|
|
Institutional Support
Consultant & CO-ordinator
Dr.Shernaz Cama M.Phil , PhD , Delhi University
Patrons - The Elders of the Community
Patron - Fund Raising Commitee
Mr. Dinshaw Tamboly, The WZO Trust Funds
Panels of High Priests , Scholars and Friends
We are in the process of creating a Panel of the "High Priests of the Zoroastrians", "Internationally Renowned Scholars" and "Friends of the Project" to strengthen the Organisational Structure of the Project.
Advisors and Core Committee
TARGETS -
1. A multimedia recording on CD-ROM format containing an encyclopedia on the Parsi - Zoroastrians with approximately 4 million words, 4000 photographs, 40 minutes of CD Video.
2. Over 10 times this amount of material available in Archival form for study in depth by scholars.
3. Six fully illustrated books
The Living Heritage
Religion and the Priesthood
Parsi-Zoroastrians in Public Life
Serving in the Professions
The Performing Arts
The Arts and Crafts of the Parsi - Zoroastrians
are to be produced.
While coffee table in format, they will be academically researched and documented with footnotes and Bibliographies.
4. An International Parsi - Zoroastrian Museum with a Living Culture Component.
5. An International Archive on the Parsi - Zoroastrians.
6. Protection of tangible heritage sites.
7. A medical data bank.
8. Sensitization of the community from grass root level upwards to its heritage and the need to preserve and develop its assets.
9. The Parsi - Zoroastrian Project, will on completion present to the world and preserve for posterity a record of the Parsi Zoroastrian community while also creating infrastructure and links by which the community can rejuvenate itself to go confidently into the next millenium.
The Preservation of Culture and Heritage in an increasingly mono-cultural modern world is the challenge facing communities today. UNESCO, New Delhi acting as a catalyst has initiated Project 302 IND 70 entitled"Preservation of Parsi Zoroastrian Heritage - Campaigns and International Conventions.
Followers of the Bronze Age Prophet Zarathushtra of Iran, the Parsi - Zoroastrians are one of the distinct threads in the tapestry ofmulticultural India. Zoroastrians are still found in their original homeland Iran andare also spread thinly across the globe. While the Project was started with the aim of recording and reviving interest in the Parsi - Zoroastrian Community in India, there has been an overwhelming response from other parts of the Indian subcontinent and the world-wide diaspora. Zoroastrians in small groups, are found from Alaska to Australia and with support, the Project can expand to reach out globally. Wherever they have settled Zoroastrians have used their talents and wealth for the benefit of the country in which they have made their home. Less than 0.01% of the Indian population, they have contributed greatly to the making of Modern India. Well integrated into the mainstream for about a 1000 years, they still retain a distinct ethnic and cultural identity.
Zoroastrianism, the world's oldest revealed religion has survived from pre-history with its core beliefs still intact, a driving force that impels its followers to excel in all fields of human endeavour and contribute vastly for the benefit of humankind. Yet, in India, the community is declining so rapidly that they lose 10% of their population every decinnial census. The Parsi - Zoroastrian Project intends to generate an awareness of this miniscule minority and create a revival of interest within the community, country and the world.
In this pioneering Project divided into 10 Modules, the community will be surveyed from all possible angles. The Zoroastrians are small enough in number to enable such close study but large enough in achievements to warrant such attention.
