Rey & Chak Chak: Women of the Mountains
Rey lies south of Tehran and used to be a very important site. Today hardly any Western tourists go there. In fact, in the eight years Nilufer, my guide and translator, has been doing tours, I was the first person who asked to come here. That is unfortunate as the city has far more interesting archeological sites than Tehran, which is only a few centuries young. Rey has a 2,000 old fortress wall (Qal’eh Gabr/ Gherber’s Castle) that unfortunately one is not allowed to inspect, as inside the fortress there is military equipment, or at least things we aren’t supposed to see. What one can see, though, more than compensates. There are a number of sacred Islamic sites in the city, including a shrine to the granddaughter of the Prophet Bibi Zobeda, who’s casket is placed behind a silver gridded fencing on the outside of a plate glass tomb in elaborate cut-glass rooms. Shrines like this are common throughout the country and may or may not have actual remains. I was later told that after the Revolution the shrines mushroomed in number, with more imams and sheiks sprouting up all over the country than anyone had previously heard of. Nonetheless, the faithful come to pray at seemingly all of them and offer money, which is then collected to pay for the shrine and the government. The reverence of shrines for the dead is a national pastime, and yes, in the rooms by the side of the tombs, I saw people waiting, drinking tea, talking on their cell phones, as well as those praying or chanting suras from the Koran.
The largest mosque and Mausoleum complex in Rey is the Abdul Azim site, which is visited as if it were Santiago de Composta. It has a library, a medrassa, the very large mausoleum, a separate section for the mosque, three elaborate courtyards, and more. To get permission to take photographs Nilufer had to negotiate with three people in three different sections of the complex, but she succeeded and I have images of the crowds, if not of the actual shrines.
One of the key reasons I wanted to go to Rey was to see the Bibi Shahrbanoo Mausoleum. Bibi Shahrbanoo was the wife of Imam Husayn and daughter of Yazdgerd III of the Sassanid dynasty. When the Arabs invaded, she ran out of the city into the hills and asked the mountain to protect her. Her cave is now located by the bottom of the site, with the mausoleum, supposedly built in the 11th C further up a staircase. The mausoleum has a double courtyard and serves as a significant pilgrimage site for Iranians throughout the country. Her story is replicated in the story of the girl and the mountain in Nokur, Turkmenistan (see Nokur blog) and in the legend of Pir-e Sabz from Chak Chak, near Yazd.
Chak Chak, similar to the other two, is in the middle of barren desert mountains separated by scrubby dotted grey sandy plains. The peaks are sharp and the cliff faces rough. This is classical desert hermit territory. Chak Chak means “drip drip” and comes from the story of the daughter of the last Sassanian emperor who was trying to escape the Arabs. She went into the mountains to hide but ran out of water. Some legends say she prayed for water, others for shelter. In either case the mountain provided what she needed and has been a sacred place ever since. While this is the same legend of the shrine in Rey and in Turkmenistan, Chak Chak is quite amazing. It is the most sacred pilgrimage and shrine for Zoroastrians, who come from across the globe to make the sacred journey. To get to the shrine, one crosses the desert in a car and if one is lucky and riding in a car one can travel up to a parking lot about 2/3rds of the way up to the shrine, which sits not quite half way up the quite steep mountain. There used to be streams that formed an ancient river below the site, but they have long since dried up. Today there is a medium sized complex of squat brown buildings that try to merge with the landscape. Above them to the left as one climbs a couple of hundred stairs, are some trees and the cave shrine. As in most temples and holy places in the East, before entering, one takes ones shoes off, but this time there were bathroom/beach slippers to put on as the marble floor is wet from the drip drip of the mountain spring. Inside the shrine is a metal altar with three flame holders below which is a rectangular basin for water and a bronze water spout. In the center of the enclosed cave is a metal incense holder shaped like a 12 petal lotus with the eternal flame in the center. Off to the side underneath the cave wall are a couple of tin dog water bowls to catch the “chak chak” from the cave walls. A large tree with a double trunk, sprouts near the entrance and develops into a shade tree as it crosses the man-made wall separating the inner temple sanctuary from the outside in search of sun. The site is full of Zoroastrian symbolism: the two tree trunks are reminiscent of duality that is a principle of the faith. The twelve petal lotus represents purity and completion. The Altar has water and fire, the cave has earth air, and water, the covering of the cave is in the manner of an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple. A mountain spring feeds the tree and others that have been purposely planted in the area. Along the walls are images of the Faravahar, Zoroaster, and inscriptions in Arabic script translating some of Cyrus II’s humanistic and liberal leaning proclamations. It is a very peaceful site and regardless of the legend is a good place to see the power of Mother Earth in action as the extremely barren earth bares springs to nourish the thirsty.
The three sites of this legend all refer to different faiths, the nomadic shamanic in Turkmenistan, Shiite Islam in Rey and Zoroastrian in Chak Chak, but they all convey the power of faith in nature to overcome man-made and man-induced dangers.
We ended our day in Rey with a typical ice cream dish called Falude, which is made from starch and rose water noodles with a dollop of ice cream. It was interesting, but I wouldn’t compare it to a gelatoJ.
