Between Life and Death: Ritual of Discovering Water in the Depth of the Desert
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Ehsan Sheikholharam Mashhadi
Department
CACM – Architecture
Abstract
Beneath the arid deserts of Iran, men once descended into darkness wearing kafan, the white burial shroud, to carve channels of water deep into the earth. Their descent was an acceptance of death in order to bring life, an act transforming labor into devotion. What does this reveal about the relationship between their work and belief systems? Going underground was not merely technical labor; it was a sacred act that blurred the line between survival and sacrifice. My research focuses on qanats, an underground water system that made life possible in dry environments. Qanats are an underground system that carries water from the mountains to villages across miles of dry land. What makes them interesting isn’t just their engineering but also their “spiritual meaning”. In many communities where qanats exist, water is seen as sacred, and the act of accessing it has religious importance. The workers who dig the qanats (muqannīs) often wear burial cloths (kafan) symbolically accepting death in order to bring “life” to their villages. This almost “self-sacrificial” act connects to the idea that people sometimes must risk or give up everything for the greater good. My thesis argues that qanats represent a journey between worlds, moving from darkness underground, like in Dante’s Inferno or Islamic beliefs of Barzakh (purgatory), into the light of life above ground. The construction of a qanat isn’t just a practical solution to getting water, but a sacred act of turning a lifeless desert into a place where communities can thrive. This can be seen as a form of religious sacrifice, where the land becomes sacred through the risk (dangers) and work of its people. Qanats have existed for thousands of years, spreading from ancient Iran to the Middle East, North Africa, and even parts of Europe and Asia. Their presence enabled entire civilizations to settle in previously uninhabitable regions and encouraged unique systems of collective labor and management. I will use texts from Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane and Dante Alighieri Dante’s Inferno to explore the metaphor presented with qanats representing the border between life and death. My research will draw on spiritual symbolism and experience of qanat builders. This paper aims to show qanats are a technological innovation and an outlook on the sacredness of the land.
Disclaimer; I used AI for grammar.
Disciplines
Architecture
Between Life and Death: Ritual of Discovering Water in the Depth of the Desert
Beneath the arid deserts of Iran, men once descended into darkness wearing kafan, the white burial shroud, to carve channels of water deep into the earth. Their descent was an acceptance of death in order to bring life, an act transforming labor into devotion. What does this reveal about the relationship between their work and belief systems? Going underground was not merely technical labor; it was a sacred act that blurred the line between survival and sacrifice. My research focuses on qanats, an underground water system that made life possible in dry environments. Qanats are an underground system that carries water from the mountains to villages across miles of dry land. What makes them interesting isn’t just their engineering but also their “spiritual meaning”. In many communities where qanats exist, water is seen as sacred, and the act of accessing it has religious importance. The workers who dig the qanats (muqannīs) often wear burial cloths (kafan) symbolically accepting death in order to bring “life” to their villages. This almost “self-sacrificial” act connects to the idea that people sometimes must risk or give up everything for the greater good. My thesis argues that qanats represent a journey between worlds, moving from darkness underground, like in Dante’s Inferno or Islamic beliefs of Barzakh (purgatory), into the light of life above ground. The construction of a qanat isn’t just a practical solution to getting water, but a sacred act of turning a lifeless desert into a place where communities can thrive. This can be seen as a form of religious sacrifice, where the land becomes sacred through the risk (dangers) and work of its people. Qanats have existed for thousands of years, spreading from ancient Iran to the Middle East, North Africa, and even parts of Europe and Asia. Their presence enabled entire civilizations to settle in previously uninhabitable regions and encouraged unique systems of collective labor and management. I will use texts from Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane and Dante Alighieri Dante’s Inferno to explore the metaphor presented with qanats representing the border between life and death. My research will draw on spiritual symbolism and experience of qanat builders. This paper aims to show qanats are a technological innovation and an outlook on the sacredness of the land.
Disclaimer; I used AI for grammar.