Archive

Their unique names connect a remote, sparsely populated border area in India, a Swedish built and owned oil vessel and a gold mine in a desert Down Under. While the population of Parsis in India shrank by 18% between 2001 and 2011, the people strength of the intriguingly named Parsi-Parlo, a subdistrict in Kurung Kumay area of Arunachal Pradesh, the northeastern state that borders China, grew by 316% from 2,891 to 9,152 in the same period, according to the last census. The subdistrict consists of 65 villages, each with populations varying between 42 (Dare village) and 365 (Gonang village) individuals, the census notes, making it the third most populous in the district of Kurung Kumay. Named after one of the rivers that flows through it, The Times of India of September 30, 2016 had reported that "cloud burst in the catchment regions of Parsi and Parlo rivers… triggered heavy flash floods,” adding that the "wire suspension bridges over the two rivers have reportedly been washed away.” 
The first modern oil tanker was Zoroaster, designed and acquired in 1877 by Ludvig Nobel of Sweden, informs Parsiana reader Kate Currawalla. Ludvig and his brother Robert were owners of a large oil company called Branobel, derived from the Russian words after "Brothers Nobel.” They were also brothers to Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and the man for whom the Nobel Prizes are named. One of the largest oil companies in the world in the late 19th century, Branobel functioned mainly in Baku, Azerbaijan and Cheleken, Turkmenistan, according to Wikipedia. The logo of the company was the fire temple of Baku, states the page. 

 

 

 

 

 

The website of Branobel (www.branobelhistory.com) states that together with a manager at Motala Works’ shipyards in Sweden, Ludvig "designed a vessel with built-in cisterns,” as against using oak casks to ship oil, which was considered dangerous. "The vessel was named Zoroaster, after the Iranian philosopher, Zarathushtra, whose theses (teachings) were very popular among Europeans of the time,” the site continues. The vessel’s eight loose cisterns could be removed so as to allow it to pass through shallow channels too. The 56 m long Zoroaster is said to have made its first run in 1878 from Baku to Astrakhan, a city in southern Russia using waterways. Wikipedia informs that its "design was widely studied and copied, with (Ludvig) refusing to patent any part of it.” The website informs that the company, which was liquidated in 1959, named its vessels acquired after Zoroaster as Mohammed, Brahma and Buddha.
"Excelsior progresses well at Zoroastrian,” reads a headline of an Australian news site news.com.au of June 21, 2016 bringing its readers tidings that "mining in the large Zoroastrian Central open pit has progressed to a level where consistent ore feed and better than expected ore production is being achieved.” Described as a gold exploration and mine development company, Excelsior Gold Limited, with its offices in Fremantle, Western Australia has a company logo that looks strikingly similar to a farohar.
In response to requests for information about the name of the mine, Bradley Toms, exploration manager at the company, enclosed an article carried on mindat.org, a website that aims at "building and sharing information about minerals, their properties and where they are found,” giving details about the intriguingly named mine. The website concedes that Zoroastrian "is a strange choice of name for a gold mine from the mid 1890s, in the Australian desert, especially considering the majority of miners at the time were Anglo-Saxon, with a strong attachment to Britain.” Noting that "there were Afghan cameleers also on the goldfields, who at times dabbled in prospecting,” mindat.org states the mine first came "to public attention in 1897, with the flotation of the Zoroastrian Gold Mines Limited in London with GBP 160,000” as capital. The company is noted to have operated the mine until 1907, although in the last two years mostly development work was conducted. The mine "appears to have been well managed by the standards of the day,” according to the website. Small profits were produced each year, "from what (were) limited narrow veins.” The website notes that after "the Zoroastrian company abandoned the property in 1907,” the ownership of the mine changed hands several times. The mine is now part of the Kalgoorlie North Project of Excelsior Gold.