i'm going to post something on the kalasha, an obscure pagan tribe that lives in northwestern pakistan in a few isolated valleys near chitral.the significant percentage of kalasha w/ european features suggests that their rumored descent from alexander the great's army may not be entirely inaccurate.the 3,000 or so remaining kalasha are the last adherents to the ancient pantheon of pagan hellenism.
also,
speaking of obscure pagan tribes, the yezidi of northern iraq are fascinating as well.their religion is a mix of zoroastrianism, sufi islam & various strands of east christian gnosticism.they believe that god created the world and made an angel out of his own illumination.this angel roughly corresponds to the biblical lucifer, who they call malek taus.subsequently 6 more angels were created and, ultimately adam, who was made from dust.god orered his 7 angels to bow to adam.malek taus defied god, saying he, being made from god's illumination, could never bow to something made from dust.god was so impressed that he made malek taus the chief angel,as well as his representative on earth.this defiance also parallels the islamic story of shaytan/satan and is one of the reasons why the neighboring muslim arabs & kurds believe them to be devil worshippers.
malek taus is represented as a peacock.
this is a yezidi temple atop a mountain peak in northern iraq
No comments:
Post a Comment