Garmeh to Yazd
Trip Start
May 16, 2005
1
14
33
Trip End
Jun 13, 2005
Yazd, Yazd, Iran
Thursday, May 26, 2005
The reason why I didn't notice that the young man had paid for my fare was Hossein, with whom I had a long conversation on the bus. A young man of 27, he was serving his 2-year mandatory military service by teaching chemical engineering, in which he has a master's degree. It's difficult for him to find a job despite his credentials. Much to my surprise, he openly criticized the government for Iran's economic woes. There were tens of thousands and even millions of young people stuck in the same situation as he is - over-educated, under-employed, single and unable to date someone, much less getting married and start a life of their own. He was both pessimistic and apathetic about the upcoming elections. Why bother voting when the reformer candidates can't even get approval to run by the Governing Council? Khatami had been sandbagged by the conservatives every step of the way and the constituencies who supported the reformers were deeply disillusioned after 7 years. The logical thing to do is to leave Iran, and thousands of the best and brightest do exactly that every year. He got off the bus at Meybod, and invited me to visit him at the university the next day.
The central part of Yazd, where most travellers stay, is a labryinth of tiny alleyways, mudbrick walls, and little squares that connect to even more alleyways and little squares. It was already dark when I arrived in Yazd, which made it even more difficult to navigate. I got seriously lost for 20 minutes, as the map was useless, the communication with the locals futile, and there were no signs anywhere. But eventually I managed to find the guesthouse, which has a lovely central courtyard and a fountain. I took a long walk on the main street, feeling the last remnant of the desert heat radiating off the pavement. Yazd claims to be the oldest continuously settled city in the world. Alexander the Great marched through Yazd on his way to India, and a dozen or so centuries later, Marco Polo dropped by for a visit. I came partly because of the old city itself, but also for the Zoroastrian sites - the fire temple, the sky burial towers and Chak Chak, the pilgrimage site for Zoroastrians from around the world.
Surprisingly little known in the western world, Zoroastrianism is the first monothestic religion in the world, pre-dating and probably influencing Judaism. Before the spread of Islam, Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Persian Empire and beyond. I had not read much on Zoroastrianism before my trip, but it piqued my interest as a powerful religious movement that was officially adopted as the state religion, covering a huge territory in the ancient world. There were even some pockets of Zoroastrian-inspired "heretics" in Europe that held fast until the fires of the Inquisition finally vanquished them all. Today there are only about a few hundred thousand Zoroastrians world-wide, many of them Indians based in Mumbai (Parsis, a particularly wealthy and influential minority in India). Even though they are regarded as pagans and non-believers by the Iranian mainstream, they have fared comparatively well in Iran. Afterall, Zoroastrianism is an important Persian legacy that has made Iran unique in the world.
