Persian Dance and its forgotten history

Iranian dance history is characterized by many fascinating and also tragic incidents. It seems to be completely unknown to the outside world, partly because of the present political situation of the country that has toned down the interest for a profound research effort. The other reason is the current archaeological discoveries and excavations in Iran, during the past thirty years. They have made it possible to have access to material and evidence for the origin of Persian dance, ever since the appearance of the cult of Mithra about two thousand years before our calendar.

By virtue of these bases, Iran can be considered as one of the ancient world's empires, which methodically and actively was devoted to the development of the art of dance. For this ancient nation, dancing has been an important social phenomenon and a religious ritual.

It is the irony of history that ever since the revolution in 1979, this art form has been prohibited in the same country that once upon a time performed a central role for its expansion and advancement.

The several thousand years of Iranian history is characterized by great events that influenced important parts of the world and its civilization. It ranges over eras of grandeur but also over painful and absurd periods of defeat and destruction.

The following is a prelude to an exhaustive research work about the history of Persian dance, which I will become absorbed in during the coming years. I hope that it will improve in quality and content and will make a contribution to expose this national art form. The forgotten history of Persian dance is the story of a world heritage, which has to be given a new birth.

In this summary article I have chosen to spotlight seven different eras, from the prehistoric cult of Mithra until the present, which have included decisive events and episodes for developments, but also destructions of this art form. The rise of the new millennium undoubtedly implies a new productive period for Persian dance, as the Iranian society and the new generation of Iran move toward an era of enlightenment.

The Cult of Mithra and the Origine of Persian Dance

The origin and rise of Persian dance as an independent and distinctive art form is estimated to be parallel with the birth of Mithraism and its spread. This cult centrally revolves around the ancient Persia's sun and light God, Mithra, who is the main figure in this mystery religion that during the late antique era spread over the entire Roman Empire. Numerous temples and depictions of the legendary Mithra have been located and excavated in the three continents of the ancient world; Asia, Africa and Europe. The latest discovery has been done in London as late as 1954.

The most important ritual in this cult has been the worship of Mithra, as he is sacrificing a bull. This act was believed to promote the vigour of life. The consecration to this belief was accomplished among other rites through the baptism in the blood of a bull, followed by a ritual dance performed only by men. This ceremonial act is considered as the earliest known form of Iranian dance, and the origin of the magic dance of the antique civilisations. It is typical for sacred Persic (Persian) dance, so called "Danse Persique Sacrée".

The most significant bases for researching around the ancient Persian dance can be found in the Greek historian from Halikarnassos, Herodotos' superb work "Nine Books". He describes the old history of Asian empires and Persian wars until 478 BC.

In several occasions he has indicated and in detail described the cultural and social habits of Persians. He has mentioned the wide cultural exchange that Persians had with the ancient world. "From every corner of the known (antique) world, the most appreciated artists were imported to the imperial court in order to practice their artistic abilities in the presence of the majestic Emperor and his court."

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The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was erected by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) completely encircling West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The longer inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc. Prior to the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions to escape into West Germany, many over the border between East and West Berlin. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated East Germany from West Germany for more than a quarter of a century. The Wall included guard towers lining large concrete walls circumscribing a wide area (later known as the "death strip") containing anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape circumventing the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between 100 and 200.
During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

read more in wikipedia: berlin Wall

Jesus as a Reincarnation of Mithra

Jesus as a Reincarnation of Mithra

The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version. Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior came from. Mithra, as the sun god of ancient Persia, had the following karmic similarities with Jesus:


Identical Life Experiences

(1) Mithra was born on December 25th as an offspring of the Sun. Next to the gods Ormuzd and Ahrimanes, Mithra held the highest rank among the gods of ancient Persia. He was represented as a beautiful youth and a Mediator. Reverend J. W. Lake states: "Mithras is spiritual light contending with spiritual darkness, and through his labors the kingdom of darkness shall be lit with heaven's own light; the Eternal will receive all things back into his favor, the world will be redeemed to God. The impure are to be purified, and the evil made good, through the mediation of Mithras, the reconciler of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Mithras is the Good, his name is Love. In relation to the Eternal he is the source of grace, in relation to man he is the life-giver and mediator" (Plato, Philo, and Paul, p. 15).


(2) He was considered a great traveling teacher and masters. He had twelve companions as Jesus had twelve disciples. Mithras also performed miracles.


(3) Mithra was called "the good shepherd,” "the way, the truth and the light,” “redeemer,” “savior,” “Messiah." He was identified with both the lion and the lamb.


(4) The International Encyclopedia states: "Mithras seems to have owed his prominence to the belief that he was the source of life, and could also redeem the souls of the dead into the better world ... The ceremonies included a sort of baptism to remove sins, anointing, and a sacred meal of bread and water, while a consecrated wine, believed to possess wonderful power, played a prominent part."


(5) Chambers Encyclopedia says: "The most important of his many festivals was his birthday, celebrated on the 25th of December, the day subsequently fixed -- against all evidence -- as the birthday of Christ. The worship of Mithras early found its way into Rome, and the mysteries of Mithras, which fell in the spring equinox, were famous even among the many Roman festivals. The ceremonies observed in the initiation to these mysteries -- symbolical of the struggle between Ahriman and Ormuzd (the Good and the Evil) -- were of the most extraordinary and to a certain degree even dangerous character. Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance of sacred formulas, were among the inauguration acts."


(6) Prof. Franz Cumont, of the University of Ghent, writes as follows concerning the religion of Mithra and the religion of Christ: "The sectaries of the Persian god, like the Christians', purified themselves by baptism, received by a species of confirmation the power necessary to combat the spirit of evil; and expected from a Lord's supper salvation of body and soul. Like the latter, they also held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the 25th of December.... They both preached a categorical system of ethics, regarded asceticism as meritorious and counted among their principal virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones, situated in the upper regions, and of a Hell, peopled by demons, situated in the bowels of the Earth. They both placed a flood at the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their condition, a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe" (The Mysteries of Mithras, pp. 190, 191).


(7) Reverend Charles Biggs stated: "The disciples of Mithra formed an organized church, with a developed hierarchy. They possessed the ideas of Mediation, Atonement, and a Savior, who is human and yet divine, and not only the idea, but a doctrine of the future life. They had a Eucharist, and a Baptism, and other curious analogies might be pointed out between their system and the church of Christ (The Christian Platonists, p. 240).


(8) In the catacombs at Rome was preserved a relic of the old Mithraic worship. It was a picture of the infant Mithra seated in the lap of his virgin mother, while on their knees before him were Persian Magi adoring him and offering gifts.


(9) He was buried in a tomb and after three days he rose again. His resurrection was celebrated every year.


(10) McClintock and Strong wrote: "In modern times Christian writers have been induced to look favorably upon the assertion that some of our ecclesiastical usages (e.g., the institution of the Christmas festival) originated in the cultus of Mithraism. Some writers who refuse to accept the Christian religion as of supernatural origin, have even gone so far as to institute a close comparison with the founder of Christianity; and Dupuis and others, going even beyond this, have not hesitated to pronounce the Gospel simply a branch of Mithraism" (Art. "Mithra").


(11) Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected. His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day." The Mithra religion had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper."


(12) The Christian Father Manes, founder of the heretical sect known as Manicheans, believed that Christ and Mithra were one. His teaching, according to Mosheim, was as follows: "Christ is that glorious intelligence which the Persians called Mithras ... His residence is in the sun" (Ecclesiastical History, 3rd century, Part 2, ch. 5).




"I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths." - Mithraic saying

"I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright morning star." - Jesus, (Rev. 22:16)

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Silk road

Along the Silk Road

A curriculum for middle school and secondary students developed by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and the Silk Road Project

Full Curriculum at http://www.silkroadproject.org/teachers/index.html

Along the Silk Road explores the vast ancient network of cultural, economic, and technological exchange that connected East Asia to the Mediterranean. Students learn how goods, belief systems, art, music, and people traveled across such vast distances, resulting in interdependence among disparate cultures. Yo-Yo Ma has referred to the Silk Road as the "Internet of antiquity," and by studying this network of trading routes, students not only learn about the historical interconnectedness of people and ideas throughout the world, but also gain a new perspective on contemporary issues of globalization.

Along the Silk Road is a multidisciplinary course of study including materials appropriate for social studies, geography, art and music classes.

Lesson plans

Unit Introduction: Along the Silk Road

Lesson 1: Mapping the Silk Road

Lesson 2: The History of the Silk Road

Lesson 3: Language and Communication

Lesson 4: Trade along the Silk Road

Lesson 5: Belief Systems along the Silk Road

Lesson 6: Arts of the Silk Road

Lesson 7: Music of the Silk Road

Lesson 8: Human Migration in Historical Perspective

Conclusion: Summarizing the Unit

Students will:

• Understand how humans have always been interdependent due to exchange of ideas, culture, trade, food, music, etc.
• Recognize how trade has influenced culture and culture has influenced trade throughout history
• Recognize the diversity of the world and appreciate the interdependence of cultures and the benefits of exchange
• Place the cultural and economic exchange that occurred on the Silk Road into historical context

References

Wall map: a laminated Silk Road wall map

DVD: contains color images, maps and video of Silk Road Ensemble performance

CD: contains audio clips

Subjects and Suggested Grade Levels

This curriculum is recommended for the following middle school and secondary school classes:

Social Studies

Global Studies

Geography

Art History

World History

Religious Studies

Music

Please note: Adaptations for younger students can be found in the appendices.

To purchase the Along the Silk Road curriculum, please visit the SPICE website.

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Silk Road Encounters Education Kit

As a symbol of the crossroads between civilizations, peoples, and cultures, the Silk Roads offer rich materials for students to explore diverse but inter-related topics on geography, trade, art, music, religion, and history. This Teachers Guide and Sourcebook, which you are welcome to download, supplements traditional classroom materials with interactive activity plans and reference materials.

Silk Road Encounters Education Kit Components

Sourcebook-The easy-to-read Sourcebook provides the background material you need to familiarize yourself with the Silk Roads as you plan your activities on this theme. The Sourcebook is organized into six sections:

1. Geographical Setting
2. Historical Background
3. Belief Systems
4. Arts of the Silk Road
5. Travel of Ideas and Techniques
6. Music of the Silk Road

Lesson Plans: Six model lesson plans bring together activities that reinforce students' basic knowledge of the Silk Road with concepts on the diversity of exchanges in the arts, belief systems and ideas.

Students will:

• Learn about the geography, economics, and history of the Silk Roads. [Lesson Plans: Silk Roads Big Map, Creating a Three-Dimensional Timeline, Trading in the Silk Road Cities
• Reflect on the similarities and differences of perspectives in the religions and the world views represented in the ancient and contemporary regions touched by the Silk Roads. [Lesson Plan: Belief Systems of the Silk Roads
• Create musical instruments modeled after those used on the Silk Roads. [Lesson Plans: The Straw-Sheng and the Tube-la]
• Reflect on the history and culture in northwest China through their own experiences and knowledge. [Lesson Plans: The Treasures of the Silk Roads]

References

Sources for further research are included in the Sourcebook and TeachersGuide.

• Musical instrument glossary
• Suggested readings and resources

About the Lesson Plans:

Start with the map and trade lessons so that your students first become familiar with the physical geography and the historical context in which the cultural and artistic exchanges occurred.

The beliefs systems, art, and music activities need not be used sequentially because they each touch on a different facet of the Silk Roads.

The activities are tiered for different educational levels with variations suggested for extensions and adjustment for younger or advanced students.

Handouts for activities are included directly following the activity they support.

PLEASE NOTE

When excerpting from Encounters materials please use the following credit line:

Excerpted from Silk Road Encounters, a project of the Silk Road Project, Inc. Silk Road Encounters is made possible by Ford Motor Company. Educational materials developed by the Silk Road Project with additional resources from the Asia Society.

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Teachers Guide (PDF 368k)

Sourcebook (PDF 1,010k)