The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Parsis have one of the most unusual funeral rituals of all religions. \u00a0Parsis are members of India's largest Zoroastrian community. They originally\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Parsis have one of the most unusual funeral rituals of all religions. \u00a0Parsis are members of India's largest Zoroastrian community. They originally\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Religions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-04T14:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-29T13:16:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2013\/06\/parsi231.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"356\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"213\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"George G. Coe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"George G. Coe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html\",\"name\":\"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-04T14:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-29T13:16:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f\"},\"description\":\"The Parsis have one of the most unusual funeral rituals of all religions. \u00a0Parsis are members of India's largest Zoroastrian community. They originally\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/\",\"name\":\"World Religions\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f\",\"name\":\"George G. Coe\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/author\/gccoe\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures","description":"The Parsis have one of the most unusual funeral rituals of all religions. \u00a0Parsis are members of India's largest Zoroastrian community. They originally","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures","og_description":"The Parsis have one of the most unusual funeral rituals of all religions. \u00a0Parsis are members of India's largest Zoroastrian community. They originally","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html","og_site_name":"World Religions","article_published_time":"2013-06-04T14:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-29T13:16:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":356,"height":213,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/433\/2013\/06\/parsi231.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"George G. Coe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"George G. Coe","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html","name":"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-04T14:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-29T13:16:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f"},"description":"The Parsis have one of the most unusual funeral rituals of all religions. \u00a0Parsis are members of India's largest Zoroastrian community. They originally","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/06\/the-parsi-and-vanishing-vultures.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Parsi and Vanishing Vultures"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/","name":"World Religions","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/#\/schema\/person\/c8608c711b76ea4be3eb28f4ed317e2f","name":"George G. Coe","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/author\/gccoe"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/div>\n

Their funeral rituals are unusual because they do not believe in burying or cremating their dead. They see that as polluting nature. Instead, according to this NPR story<\/a>,\u201dthe Parsi corpse is exposed to the rays of the sun, and the corpse is consumed or devoured by birds of prey \u2014 vultures, kites and crows.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0A problem developed last year when the population of vultures vanished. They tried solar concentrators to speed up decomoposition but the process was slow and made neighbors squeamish. Now the Indian government is setting up reserves for vultures and working hard to revive the population and restore the proper funeral rites to the Parsi.<\/p>\n

You can listen to the NPR broadcast of the story here<\/a>, \u00a0read \u00a0an older BBC news story<\/a> about Parsi funeral practices, and you can read this NY Times story<\/a> about Mumbai\u2019s effort to revive the vulture population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"