Sogdian fire-worship: Between Zoroastrianism and Buddhism

Talk by Pavel Lurje, curator at the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, and 2024-2025 research-fellow at the Paris IAS, organized by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, with the support of the Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies and the SOAS Centre for Iranian Studies.

Event on site and online.
Regristration required in person or online.
Conference in English only.

Presentation

In this lecture, Pavel Lurje works as 2024-2025 research fellow at the Paris IAS and curator at the State Hermitage Museum, St.-Petersburgthe author will attempt to summarise what we know of fire worship in Sogdiana (the land in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) which was inhabited by eastern Iranian people.

These groups, being active traders on the Eurasian tracks, developed a sophisticated culture in the pre-Islamic period. The images on mural paintings and other media, archaeological discoveries, and the few references in the written texts show that worship in front of a fire was a significant part of the ritual practices of Sogdians.

However, some ritual features that relate to the kindling of fire can be questioned. In some cases, the fire rituals depicted or described have a direct link to Zoroastrian practices spanning from Sasanian Iran to the present day. In many other cases, however, they have an unmistakable relation to the Buddhist incense burning known in Gandharan, Serindian, and Chinese contexts of the first millennium CE. These later instances, however, could be a heritage of the worship practices of the pre-Buddhist population of the Indo-Iranian frontier region.

Organizers

- School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
- University of London
- Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies
- Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS

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