[HN Gopher] How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran
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How Indian Zoroastrians helped shape modern Iran
Author : Thevet
Score : 60 points
Date : 2021-06-14 07:38 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (lareviewofbooks.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (lareviewofbooks.org)
| wombatmobile wrote:
| Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest continuously
| practiced religions, based on the teachings of the Iranian-
| speaking prophet Zoroaster.
|
| In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to become an ashavan (a
| master of Asha, the life force) and to bring happiness into the
| world, which contributes to the cosmic battle against evil.
| Zoroastrianism's core teachings include:
|
| Follow the Threefold Path of Asha: Humata, Huxta, Huvarshta (Good
| Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds).
|
| Charity is a way of maintaining one's soul aligned to Asha and to
| spread happiness.
|
| The spiritual equality and duty of men and women alike.
|
| Being good for the sake of goodness and without the hope of
| reward.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
| discreteevent wrote:
| I've been to the fire temple in Yazd and there was an
| inscription on the wall. I don't remember the details but the
| main gist of it was about remaining open minded and welcoming
| new ideas. I'm not sure if this is a core tenet of
| Zoroastrianism or if it was a local thing but I don't know of
| another ancient religion with that emphasis.
| sydthrowaway wrote:
| There is also a link between Zoroastrianism and the ancient
| Vedic religion. They probably were the same before a schism led
| by Zoroaster.
| agency wrote:
| I recently stumbled on another ancient Iranian religion, that of
| the prophet Mani[1] and had a strong Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon
| thing where in the next couple of days I read the word
| "Manichean" used colloquially twice. I guess l it is used to
| describe a kind of over simplistic good vs. evil dualism.
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_(prophet)
| nsmog767 wrote:
| I am 25% Parsi but didn't know much of the history. Really
| interesting.
| eternalban wrote:
| The Pahlavi kings were Shi'ite Muslims. This article is spinning
| a revisionist narrative that has a mild whiff of using religion
| to divide a people. I lived in the Pahlavi Iran, which is
| certainly missed, but the notion that there was "neo-
| Zoroastrianism" in the air is news to me. Zoroaster was very
| simply framed as one of the prophets that the Muslim scripture
| asserts has been sent to "every nation" by God. Iranians were
| rather fed (and many actually believe this!) an interesting fable
| about how Shia Islam is the Iranian version of Islam.
|
| And from the 3 major classical Iranian empires and eras, it was
| not the very assertively Zoroastrian Sassanid empire that was
| memorialized and used as a vehicle to promote nationalism by
| Pahlavi Shahs, but rather the Hakhamaneshian (Achaemenid)
| dynasty. When the late Shah of Iran held his memorial to 2500
| years of Iranian kings, he saluted Cyrus the Great, not some
| zealously Zoroastrian Sassanid Shah.
|
| http://irancollection.alborzi.com/2500/index.htm
|
| Note the missing "flame". Note, instead, the Cylinder of Ku-Rosh
| (Cyrus the Great). And Cyrus, unlike his equally great successor
| Dariush, was rather cagey about his actual religious beliefs.
|
| Even in what passes for native "neo-classical" architecture, it
| was again the Achaemenid era that was front and center.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iranian_Foreign_Affaire_M...
| yazaddaruvala wrote:
| I am both Zoroastrian and Parsi, and while I adore seeing these
| articles on the top of HN (i.e. on a global stage), I am
| extremely curious:
|
| Who is upvoting these articles about my mostly forgotten culture
| and why?
| dpeck wrote:
| I've found that many of us who try to stay on the "cutting
| edge" of new wrt our professions and hobbies also have an
| interest in history of people and religions. Not a complete
| overlap by any means, but it isn't an uncommon pairing to find
| in people.
|
| Interesting archeological news, and things about less well know
| cultures are often shared and upvoted here as well.
| virgulino wrote:
| I am, because Also sprach Zarathustra.
| blackoil wrote:
| Indian religions are interesting topic. It is birthplace of major
| religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.
|
| Hinduism the most popular religion is unlike any other. Over time
| it is constantly modified and evolved. While Christianity and
| islam grew by replacing previous practices, Hinduism stitched all
| into one. So it has trees, fire, wind deity as well as abstract
| gods. Popular schools with different thoughts evolved and merged
| into a unified stream.
|
| Sadly recent radicalisation have dented its malleability.
| rocknor wrote:
| Hinduism is not really a "religion", as the western term
| implies. From Wikipedia
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism#Definitions
|
| _Hinduism includes a diversity of ideas on spirituality and
| traditions, but has no ecclesiastical order, no unquestionable
| religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet(s) nor any
| binding holy book; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic,
| pantheistic, panentheistic, pandeistic, henotheistic,
| monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist.
| According to Doniger, "ideas about all the major issues of
| faith and lifestyle - vegetarianism, nonviolence, belief in
| rebirth, even caste - are subjects of debate, not dogma._
|
| > Sadly recent radicalisation have dented its malleability.
|
| Hindutva shouldn't be confused with Hinduism:
| https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/on-th...
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