Udvada Iranshah- garish additions-write to NM Wadia Charities.

Above, bull head from Persepolis-notice the Persian features-ancient, noble/royal, arched eyebrows, large luminous eyes, long tapering nose, a well groomed beard, an aristocratic and refined profile!!!

Above picture: at Udvada-notice the differences-all features of the face, the style(?) of beard, [looks like an artificial beard, like a wig- only here, a beard stuck to the chin!!!]; - the face, eyebrows, the eyes and nose-[not Persian,] but the profile of a good Parsi face(?); clearly Udvada renovations are in very poor taste-very poorly done. Not becoming Zoroastrianism's holiest shrine. We have degraded Iranshah's sanctity, and heritage-this is not good art!

Please see this link -a brief overview explained in a letter.

Here is a link to Dariush Grand Hotel on Kish Island-Iran, off the coast of Iran opposite Dubai.
Here Persepolis is recreated........LOOK AT THE GREAT EFFORT AT RECREATING PERSIAN ART ACCURATELY.........OBVIOUSLY WE NEVER CAN HAVE SUCH FUNDS FOR IRANSHAH, SO WE SHOULD NOT HAVE GONE IN FOR CHEAP RESULTS AND SPOIL IRANSHAH'S SIMPLE STATELY LOOK.

Please read the several comments below in the first post.

I have received feedback that "voting" [see gadget on the left] for removal of the inaccurate, cheap and garish additions at Iranshah may prove ineffective; the better course of action is to write letters to the Trustees of the N. M. Wadia Charities, requesting the new inaccurate, garish and degrading additions of the temple entrance gates and the two bulls/oxen be removed.

N. M. Wadia Charities do not seem to have an email address; send your letter of protest to:

The Trustees,
N. M. Wadia Charities,
123 M.G. Road,
Fort,
Mumbai 400 001
India

and

Udvada Anjumam,
Udvada Gaam,
Dist.Valsad,
Gujarat,
India.

I have been writing to some friends and people who share these concerns, that these additions are the equivalent of the Vatican authorities allowing a statue of a great Christian saint done in some new synthetic plastic material, erected in front of the Vatican square!

We, the Zoroastrian community, are doing the Iranshah a great disservice if we remain complacent; we are doing ourselves a great disservice.

Future generations of Zoroastrians visiting Udvada will look at these garish "film set" additions and say, "how could our community have allowed these cheap additions, and that too at Iranshah?"

Why these renovations, alterations and additions are acceptable to some ? :-
(the following observations are not criticisms)

In Parsi/Irani-Zoroastrian psyche, when rituals surrounding the central object of worship are done correctly and with the utmost piety and religious discipline, and this meets religious requirements, then nothing else is seen as wrong-like these careless and badly crafted additions. The object of worship is the Sacred Fire, the Atash Padshah. The temple building, "makaan," properly consecrated plays a secondary role. Thus any form of additions, even garish and of poor artistic content, does not offend worshippers, as long as the temple building as a whole is seen to be consecrated. And the pious visit for worship and prayers, asking boons, (Gujrati: Iranshah pagge lagvanu, bijoo soo joieye-transl.: one goes to Iranshah to bow [before the holy Fire], nothing else matters.)

I am not generalising, I am not including those who care.

It is the Traditionalists and Orthodox, inclined to view all religious issues on metaphysical and esoteric/spiritual basis, are finding additions at Udvada unacceptable and repugnant, because there is alleged use of new synthetic materials, like some new form of plastic, not prescribed by religious scriptures.

Zoroastrians, with no such religious leanings, traditional and orthodox, do not view these renovations as anything that concerns them directly---- one group, I imagine, accept whatever is done by leaders and priests of the community;

then you have the modern "westernised" clusters who think it's not their worth to give this their time- all is fine, in the name of progress and modern thrust to change things.
(It does not occur to these modern "westernised" persons that palaces, churches, heritage buildings, and great national monuments in the West, and in India, China, Japan, Far East and many many other places are diligently maintained in their original beauty and form.)

Still others, the elite, leaders of industry, professionals, artists, and those settled abroad, prefer keeping a distance from community matters, more so for religious issues-they are missing the point here-this is also a matter of preservation of heritage.

And, we have the usual crop of people with their misplaced sentiments-"someone has spent so much, taken such great effort, learn to appreciate, instead wasting your time in criticisms" or
" what is wrong with these, you are making unnecessary fuss, these are good people who have spent their own monies. Stop wasting time."

My answer to them: "you can see where your line of thinking is taking us. Nowhere. We just skip from one issue/problem to the other; we have no answers for our fast depleting numbers, no unified or central religious authority, so much divisiveness. And here is a case where more sympathy for those who have, perhaps unintentionally, gone ahead and done these awful additions at Iranshah; no sympathy for Iranshah, none for its sacredness and original heritage value?"

This issue will begin to get the community's attention when an eminent distinguished Parsi, a community leader or scholar, or a High Priest, thinks it is worth their while to air their views and shake their heads in a no no-"these additions are not right;" then, other leaders, scholars, priests, socialites, professionals, associations' office bearers, who love to be seen in community photos, people who quickly join the band wagon which show them as great torch bearers of the community, will join the noise.............in the meantime Iranshah and other sacred Fires, and the temple buildings will continue to be subjected to indignity and adventurism! (more details are coming out-at the Banaji Atash Behram, the black basalt stone coating the gumbaj [the dome over the sacred fire room] has been ripped out and replaced with spartex glazed tiles. An exhaust fan has been embedded in this inner room!)

This money could have been better spent in good causes, the very poor in the community, even in Udvada, could do better with health care, poverty alleviation, old age care, repairs to temples and dilapidated houses, support for small business ventures etc. Renovations and repairs have to be done, these are very meritorious acts, but ornamental additions, and that too done inaccurately with unknown/synthetic materials, and in haste, do not enhance the sanctity and beauty of the original.