Parsis Use New Technology to Keep Religion Alive

September 29, 2009

Author: Phil Hazlewood

Source: Google News

Wire Service: AFP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gZrn1iq_pbHnTyafDKtVtIqqMrYg

India's Parsis, the modern-day descendants of migrants who fled persecution in Iran more than 1,000 years ago, are turning to new technology to keep their ancient Zoroastrian religion alive.

Websites, blogs, on-line directories and matchmaking portals are being used by the close-knit but scattered and shrinking community to stay in touch and true to the 3,500-year-old faith.

"The Parsis are a community without borders. We're almost all over the world," said Yazdi Tantra, who runs a computer consultancy firm in Mumbai, where 70 percent of the world's Parsis live.

"We have this technology so that we can keep in contact because our numbers are very small. If there was no technology, we wouldn't communicate with one another... it keeps the community together," he told AFP.