An internal debt crisis has prompted Zoroastrians in Mumbai to allow advertising billboards into an ancient funeral groundâsparking a split in the community. Zoroastrian dissdients say the signsâexhorting motorists to “Rev up your night life” by buying a popular model carâdesecrate the sanctity of the grounds. Trustees who approved the billboards say they are needed to raise cash to maintain the Tower of Silence where the Parsi Zoroastrians have wrapped their dead in white muslin and left them to be devoured by vultures since 1673. “I have told people who are objecting, bring me three million rupees a year and I will stop the advertisements,” said Burjor Antia, trustee with the Bombay Parsi Panchayat, local Zoroastrian council. (The Scotsman, May 30)
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