Sirens in Daidanaw

It is now exactly a month since Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy River Delta, killing over 200,000 and leaving countless others destitute in Myanmar (Burma). And so far very little aid has been getting through, since the government in adamant in controlling who and what enters the country and how. Its concern has been its own clinging to power rather than the welfare of its peoples, as it received a scare only a few months ago with the worldwide attention received by the rebellion of Buddhist monks.

For the Bahá’ís in the delta town of Daidanaw, it’s the second time that carnage has been visited upon them almost incidentally as part of a larger catastrophe. The first was in 1945, when the town was attacked for ethnic cleansing, and 11 Bahá’ís were killed and their homes, a school, and the Bahá’í Centre razed to the ground. Among the casualties was Mustafáy-i-Rúmí (pictured above), posthumously named a Hand of the Cause of God, a very high honour and designation bestowed upon only 50 individuals, all who have now passed on, and no others will ever be so named again. Rúmí was a religious scholar from ‘Iráq who spoke at least seven languages, engaged in the rice trade in India, and became a Bahá’í in Calcutta. He travelled all over Southeast Asia teaching the Faith and converted all 800 inhabitants of Daidanaw, the first all- Bahá’í village outside of Irán. He made his home there and among the many services he performed was to spearhead the creation of a marble sarcophagus which he not only helped pay for but was one of the people who transported it to the Holy Land. The remains of The Báb (Prophet-Herald of the Bahá’í Faith), hidden and moved about to about two dozen different locations since His martyrdom by firing squad in Tabríz, Persia in 1850, were finally interred in this sarcophagus in a shrine on Mount Carmel, its golden dome the most recognizable Bahá’í building on earth.

The Bahá’í Centre in Daidanaw was rebuilt. At the present time it is a refuge for abut 800 families (Bahá’í and non) who are in desperate need of the necessities of survival, which are still only trickling in.

Providentially, the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Myanmar were in consultative meetings in Thailand when the cyclone hit and so were spared. An irony that is surely not lost on Bahá’ís of Iránian background is that the name chosen for this cyclone – Nargis -- is identical to that of the most favourite of Iránian Bahá’í sirens.