[dahk-muh] 
| tower of silence. |
[tou-er] | a circular stone platform, typically 30 ft. (9.1 m) in height, on which the Parsees of India leave their dead to be devoured by vultures. |
dakhma
(Avestan: "tower of silence"), Parsi funerary tower erected on a hill for the disposal of the dead according to the Zoroastrian rite. Such towers are about 25 feet (8 m) high, built of brick or stone, and contain gratings on which the corpses are exposed. After vultures have picked the bones clean, they fall into a pit below, thereby fulfilling the injunction that a corpse must not suffer contact with either fire or earth
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