T H E E N D C O M M U N E

       The Towers of Silence

Lo, behold the Dakhma―known in the English language as the Towers of Silence (a popular neologism). Dakhmas are circle-shaped constructions erected as a part of funerary ritualism by adherents of the Zoroastrian faith. According to their belief, the body of a deceased human is considered impure, tainted and contagious. They believe that unclean demonic entities ravage the body after death, spreading their filth and disease through the body, thus making it in unclean and biohazardous. In regards of this idea, they instead offer their dead to vultures and other scavenging birds at the top of Dakhmas―Towers of Silence. The practice is a dying custom and not many legally sanctioned Dakhmas exist today except a few―the one in Mumbai, India, being perhaps the most famous example.