In 1983 the Arbab Rustam Guiv Darbe Mehr opens in the Chicago area, the first purpose-built Zoroastrian temple in North America, endowed by the Guiv charitable trust. The same endowment raises sister temples at Westminster in California, at San Jose, and at Houston, and the photograph on this record shows the Westminster temple, with its Faravahar and the words Good Words, Good Thoughts, Good Deeds over the door. Consecrated fire temples on the continent turn scattered associations into settled congregations.
Tagged: Zoroastrian Diaspora Zoroastrianism
The Event
- Date
- 1983 (exact)
- Also called
- Arbab Rustam Guiv Darbe Mehr
- Era
- Modern and Diaspora; Standard periodization of Zoroastrian history
- Location
- Hinsdale, Illinois, and Westminster, California; today United States
- Traditions
- Zoroastrianism
- Streams
- Zoroastrian Diaspora
Connections
Primary Sources
- The tradition's own record of the event.
Secondary Sources
- Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, 1979.
- Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, entries on the Avesta, the Sasanians, and the Parsi calendar disputes.
- Hinnells, John R. The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Rose, Jenny. Zoroastrianism: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.
Provenance: HIST-1021; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.
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Calendar Event
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Nowruz (New Year)
Zoroastrian and Persian new year; spring equinox.
History Event
Demographic decline
2000s
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Fasli calendar introduced
1906
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Iranian Revolution
1979
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Parsi prominence in colonial India
19th century
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Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe founded
1861
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Zoroastrians settle in North America
c. 1865