Dachma
Dakhma, or Towers of Silence, lay out their dead in a natural process of excarnation, through which the corpse is consumed by carrion birds. The 3,000 year-old ritual structure became ineffective due to dense and tall luxury residential towers surrounding it. To preserve the traditional practice, a series of sun concentrating mirrors that direct intense light into dakhma were added to decompose corpses without the use of external agents or burning. The solar concentrators are capable of stripping a corpse to the bone in around 30 minutes.
SOURCE: http://deathlab.org/urban-death-infrastructure/
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Following the rapid expansion of the Indian cities, the squat buildings are today in or near population centers, but separated from the metropolitan bustle by gardens or forests. In Parsi Zoroastrian tradition, exposure of the dead is also considered to be an individual's final act of charity, providing the birds with what would otherwise be destroyed.
In the late 20th century and early 21st century the population of birds of prey on the Indian subcontinent declined (see Indian vulture crisis), by 99.9% as of 2008, primarily due to diclofenac poisoning of the birds following the introduction of that drug for livestock in the 1990s,[7] until banned for cattle by the Indian government in 2006. The few surviving birds are often unable to fully consume the bodies.[8] In 2001, Parsi communities in India were evaluating captive breeding of vultures and the use of "solar concentrators" (which are essentially large mirrors) to accelerate decomposition.[9] Some have been forced to resort to burial, as the solar collectors work only in clear weather. Vultures used to dispose of a body in minutes, and no other method has proved fully effective.
The right to use the Towers of Silence is a much-debated issue among the Parsi community (see Parsi for details). The facilities are usually managed by the anjumans, the predominantly conservative local Zoroastrian associations (usually having five priests on a nine-member board). In accordance with Indian statutes, these associations have domestic authority over trust properties and have the right to grant or restrict entry and use, with the result that the associations frequently prohibit the use by the offspring of a "mixed marriage", that is, where one parent is a Parsi and the other is not.
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence
