Birds in Religion and Spirituality
Images of birds considered to be sacred can be found in almost every culture dating from ancient times. Water birds, such as storks and pelicans, are traditional symbols of purification. Their depiction as consuming snakes represents the triumph of good over evil and the eradication of sin and corruption. The snake often symbolizes Satan or sin, while the bird represents purity, vigilance, and redemption.
John C. Hirsh Collection of Medieval Leaves and Fragments
SC MS 0431.056.1
[Water Birds Eating Snakes]
Manuscript leaf from a Breviary or a Missal. [Latin]
Bologna. Circa 1320.
Many religions incorporate birds into their scripture, traditions, or use as allegorical symbols. In Zoroastrianism, birds have played a unique and crucial role in the religion’s funeral ritual. Corpses are seen as sources of corruption that should be kept separate from the elements of earth, water, and fire that are seen as sources of purity. This belief led to the practice of ritual exposure where corpses are left out in specified buildings, known as a dakhma or tower of silence, for vultures to consume the flesh. This funeral tradition was commonly practiced by the Zoroastrian Parsi community in India until recently, when vulture populations declined to near extinction. This decline was traced to the widespread use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, which killed vultures after consuming flesh of treated livestock. The impact led the religious community to pursue alternative funerary practices and also inspired captive breeding projects for conservation.
Displayed here is a 17th century account of Sir Thomas Herbert, a close associate of the British King Charles I, describing his two years of traveling in Africa and the region then known as Persia. During this trip, Herbert encountered the Parsi community in India and described their funeral practices, including an illustration of dead bodies laid out in a tower of silence as part of Zoroastrian religious practice.
Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1682).
Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. London: Printed by R. Bip. for I. Blome and R. Bishop, 1638.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/asa/Record/258379
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through The Internet Archive.
To learn more about the history and current use of the towers of silence, listen to episode 579 of the podcast 99% Invisible.