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Introduction
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Introduction
The Zoroastrian tradition traces its history to the Prophet Zarathushtra, who lived sometime between 1,000 and 1,750 BCE in ancient Iran. Though Zoroastrians are small in numbers today, their tradition has had a significant role in the religious history of both Iran and India. Its strong imageless monotheism and its view of good and evil as contesting powers in creation have had an important influence in the evolving Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions of the West. The scripture of the tradition, which is called the Avesta, is related both in language and concept to the most ancient Indian literature, the Vedas. The Zoroastrian tradition flourished in Iran as the state religion of the Achaemenid kings in the 6th century BCE and was influential in Iran until the coming of Islam in the 6th century CE, when there was a large migration of Zoroastrians to India. Today about three-fourths of all Zoroastrians live in India, where they are known as the Parsis, a reference to their Persian origins. Nearly one quarter continue to live in Iran.
The Zoroastrian population of North America is growing and is estimated by the Federation of Zoroastrians in North America to be between 10,000 and 14,000. The Federation, known as FEZANA, was formed in 1987 to coordinate the life and concerns of the North American Zoroastrian community. The Zoroastrian community in the Boston area, like that of the rest of North America, is made up of immigrants from both India and Iran, though the majority are Indian immigrant Parsis.
The Zoroastrian Association of the Greater Boston Area (ZAGBA), formally founded in 1983, received encouragement and stimulus from two prominent Bombay Parsis -- Dr. Khojeste Mistree and Dr. Dastur Kotwal. Dr. Mistree, the director of Zoroastrian Studies at the community's center in Bombay, visited Boston in 1978 and again in 1981 to offer encouragement to the small community. Dr. Kotwal spent a year at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard in the late 1970s and was involved in a series of meetings leading to the formation of the Boston association.
Since the Zoroastrian tradition does not accept conversion, a common topic of discussion in the United States context is how such a tradition will continue to thrive, given the dwindling number of Zoroastrians and the fact of intermarriage. The Zoroastrian Association in Boston offers the possibility of non-Zoroastrian spouses becoming affiliated as members of ZAGBA, even though they cannot officially "convert." However, at the annual conventions of FEZANA, and especially at its youth forums, the topics of conversion and intermarriage are high on the agenda as American Zoroastrians struggle with how to preserve an ancient faith in a modern multireligious society.