Parsi prayers are being performed out in the open for the Non-Parsis to be a part of them.” It was a revelatory moment for me to see the Parsi priests standing on an elevated platform to perform their liturgical ceremonies. The reading from the Holy Scriptures and performances of the rituals circumscribing the holy fire was a sight of sheer beauty and joy. The holy fire burnt with élan while the vessel in which it burnt mirrored the performing priests. The event marked a new episode in the lives of the Delhi Parsis. The non-Parsi spouses were the star attraction in this historic religious event. It was an attempt to include the excluded from the community and make them feel at home, a part of the commune.

Click Here for the full story

Posted in Agiaries and Atash Behrams, News, Religion. 1 Comment »

Jashan Prayers with Understanding

2 February, 2012 — yazdi

Jashan Prayers with Understanding

Text and Translations from “My Prayer Guide” by Dastoorji M. D. Minocheher-Homji

Published by Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Chicago – with grateful thanks to Roshan Rivetna for donating the cost of printing and shipping.

Click Here for the full book online with kind permission from Roshan and Rohinton Rivetna

Posted in Books, Religion. Leave a Comment »

ZACUCE Launches New Website

30 January, 2012 — yazdi

Be sure to check out the new ZoroastrianReligion.org website. The site was created as a way to educate visitors on the great legacy of the Zoroastrian faith and to appeal for donations to help establish a Zoroastrian Cultural Center (ZACUCE) in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware area. Please spread the word!

Posted in Miscellaneous, News, Religion. Leave a Comment »

3750 years of Zarathushtra’s teachings

25 January, 2012 — yazdi

Friends

I am forwarding  this message on behalf of Feridoon Demehri, of Vancouver,  one of the organizers for the celebrations to commemorate 3750 years of  Zarathushtra’s teachings . A Conference is being held in June 2012,  at Vancouver,  as part of the celebrations .

3750 years is a milestone of historic proportions, Asho Zarathushtra propounded his teachings which delivered a universal message of peace, social justice, and righteousness.
Aptly, in a world currently riddled with so much turmoil, we would like to increase the awareness of Zarathushtra’s teachings by means of a global celebration”    SEE ATTACHMENT

Please support these celebrations by informing your friends and publishing in your electronic newsletters and bulletins.

Thank you   
Dolly Dastoor Ph.D
2012 FEZANA Silver Jubilee
www.fezana.org

Check out their website at http://3750z.com/

3750 celebrations

Posted in Calendar, History, Religion. Leave a Comment »

Norwegian Ph.D. student looking for Parsi research assistants in Bombay

28 December, 2011 — yazdi

My name is Håkon Tandberg, and I’m a Ph.D. researcher from Norway studying Zoroastrianism. I’ve earlier enjoyed a research visit among the Parsis in Mumbai (2008), and will now return for 6 weeks this upcoming February. I’m looking for two (or more) Parsi individuals (of both sexes) that would be interested in working together with me as research assistants for a short period of time. The list below is a preliminary sketch of requirements, but is open to flexible modifications as per the interest(s) and time resources of the assistant.

Research time span: 4 weeks (20 Feb – 19 March, on selected days during this period depending on the assistant’s schedule and wishes)

Time duration: 2-4 hour shifts (X many shifts, depending on the assistant’s schedule and wishes)

Type of work: Observe religious worship at an agiary (in agreement with the specific panthak and head priest)

Compensation: Hour based, payment according to contract (INR 200 pr.hour, negotiable – contact me for more specific information)

Requirements: Fluency in English (and Gujarati), ability to cooperate and some religious knowledge/literacy

If this sounds interesting, please contact me for more details concerning the specific research, my main contacts in Mumbai, or anything relating to these issues. Please do not hesitate to pass on
the information to someone you think would be interested.
Kind regards,
Håkon TandbergUniversity of BergenNorway

Email: hakon.tandberg@ahkr.uib.no or hakon.tandberg@gmail.com

Phone: +0047 55582472

Courtesy : Dinyar Patel

Posted in News, Religion. 3 Comments »

Z Places of Worship

20 December, 2011 — yazdi

Fifth NAZ Religion Seminar – videos – Z Places of Worship

North American Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class  - Sunday December 11 11 AM (SST) Ervad Soli P. Dastur

A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on December 11th by Ervad Soli P. Dastur from his home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida.

About 60+ people joined in by calling a Tele-meeting phone number. The people were from both Canada and USA, from NY to Dallas, Montreal to Miami.

The class material was a PowerPoint Presentation on The Zoroastrian Places of Worship (ZPOW). It covered the consecration ceremonies of Atash Behrams,

Adarians and Dadgahs. It presented Marzban Giara’s excellent book on our Global ZPOW as well as Homi & Diane Limbuwalla’s website of ZPOW with Google maps.

Photos of some ZPOWs all over the world were presented. A short account of the Proper Etiquette for presenting oneself to this ZPOWs was given. A historical evolution of our ZPOWs from Iran to India was discussed. Finally, the permanent question: “We do not understand what we are praying in our daily prayers” was answered by suggesting some alternatives. The final prayer in English, from Dr. Dhalla’s book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda: “May thy Fire burn forever in my house, Ahura Mazda”, was recited by all together ending with our signature Zoroastrian greeting of: “Hamaa Zor, Hamaa Asho Bade” (May we be united in righteousness) performed by all attending the Class, a cyber Hamaa Zor all over North America!

The PowerPoint Presentation slides and 1 explanatory file for the daily prayers were sent out to all participants ahead of time. In most homes, families gathered in front of their computers following slides of this presentation as I spoke about them from my home. In Orlando, a group of 20+ of our Central Florida Group members came together in a conference room, thanks to our own Dinyar Mehta and Perzid Ichaporia, and the slides were projected on the screen for all to see. These files are attached to this message. Many of the interested Humdins wanted us to place this one hour class as an Internet video. Last one was done by Yazdi Tantra and his associates in Mumbai on his excellent website from the one hour video Jo Ann recorded in our home. Our FEZANA President Bomi Patel referred me to Rumi Jasavala, OZCF, Toronto, Canada who has done quite a bit of work on Video Conferencing. Rumi helped me to put this recent Tele Class video Jo Ann recorded on YouTube. In order to meet the YouTube restrictions of length, I had to create 8 segments of these one hour Tele Class video and have successfully uploaded them in YouTube and we are pleased to inform you that all you Hafta Keshwar Zamin Humdins can access them at the YouTube:

Please let me know what you think of it.

Please note that I am not yet an expert in YouTube. This is my first encounter with it and I will be improving these segments to make them better in future. Hope you all enjoy seeing them. Once again, thank you Rumi for all your help.

May the Flame of Fellowship, Love, Charity, Tolerance burn ever eternal in our hearts so we can do HIS work with humility, diligence and eternal enthusiasm!

 Atha Jamyaat, Yatha Aafrinaami! (May it be so as I wish!)

Love and Tandoorasti, Soli Dastur
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Zoroastrianism in China

19 December, 2011 — yazdi
Summary of my two months field research in China
(All Rights Protected)
Dr. Pallan Ichaporia

1.     The decorations  on tomb epitaphs of Ke Jing, a Zoroastrian of Northern Wei

  period has the  names of the Zoroastrian deities identified by scholar Shi   

  Anchang.

2.      Unearthed at Anyang in 1920 are the Zoroastrian elements on Qi mortuary, carved on a Sogdian-Zoroastrian ossuary now in the Palace Museum, Peking.

3.     Two recently discovered masterpieces of stone carvings. One  in 1999 from  excavated tomb of Zoroastrian Yu Hong in Taiyun, Shanxi province dated to Sui dynasty. The second major discovery are the stone carvings on the screen surrounding a mortuary divan found during the excavation in May-July 2000 in the tomb of another Zoroastrian aristocrat An Qi  in Xi’an, in Shaanxi province.

4.     The full excavation of Zoroastrian temple in Jiexiu county town, was examined by me.  The inscriptions record its first construction as Xuanshen-lou meaning Zoroastrian Temple. The inscriptions record its construction during the Northern Song dynasty and it was repaired in 1674 during theKangxi period.

5.     The partly excavated Zoroastrian Temple at  Dunhuang, (see Dunhuang Research, Dunhuang Academy, Dunhaung, Gansu, 1999).. The excavation will be completed in 2012. This was also examined on my recent field study.

6.     In 1955 archeologists unearthed The Tomb Epitaph of Lady Ma, the wife ofSu Liang near the western gate of Xi’an. The epitaph was inscribed in two languages – Chinese and Pahlavi. It is the most important bilingual text evidence of the presence of Zoroastrians in ancient China. The Japanese scholar Itoo Yoshinori published a study “A linguistic study of the Pahlavi in the bilingual in the Chinese-Pahlavi epitaph unearthed in Xi’an, 1964”,  and he concluded that the family traveled  beyond Amu Darya (Oxus River)  towards east in the wake of the Arab invasion and arrived in China during early Tang dynasty. This inscription was further studied by W.Sunderman  and T.Thilo in 1966,and J.Harmata in 1971 . Helmut Humbach and Wang Shippimg refined the interpretation of the epitaph, see “Die Pahlavi-Chineseche bilingue von Xi’an”, Acta Iranica, 28, 1988.

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Zarathushti daily prayers

3 December, 2011 — yazdi

Dear Zarathustis,

I have created a website at the request of a few parents whose children have reached the age when they can start reciting our prayers. It will be beneficial to our young Zarathusti children who are preparing to learn their daily prayers for their navjote ceremony.

Please click on the link below to access my website:

https://sites.google.com/site/ZarathushtiPrayers/

On the left are links to the basic prayers which are recited at a slower pace so the child can catch the proper pronunciations. On the right are the same prayers and a few more recited at a regular pace.  Please feel free to download the prayers you need and also pass this along to others who are unaware of this website.  Hope you will find this website useful.

Rohinton Keki Tarapore

Posted in Galleries, Religion. Tags: , , . 1 Comment »

Boi Prayer on You Tube

30 November, 2011 — yazdi

Dear friends,

How would you like to hear and participate in the recital of our beautiful “ B O I prayers”  from your  computer, cell phone  or tablet ?  Or   for the prayer to be heard as you drive on your way to work ?

Please click on the  link below and hear the serene voice of our Ervad  Kobad Jamshed, sing out the prayers in his rich sonorous tone.

The Prayer  comes to you in two parts as YouTube has a limit on size and length of time, hence the two URL links.

It is on YouTube but not listed, only those who get the link can see it.

 

So if you give out the link, request the person to maintain reasonable  safeguards. Please DO NOT paste the link on public forums like Facebook.

Turn your speakers on for a virtual “Dar-E-Meher”  kind of experience”, and  imagine yourself being in front of the fire with a Dastur performing the beautiful prayers, once if not 5 times a day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8UuKifnxBs             PART 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUdjkWopxEE           PART 2

Ushte  te

Rusi Sorabji

 

 

Posted in Religion, Rituals and practices. Leave a Comment »
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