Lalish and Dahuk, Iraq
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2009
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31
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Trip End
Jun 20, 2010
Dahuk, Dahūk, Iraq
Friday, September 25, 2009
machine gun check
We walked around the town and some of the younger teachers decided to climb a mountain bordering the town. I waited at the bottom while they hiked. While waiting, I was approached by neighbors who offered fresh cold bottles of water and another group of neighbors who offered their binoculars for me to see the friends above. Unbelievably kind! We found a wonderful family style restaurant and were obviously an uncommon site! The next morning we tried to find some caves, but without translation didn't get very far. Dohuk is one of the prettier Iraqi cities we have seen, colorful houses, nestled in the hills. The highlight of our trip was Lalish.
According to Yezidi mythology, Lalish was the dwelling place of God (Khuda) and his angels high up in heaven at the beginning of the creation. The peacock figures highly as one of the angels. Yezidis are monotheist but they also believe in some Divine Heptad, or the Seven Great Angels of God, being Malak Tawus (the peacock angel) the most powerful and hence the most revered too.
The Faqras are female servants of the temple who live here, identifiable by their purple scarves.
Gabbie driving taxi
. The structure of the Lalish temple is unique in the Middle East. The buildings are like cones or almost pyramids with rays are placed over their temples.Shoe removal is necessary before crossing the main temple entrance. It consists on a wooden door crowned by a fabulous arch, which is guarded to the right by a coal-blackened snake, sculpted on stone. In fact, all the people in the village are shoeless. The stonework on the ground is worn smooth by centuries of footless people. It is very soft and comfortable. Colourful cloth hangs on the walls. The traditional Kurdish taste for colour is also present at the holiest room, which hosts Sheikh Adis tomb, buried here 900 years ago. From the tomb of Sheikh Adi open several caverns or rooms, one after the other, where olive oil used for the lighting of the consecrated torches. Apparently corn oil is also used from the looks of the trash bins. There is also a "wishing rock": if a person manages to throw a piece of cloth on top of it three times, it is believed that their wishes will come true.
A smaller spot is the cavern of the Zemzem spring. Only Yezidi pilgrims are allowed inside, after crouching low through a narrow tunnel.
At another small stone building shelters the round pond and another guard, this time an old lady, watches to ensure that nobody misuses the sacred water, during the time we visited about 12-15 women in purple scarves were resting there.
Yezidis are ancient fire-worshippers
dinner
. They heavily influenced Zoroastrianism, and in turn have been heavily influenced by Sufi Islam. The temple at Lalish is their “Mecca.” Hundreds of thousands of remaining Yezidis – those Kurds who refused to submit to Islam – make pilgrimages there at least once in their lifetimes from all over the Middle East and Europe. A small conical monument sits in a courtyard in the center of Lalish. It represents heaven and earth. The round knob at the top is the sun. Inside the cone are seven layers. Candles are placed in wind-protected altars all around Lalish. Small buildings that I first thought were houses surround the central courtyard. These small buildings are shrines. (Lalish isn’t a village. No one actually lives there.) The shrines are sacred places dedicated to various Yezidi prophets who are said to help people with physical ailments. There is a shrine where you go if you have a back ache. There is a shrine where you go if you have a tooth ache. And so on. The soil inside and under the shrines is supposedly magic. The Yezidis borrow from the three main monotheisms in the region. As it turns out, alcohol is prohibited. So is pork. So, of all things, is lettuce.
Malek Taus is some kind of celestial peacock. He supposedly said no to God, who did little more than create the universe from a pearl, when God asked all the angels to pray to Adam
grapes
. “Adam,” he said (as in Adam and Eve) “was a prophet of God.” But Malek Taus later repented and has been in God’s good graces since. What’s important about Malek Taus is that he (it?) was given the choice to follow good or evil, just as human beings are given that choice. Malek Taus chose the good path even though he did not have to. He sets the right example, then, for humans to follow.
Yezidis believe they will be reincarnated as Yezidis after they die.
They are a people of extraordinary generosity and kindness, as they showed us. The “king” invited us to lunch and talk. The entire village turned out and the preparations and feast was splendid, fresh made bread, salads, rice, cuscus, lamb and many other things all followed by tea and talk.
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